title: If Nights Could Talk: A Family Memoir
author:  Marsha Recknagel 
description: In her brave and gripping yet convoluted memoir a simultaneous act of familial retribution, self-preservation and redemption Recknagel has the last word on her gothic family history. When her 16-year-old nephew James appears at her Houston home, seeking refuge from his lunatic chimera of a mother and neglectful father, Recknagel must confront the family history of sibling rivalries and betrayals, alcoholism, mental illness and sordid circumstances. Ten years earlier, the death of the workaholic patriarch of this Shreveport, La., family a successful wildcatter who left a $10-million fortune in a trust that favored his grandchildren precipitated a protracted custody battle over James, who was then living with the author's sister. It was a vicious feud pitting Recknagel's brother, his wife (they met in a mental hospital when still teenagers) and her parents against the rest of the Recknagel family. A writing teacher at Rice University, Recknagel rambles on about her need to "outrun their influence" in a personal narrative that overlaps with and coils into the wreckage of James's youth. After Recknagel hastens to find lawyers for James, to adopt him and emancipate him, the last third of the book charts their harrowing six-year journey toward healing. Recknagel's tale of how James perseveres in his battle with undiagnosed sleep apnea, post-traumatic stress disorder and extreme dissociation, and ultimately recovers in her care, is nothing short of miraculous. (Sept.)Forecast: With praise from Susan Cheever, Robert Stone and Bob Shacochis, an excerpt in Vogue in September, and reviews scheduled in Elle and O magazine, this promising memoir is off to a strong start. Appearances at SEBA, the Southern Festival of Books and on her five-city tour in the South and Northeast should help Recknagel build a following.
zlib_text:  
  
   
   
   
  Evernight Publishing ®
   
  www.evernightpublishing.com
   
   
   
  Copyright© 2016 Sam Crescent
   
   
   ISBN:  9 7 8 -1 -7 7 2 3 3 -8 7 6 -8
   
  Cover Artist:  Jay Aheer
   
  Editor:  Karyn White
  
   
   
   
  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
   
   
  WARNING:  The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this
  copyrighted work is illegal.  No part of this book may be used or
  reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in
  the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.
   
  This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious.
  Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living
  or dead, is entirely coincidental.
   
   
  
   
  I’M
   N O THIN G
   
  The Family, 2
   
  Sam Crescent
   
  Copyright © 2016
   
   
   
  P rologue
   
  Tonio, fifteen years old
   
  “I don’t want to do it.” Tonio stared at the crying boy, hating what his
  father was asking him to do in their basement. His mother was already
  knocked out by the booze and drugs that she liked to take. It kept her s