Bookworm: ‘Accidental’ is a book you can truly live with
‘What Really Happens in Vegas’ is a book with a thousand stories
“Accidental: Rebuilding a Life After Taking One”
- By David W. Peters
- c. 2023, Broadleaf Books
- $26.99, 182 pages
You’ll remember it for as long as you live. The screech of tires. The hollow kunk of vehicle-on-vehicle, then vertigo. Or maybe it was a bang and a gasp that still haunts you at night. In the end, though you didn’t mean it, someone has died and you were the indirect cause. You’ll remember that as long as you live, and in the new book “Accidental” by David W. Peters, you’ll learn to live with yourself again.
He was just 19. Recently home from boot camp and beginning his freshman year at Bible college, David Peters was driving a friend to Sunday night services when tragedy struck. The sun was glaring, and Peters tried to switch lanes. It happened so fast: he swerved, hit concrete, and when it was over, a young woman lay dead on the side of the road.
To a young man who was injured, “I said I was sorry,” Peters writes. “I must have said it a thousand times ... ”
Peters says he felt like he was the only person who’d done something like this, but he wasn’t. There are 40,000 vehicular fatalities in the U.S. annually, plus accidental firearm deaths, wars, and work accidents. Even famous people can call themselves “CADIs,” which stands for “Causing Accidental Death or Injury.”
CADI, Peters says, is softer, more acceptable than “killer,” because an accident is an accident.
As a “professional Christian,” Peters has leaned on God since his accident, reading the Biblical tale about “cities of refuge” for CADIs. He explores the ways that, for instance, a drunk driver might deal with tragedy versus what an accidental shooter might feel. One’s own profession might lead to guilt and grief. He writes about mercy, and about “moral injury” for witnesses of tragedy.
“All of us will have different memories ... based on what kind of accident we experienced,” he says, so don’t use this book as a one-size-fits-all.
“Your journey is your journey, but you are not alone on it. We are all with you.”
Whether you need this book or you hope you never will, “Accidental” is absolutely one squirmy read. That, surprisingly, may be an accident in itself.
Author David W. Peters, who is an Episcopal Church vicar, writes with a tone that’s soothing and calming, but he doesn’t preach and he doesn’t push. Even if you’re a nonbeliever, he has mercy for you and there’s no judgment here; he’s been in your shoes, and his father showed him what true forgiveness looks like. Reading this book, then, is like meeting with someone trained to help untangled the complicated feelings of being on the blame-end of a tragedy. The squirm comes in the honesty that readers will see is absolutely necessary, but difficult nonetheless. You won’t want to go there, need to or not – but with Peters’ comforting words, you know you’ll be okay doing so.
For CADIs and those who love them, for victims, and for counselors and pastors, here’s what you want on your shelf. “Accidental” is a book you can truly live with.
“What Really Happens in Vegas: True Stories of the Peope Who Make Vegas, Vegas”
- By James Patterson and Mark Seal
- c. 2023, Little, Brown
- $30, 358 pages
Hit that “spin” button. Hit it again, one more time, move onto the next “one-armed bandit,” take in a show, watch water dance, gawk all you want. A lot of people work hard to make your Las Vegas experience one you’ll never forget. As you’ll see in the new book “What Really Happens in Vegas” by James Patterson and Mark Seal, it takes a village to keep a city going.
It’s 5:30 in the morning, Las Vegas time, and people are up and moving.
Some have been awake since the night before, sitting in front of a slot machine or at a card table with a pile of chips. Others, like the elite crew of divers who keep the Fountains of Bellagio running, are ready to go to work.
Vegas, as Patterson and Seal show, is not just glitz and glamour and lights and sounds. Las Vegas is also where some 52 million people arrive at the local airport to start their vacation – and, in some cases, they jump-start their bank accounts at the airport’s slot machines.
Speaking of money – if you have it, you can get almost anything you want, as long as it’s legal, just by asking. Want a private flight in? Your own limo? Big shopping? Before you drop the expected Big Bucks in a casino, want to relax in a secret suite that few are allowed to see? Or maybe you want to hear stories of “Sin City” legends, mostly men, but for one fierce woman who revolutionized the Strip.
You can see a circus in Vegas, one that was originally Canadian. Visit a downtown museum that tells the tale of this desert city. If you win big, meet the people whose job it is to get your money to you at all costs. See how fine dining came to Las Vegas and who keeps it there. And find out how a famous slogan for this dazzling city came to be ...
Pick up “What Really Happens in Vegas,” read two pages, and you’ll know one thing for sure: You’ve hit the jackpot.
In every city, there are stories and behind-the-scenes characters who keep the place lubricated but in Las Vegas, even those folks assume a certain (and deserved) mantle of glitter. Authors James Patterson and Mark Seal let readers in on secrets and into secret places, sharing out-loud stories of everyday folks, just doing their jobs.
Then there are the tales that feel like they should be told in whispers.
Sure, there are comments from comfort-makers who talk about the wealthy, and anecdotes of singers, stars, and mobsters in this book, just as you’d expect. But readers also become privy to the things nobody back home wants to talk about, the jobs that don’t make your alumni profile, and the parties that ... well, that stay in Vegas.
And that’s what you’ll want to do, once you start this fascinating behind-the-scenes peek. “What Really Happens in Vegas” is a book with a thousand stories and for fans, it’ll be a hit.
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The Bookworm is Terri Schlichenmeyer. She has been reading since she was 3 years old and never goes anywhere without a book. Terri lives on a hill in Wisconsin with two dogs and 11,000 books. Read past columns at marconews.com.