Reaching Home

Ron Breazeale presents a dynamic, cautionary tale concerning the consequences of terrorism. The foreword establishes the tone as the reader enters a world of the future in which a grandson has edited a manuscript written by his grandfather, Lee Brazil.

Breazeale has created an absorbing novel, warning readers to be aware of the importance of point-of-view and cultural differences. He establishes a platform for perspective and understanding proposed to avert the ultimate destruction of the world. The author is also providng the reader with insight on resilience or the buoyance of the human spirit.

Reaching Home will make you laugh, make you think and make you glad you read it. It is a superior, powerful novel and highly recommended.

Georgeanne Small, Retired Librarian
Georgeanne Small Media Center
Biddeford Primary School, Biddeford, Maine

the book is down-to-earth ... everyone can understand and relate to. ....Reaching Home tells me many things. Two of the many are, let your heart and mind tell you the truth, who and what you are. And ...always stand up for what you believe in. ... a wonderful piece of writing ...

Gerald E. Talbot
Author Visible Black History

What do terrorists hold over us? Is it their weapons, their knowledge, or is it our own fear? They elicit terror, and when we allow ourselves to be afraid, we give them power. Our fears can control our lives in many ways. In Ron Breazeale’s novel, Reaching Home, we are brought face to face with the fears that many of us cling to.

Dr. Lee Brazil left the south for the open arms of Maine. He’s raised a daughter, and lived life, despite his own demons of fears. While back in the south, doing research for a book in Pine Grove, Tennessee, and a meeting of SOMAP—Save Our Mountain and Our People, Lee falls victim to an accident at the Pine Grove Lab incinerator for nuclear waste. This accident is mistakenly believed to be a terrorist plot and Dr. Brazil is taken into protective custody. The fallout sickness not being enough to deter him, Dr. Brazil escapes and hitches a ride in the back of a truck hauling port-a-johns. Thus the journey begins, and develops into a discovery of how people will help a stranger, and how they either live by or face their fears.

Things get quite heated when a second incident occurs at Pine Grove. The FBI is looking for Brazil, and a terrorist cell is being tracked in Boston. Emotionally, Lee is dealing with old feelings of lost love, nightmares of terrors, and an unquenchable thirst to return to Maine. Will he make it home? Will the real terrorists realize their terrible quest?

Breazeale’s novel is an enticing, captivating read. Set in the very near future, the book rings true with many current public fears. This work of suspense also holds deeper messages of love, life, and understanding our demons. The plot is tight and well planned, and the characters are undeniably human. Easy to read and impossible to put down, Reaching Home is bound to be a great hit!

Reviewed by: Heather Froeschl of
BookReview.com

In Reaching Home, Ron Breazeale touches on many of the issues most of us experience as persons with a disability: denial, fear and aloneness followed by acceptance of ourselves as individuals and that our disability is only a facet of who we are not our defining characteristic. As I moved through this story I found myself silently smiling or nodding my head in acknowledge of a shared experience. Ron Breazeale offers his personal journey through a fictionalized account of his own life experience with a disability. All the prejudice and misconceptions about disability in our society are here and one by one Ron puts them in perspective and clearly shows that what makes a disability disabling comes both from within us and from society’s fear of differences.

Dennis Fitzgibbons
Executive Director
Alpha One
Maine Independent Living Center

I've recently completed a book, Reaching Home by Ron Breazeale, Ph.D. that is a “keepuh”, as we Mainers are known to say. That’s a “keeper” to those of you “from away” and the levity, such as it is, ends here.

Don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing light hearted about living with a handicap, a terrorist plot to end corporate greed in an imperalist, insular America, or murder. But the people we meet in Reaching Home all deal with the aforementioned in their various ways and are as flawed or as saintly as any of us. Adaptibility to change is an underlying theme here as well as how we all must change directions in our lives as a result of a handicap, loss of a loved one, or a catastrophic event. There are many valuable lessons in this book, and if you enjoy “locational” stories, you visit Maine, Boston and the New/Old South among other locales.

This book is a great read; I’ve read it twice, a rare-enough occurrence, and will doubtless read it again. There is also a companion guide you can download from the website.

Read On!
Tony Strodel

The main character in Reaching Home transcends typical notions of how a “hero” acts and appears. Disabled from a birth derfect and wearing a prosthetic hook, Brazil uses his intelligence and quick wit to navigate through the physical and cerebral challenges he confronts while solving the mystery and mastering his own psychological quandaries.

Reaching Home takes on concerns about terrorism and human rights with a sensitivity that is both incisive and humorous.

Reaching Home, which was released October 31, is a compelling adventure that takes the reader on a geographic and psychogical tour into the heart of issues that drive our society.

Matt Peterson
Alpha One
“One in Five”
Maine Independent Living Center

Vivid and fast-paced...a well written piece of work, better than much of what I see on the Best Seller list...if I don't always like what you say, I like the way you say it.

Jack Neely,
author, Knowville’s Secret History
and staff writer, “Metro Pulse.”