The Rt. Rev. Frederick Borsch, retired fifth bishop of the Diocese of Los Angeles, and the Rev. Canon John Taylor, vicar of St. John Chrysostom Church in Rancho Santa Margarita, both released novels in 2014 that draw from their experiences in, respectively, academic life and politics.
Such is the premise of My Life for Yours by Frederick Borsch, who was a college professor before his 1988 consecration as bishop of Los Angeles, and returned to academic life after his retirement in 2002.
In My Life For Yours, which is written in the form of a daily journal, Harold discovers that he is sharing the body of a much younger man. As the jacket blurb says, “What now will happen to his relationships with family and friends? And what of the young man whose identity and family and friends he must now discover? … Whose mysterious and at times comical, at times harrowing, story is this?”
John Taylor, in a review of Borsch’s book posted on Amazon.com, writes, “Fred Borsch invests his character with a pastor’s gifts for empathy and attentive listening.” Another Amazon reviewer says My Life For Yours is “Fantastic. One of the best novels I have read in a long time.”
Jackson Place
by John Taylor
Create Space Independent Publishing Platform
On June 17, 1972, a break-in at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C., changed history forever with an attempted cover-up that would ignite one of the biggest political scandals of all time.
Now, facing the certainty of impeachment, Richard Nixon is poised to become the first president to resign. But what if someone could convince him to change his mind?
Author John Taylor was President Nixon’s real-life chief of staff after Nixon’s resignation from the presidency, serving as an executor of his will and first executive director of the Nixon Library. Taylor has parlayed his knowledge of the late president into this fictional what-if tale of a 26-year-old White House lawyer who convinces Nixon to tell Congress that he is temporarily incapacitated. By law, Gerald Ford steps in to take his place.
The fictional Nixon’s new home is Jackson Place, a townhouse across the street from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Seemingly in internal exile, Nixon “secretly grasps for influence over events while plotting his final comeback,” says the novel synopsis.
Kirkus Reviews, which named Jackson Place one of the best books of 2014, wrote that it was “an historical novel that cleverly postulates an alternate reality … The prose is razor-sharp and historically astute, and the dialogue is crisp and witty … Artfully rendered [and] suspenseful.”
My Life For Yours and Jackson Place are available at the Cathedral Bookstore, 213.482.2040 or bookstore@ladiocese.org, or as e-books through amazon.com.