Give the gift of stories with books by Pittsburgh-area authors

Curling up by the fireside with a good book is one of those wintertime idylls, and with Christmas just around the corner, why not help provide that experience for someone with the gift of a book?

Here are several new books recently released by local authors.

‘The Catalysts,’ by Joseph Guzzo

What would your cats say if they could talk back?

New Kensington author Joseph Guzzo explores that concept in “The Catalysts” through Red, a shelter cat adopted by a local family, and Fatty, a nameless stray who wanders into Red’s backyard, begins a tentative friendship with him and is eventually accepted into the family.

“My inspiration came from reading to my son when he was younger,” Guzzo said. “It was so much fun, and I really wanted to write a book that parents could enjoy and also read to their kids.”

Things are going well until the cats reveal their startling secret to their owners — they can communicate with humans.

“When the people in the novel discover their cats’ ability, they have a decision to make,” he said. “Talking cats could make them very wealthy, but they ultimately choose a different path.”

The novel is appropriate for all ages, addresses themes of acceptance and redemption, and does a wonderful job bringing cats’ inner dialogue to life as they wander among the “two-leggeds.”

Guzzo said he enjoyed writing the novel so much that he’s tentatively planning a sequel.

“It’ll be a while before that comes to fruition,” he said.

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‘Jack’s Place,’ by Jon T. Weible

Written by Greensburg resident Jon Weible, “Jack’s Place” follows main character Jon Malone, who takes a job at the titular Jack’s Place, owned by another main character, Jack Tanner, who served in the Vietnam War with his father.

Several pairs of main characters in the story are estranged from one another, including Jon and his father Tom, who is a state policeman. Tom and Jack are also at odds over the circumstances surrounding the death of Tom’s sister Barbra.

As Tom and his partner investigate a series of murders in a nearby town, the danger begins to mount and characters are forced to set aside their differences and help those who mean the most to them.

“Jon has to come to terms with some of the things he’s done in the past,” said Weible, 49, who is publishing his first novel with “Jack’s Place.” “Before I started writing the book, I began to give everyone backstories. And my father suggested that I could incorporate some — but not all — of that into the book and then, in the future, write a ‘prequel’ about the events that take place before this novel.”

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‘How to Live Like Li Po in Pittsburgh,’ by Dave Newman

Li Po was one of the most celebrated poets in China’s Tang dynasty, extolling the pleasures of alcohol in his poems, showing a distaste for war, and was among a group of Chinese scholars and poets referred to as “pleasant eccentrics.”

Trafford author Dave Newman wouldn’t mind being a pleasant eccentric himself, and his book, “How to Live Like Li Po in Pittsburgh,” guides readers on his journey to find his writing voice through his experiences in Pittsburgh’s back roads, dimly lit bars and bright city lights.

Newman is the author of eight books, and teaches in the creative and professional writing program at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg.

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‘Increasing Your Chances’ by T. Zorn

Deer hunting season is in full swing, and author T. Zorn, from the Valencia neighborhood of Richland, shares his love of the sport in “Increasing Your Chances.”

Zorn is upfront about his ability, titling his opening chapter, “The World’s Okayest Whitetail Hunter.”

“For me, it’s not about the killing,” Zorn writes. “It’s about the chase. It’s about hunting an animal in their environment when they have the upper hand.”

Zorn said he set out to write a book that “gives you a down-to-earth perspective on hunting whitetails in realistic scenarios.”

The book discusses the anticipation he feels as deer season arrives each year.

The book talks about Zorn’s preparation and experience, and how his love of the outdoors means even more than bagging a trophy buck.

“I would love to be able to say I was (a better hunter), but my misses, screw-ups and the amount of time I have spent in the woods keeps me humble,” he writes.

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‘Gun Smuggling, Castro’s Cuba and the Pittsburgh Mafia’ by Richard Gazarik

Once upon a time in 1958, a small Beechcraft 18-D plane took off from a rural airstrip near Tarentum.

The pilot was hoping to stay off the radar at the Allegheny County Airport, particularly because he was carrying more than 1,000 pounds of weapons stolen from a National Guard station in Ohio.

They were taken on the orders of Italian-American mafia members based in Western Pennsylvania, and they were to be smuggled into Cuba for revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, who was waging war against Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista.

Voracious readers will have to wait until just after Christmas to get their hands on author Richard Gazarik’s “Gun Smuggling, Castro’s Cuba and the Pittsburgh Mafia,” which will be published on Jan. 7.

It delves into the mafia’s grip on New Kensington in the 1950s and the gun-running operation that was detailed in FBI files declassified and included in a 1977 report issued by the U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations, which was investigating the John F. Kennedy assassination.

While the Mafia had already been cozying up to Batista, who allowed them to operate casinos on the island, its members weren’t above hedging their bets and trying to get in good with Castro as well.

Gazarik’s book traces the gun-running scheme and the investigation surrounding it while presenting a narrative of the one-time criminal underworld in Western Pennsylvania.