My Thoughts: The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd

This is my second read for the Southern Challenge, it featured lots of Southern food which was making my mouth water as I was reading it, fried shrimps and grits (whatever they are!).

The Mermaid Chair is Kidds second novel after writing the bestselling The Secret Life of Bees - which I loved but can't remember a bit of. This book will be the same, it was a good read for the last two rainy afternoons but it will slip out of the memory pretty soon.
Jessie is woken one night by a phone call, her mother has puposefully chopped off one of her fingers. Jessie rushes back to her and her childhood home, a place of ghosts and memories which she has avoided for years.
The return home (as happens in many novels), sparks doubts about her present life and reveals truths from the past. Within hours of being there she has fallen in love with a monk in training and figured that her mother chopped her finger off because of her guilt over her husbands death.
The novel is set on an unnamed island off the coast of South Carolina. I think it was the islands quirky characters which made this book more enjoyable, their is Kat and her daughter Benne - a woman with a childs mind, Hepzaith who speaks Gullah the language of the slaves, a mermaid shop I wanted to dive into, a few charming monks and Max the dog who seems to belong to every islander.

Challenges:
The Southern Reading Challenge
A-Z (Author)

My Thoughts: Mudbound by Hliary Jordan

I finally got around to my first Southern book for the 2009 Southern Reading Challenge, I've only got a few weeks letf to read the other two!

Mudbound has been reviewed a lot in the blogsphere, so I 'm probably repeating what you've heard before with this review, so I'll keep it short.
Laura marries Henry unaware that he plans to spend his life as a farmer. When he buys land and a farm without her knowing her whole life is turned upside down. They settle on to the mud-bath of a farm alongside her cantankerous, racist father-in-law and the brother-in-law that she loves. Problems arise when her fathers racism is agitated.

I loved the way that this novel has different chapters narrated by different characters, not only does it give you different perspectives on the events but also you hear the different voices of each character.
I finished this in two sittings, looking forward to more from this author.

Challenges:
The Southern Reading Challenge
A-Z (Author)
999 (New Fiction)

p.s I started and abandoned Cold Mountain - so will be finding an alternative Southern book to read.

Southern Reading Challenge 2009

Maggie is hosting the Southern Reading Challenge again, yay! I think this was one of the first challenges I participated in when I started blogging and I enjoyed it loads so I had to sign up again, even though I'm bogged down in challenges.

My three potential reads:
Mudbound - a book I can't wait to get to
Cold Mountain - been on the tbr pile for a long time
The Sound and the Fury - which I think was on my list last year and never got read.

Sunday Salon: My Thoughts on Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor and Challenge Round Up

This is one of those novels that I've always been aware of but somehow never got around to reading it. I picked it up in a second-hand sale the other day and realised that it would be perfect as the last book for the Southern Challenge.

The novel is about the Logan family, living in Mississippi in the 193o's. Times are hard because of the forthcoming depression, and because of the continuing tension between the black and white communities. The Logan families are one of the few black families with their own land, this is resented by both the black and white families.

The story is centred aroud the four Logan children, having being brought up by indepent parents, who believe evryone should be equal, they have a hard time understanding the unequal society that they are living in. As the novel progresses more and more problems arise between the two communities.

This novel deals with the racism alive in that society, as well as they way the law and politics was shaped to benefit white people.

Obviously as a kids book this was a fairly easy read, and a easy way to spend a windy Sunday afternoon. I'm now of for lasagne, a couple of episodes of 24 and maybe a film for the evening. This week I'm going to finish Theft: A Love Story, Bellefleur and hopefully start Frankie and Stankie. What have you be reading today?

Challenges:

Southern Reading Challenge Book 3 of 3!

Young Adult Reading Challenge Book 7 of 12

Classics Challenge (Kids classic) Book 5 of 6

Unread Authors Challenge Book 3 of 6

20th Century Project (1976) Book 10 of 100

Reading Around the World

If you have read this book, please leave a link to your review, or your comments, I will link in any reviews added.

The Southern Challenge Round-Up

I finished it with 5 days to go, which seemed unlikely this time last week. My intentions (Gone with the Wind, The Awakening, Cold Moutain and The Sound and the Fury), seemed to go amiss during the last few month, with me only managing to read one from the original list. I think I ended up with a good mix though, one classic, one contemporary fiction and a YA classic book (The Secrets We Keep, Gone With the Wind, and Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry). While I enjoyed all of them in their own way Gone With the Wind was by far the best, and a book I definately plan to go back and read again.

Looking forward to next years selection, Maggie!

My Thoughts: Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell

It has taken me a very, very long time to read this, but I have enjoyed every page. I have never seen the film or knew a great deal about the story except Rhett and Scarlett's name so everything was all new to me.

As I'm sure most people know this novel focuses on just 12years in the life of Scarlett O'Hara. In that 12 years she faces a lifetimes worth of events and emotions. From a flighty, flirty and selfish teenage with a spread of men laid at her feet for her choosing, she ends up in a loveless marriage because she couldn't have the one man she wanted. This marriage leaves her a mother and a widow by the age of 17. The war betweeen the Yankees in the north and the south rages, at first leaving Scarlett with a sence of freedom and then a series of burdens and worries. Scarltett's fierce soul helps here battle her way to safety, fight poverty and kill a man so she can keep the hous that she loves going and in her possession. For the safety of this house and those in it she enters yet another love less marriage and produces yet another unwanted child. She is yet again left a widow and marries the Scalleywag Rhett Butler, a marriage full of passion, hatred, lies and deciet.

As much as Scarlett should be a hated character I couldn't help but like her determination, her way of getting what she needed - yes she was spiteful, and self absorbed but the reader always seemed to be kept on her side, in the knowledge that deep down she wasn't as strong as she liked to show. Melly, took a while to capture me, but she was created with a weak body and a stong mind and soul. Yet the most captivating character in the novel was Rhett, we had to learn to read the expressions on his face, just as Scarlett had to try and decipher them. We never knew how he was going to react to any situation, or to Scarlett's scorn. I loved all the passages about him with Bonnie, a way to love Scarlett through another person.

I shall definately get my own copy of this book, as I'd love to read it again in the future, and I shall hire the film in the next few weeks to see how it compares. The best book I've read this year by far.

Challenges:

The Southern Challenge Book 2 of 3

The Classics Challenge Book 4 of 5

Unread Authors Challenge Book 2 of 6

What's in a Name Book 5 of 6 (Weather)

1001 Project

Around the World

20th Century Project 1936

Pulitzer Project Book 11 of 81

If anyone has reviewed this, please leave a link to your review in the comments and I'll add it in

My Thoughts: The Secrets We Keep by Mary Alice Monroe

Yay! I finally read a book for the Southern Reading Challenge! I've been reading Gone With the Wind forever and I've still got masses to go so I thought I should start picking up my other Southern reads.

This book is set in balmy North Carolina. The Blakey family has to come to terms with the sudden stroke of their previously active father and the prospect that they may lose the family home and land which has been with the family for many generations. This tragdey brings the family together and lets out more than a few family secrets.

Now this is far more my Mums type of book, I brought it in one of those 3 for 2 book deals where I was just searching out anything that could be the free book, and this is what came out. The book has sat on the shelves for a few years after going on hols somewhere sunny with my Mum, and it seemed more attractive than The Awakening which I can't seem to make myself pick up. It was a fairly good read once I got past the first 50 pages, kind of a holiday read, something easy for the beach or plane, and it certainly won't be recieving any rewards as a great piece of literature. But it's a good 'feel good read'.

Challenges:

The Southern Reading Challenge book 1 0f 3

July Book Blow Out: Book 10

If you have read this book, please leave a link to your review in my comments

Southern Reading Challenge 2008

This challenge is being hosted by Maggie Reads, participants have to read 3 southern set books by Southern authors between May 15th to August 15th. I loved the feeling and atmosphere created when I read the Ya-Ya Sisterhood years ago so I'm hoping I can find some more great reads like that.

I need to think about which books to pick. Thinking at the moment about: The Sound and the Fury, Gone With the Wind and something else, I'm thinking either The Awakening or Cold Mountain. There's loads to pick from on the 125 best Southern Reads page, but looking for something fairly modern.

Books Read:

The Secrets We Keep, Monroe (North Carolina)

Gone With the Wind, Mitchell (Georgia)

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (Mississippi) with challenge wrap-up