Reading Lists - Girls and Grits

They may seem like frail, genteel Southern ladies, but they can overcome whatever is thrown at them. Death, divorce and all of life’s disappointments, they have survived them all. Usually with the help of friends, family and lots of comfort food, they can accomplish anything. What could be better than a tall glass of sweet tea, a porch swing and a good book?

Last light over Carolina. Monroe, Mary Alice.

On an otherwise ordinary day, in a small shrimping village off the coast of South Carolina, a boat goes missing. The entire town rallies as all are mobilized to find the lost vessel. Throughout the course of one day, flashbacks of Bud Morrison, the captain on board, and Carolina, his wife, reveal the happier days of a once-thriving shrimping industry juxtaposed with the memories of their long term marriage.

Beach Trees. White, Karen.

From the time she was twelve, Julie Holt knew what a random tragedy can do to a family. At that tender age, her little sister disappeared-never to be found. It was a loss that slowly eroded the family bonds she once relied on. As an adult with a prestigious job in the arts, Julie meets a struggling artist who reminds her so much of her sister, she can't help feeling protective. It is a friendship that begins a long and painful process of healing for Julie, leading her to a house on the Gulf Coast, ravaged by hurricane Katrina, and to stories of family that take her deep into the past.

 Land of mango sunsets. Frank, Dorothea Benton.

Meet Miriam Elizabeth Swanson, in a full-blown snit, buoyed by a fabulous cast who run the gamut from insufferable to wonderful. First is the arrival of Liz Harper, Miriam's tenant from Birmingham, who sets a new cycle in motion. Then her other tenant, Kevin, stalwart companion with more style than Cary Grant, shakes Miriam out of her fog to see which battles are worth the fight. Next, her estranged son announces he's marrying a Jamaican woman. And what about her ex-husband, Charles, and that sordid lingerie model of his? Well, Harry, her African Gray parrot, has plenty of opinions. Finally, you'll laugh and cry when she meets a man named Harrison who changes her into a gal named Mellie.

 Hissy fit. Andrews, Mary Kay

When 28-year-old interior designer Keeley Murdock catches her fiancé with her maid of honor at her wedding rehearsal dinner, she pitches a hissy fit worthy of the Guinness Book of World Records. Then she meets Will Mahoney, the cute new owner of the town's local bra plant, who offers her a ride home. The next day, he gives her something else—a contract to decorate the historic home he's just purchased. Money is no object, but Keeley has to figure out how to make the decor reflect the lofty visions of Will's prospective bride (the hitch: he's never met her).

 

I still dream about you. Flagg, Fanny.

Meet Maggie Fortenberry, a still beautiful former Miss Alabama. To others, Maggie’s life seems practically perfect—she’s lovely, charming, and a successful agent at Red Mountain Realty. Still, Maggie can’t help but wonder how she wound up living a life so different from the one she dreamed of as a child. But just when things seem completely hopeless, and the secrets of Maggie’s past drive her to a radical plan to solve it all, Maggie discovers, quite by accident, that everybody, it seems, has at least one little secret.

Saving Cee Cee Honnycutt. Hoffman, Beth.

For years, 12-year-old CeeCee Honeycutt has been the caretaker of her psychotic mother, Camille, a woman trapped in her long-ago moment of glory as the 1951 Vidalia Onion Queen. When Camille is killed by a truck, CeeCee's previously unknown great-aunt, Tootie Caldwell, whisks CeeCee away to Savannah, a world seemingly run entirely by women. These exotic women keep CeeCee enthralled for an entire summer.

A grown-up kind of pretty. Jackson, Joshilyn. 

Fifteen-year-old Mosey Slocumb-spirited, sassy, and on the cusp of womanhood—is shaken when a small grave is unearthed in the backyard, and determined to figure out why it's there. Liza, her stroke-ravaged mother, is haunted by choices she made as a teenager. But it is Jenny, Mosey's strong and big-hearted grandmother, whose maternal love braids together the strands of the women's shared past—and who will stop at nothing to defend their future. It’s a powerful saga of three generations of women, plagued by hardships and torn by a devastating secret, yet inextricably joined by the bonds of family.

Beach trip. Holton, Cathy

For four college friends, a beach trip promises a chance to reconnect and reminisce. Having traveled distinct and diverse paths since the early 1980s and their freshman days at a small Southern women's college, the quartet—now in their forties—reunites for the first time in North Carolina's Outer Banks. Over the course of a week they eat, drink, laugh, and cry. But one by one each reveals the hardship and heartache she's hidden from the others. And one secret threatens to change their lives, and their bond, forever.

Ladies of the lake. Smith, Haywood. 

Sisters Dahlia, Iris, Violet, and Rose—all with grown children of their own—have a complicated relationship, so when their grandmother’s will requires them to spend the whole summer—without friends or family—“camping in” at her run-down lodge on remote Lake Clare in order to inherit the valuable land, old rivalries and new understanding emerge, with plenty of laughs along the way

 Cold Sassy Tree. Burns, Olive Ann

On July 5, 1906, scandal breaks in the small town of Cold Sassy, Georgia, when the proprietor of the general store, E. Rucker Blakeslee, elopes with Miss Love Simpson. He is barely three weeks a widower, and she is only half his age and a Yankee to boot. As their marriage inspires a whirlwind of local gossip, 14-year-old Will Tweedy suddenly finds himself eyewitness to a family scandal, and that's where his adventures begin.

She flew the coop. West, Michael Lee

Though she was born in Tennessee, Miss Gussie is no country fool. A woman who can handle any situation, she has her hands full with two headstrong daughters who happen to be complete opposites—dour Dorothy and sweet Clancy Jane. Hoping money will heal childhood wounds, Dorothy marries the owner of a five-and-dime, while Clancy Jane runs off with a randy tomcat who pumps gas at the Esso stand. And then there are Gussie's granddaughters, the smart but plain Violet and fancy-talking Bitsy—a new generation whose lives will reflect a nation's tumultuous times. From Tennessee to New Orleans, this funny, poignant novel spans more than four decades as it vividly recounts the universal loves, sorrows, and joys of women's lives.

Moon women. Duncan, Pamela.

In the lush North Carolina foothills, the Moon women have put down roots: matriarch Marvelle Moon, who’s losing her grip on the world after more than 80 years of life; her daughters, Ruth Ann and Cassandra; and Ruth Ann’s nineteen-year-old daughter, Ashley. Despite Ruth Ann’s best efforts to live a life that’s all her own, her family is coming together around her. Marvelle and Ashley need a place to live and Ruth Ann is unable to turn them away; and her womanizing ex-husband has been coming around again, dredging up the past. Now a flurry of outbursts, emotions, and outrages is shattering Ruth Ann’s separate peace.