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.
