Vixen's Daily Reads: Southern Reading Challenge

Showing posts with label Southern Reading Challenge. Show all posts

10 August 2009

Southern Reading Challenge Completed!

I completed one of my few challenges I joined this year. This one was fairly mellow in context, read three books set in the South. Okie dokie!

I read:

BOOTLEGGER'S DAUGHTER - Margarent Maron, BOCD, June

GARDEN SPELLS - Sarah Addison Allen, ARC, June

THEM BONES - Carolyn Haines, MPB, Aug

THEM BONES: A Mystery from the Mississippi Delta - Carolyn Haines

From the back of the book: If only I hadn't kidnapped the dog...but the ransom paid the mortgage....Now I seem to be a private eye....I shouldn't have listened to that ghost....

Meet Sarah Booth Delaney...an unconventional Southern belle whose knack for uncovering the truth is about to make her the hottest detective in Zinnia, Mississippi...if it doesn't make her the deadest.No self-respecting lady would allow herself to end up in Sarah Booth's situation. Unwed, unemployed, and over thirty, she's flat broke and about to lose the family plantation. Not to mention being haunted by the ghost of her great-great-grandmother's nanny, who never misses an opportunity to remind her of her sorry state—or to suggest a plan of action, like ransoming her friend's prize pooch to raise some cash.But soon Sarah Booth's walk on the criminal side leads her deeper into unladylike territory, and she's hired to solve a murder. Did gorgeous, landed Hamilton Garrett V really kill his mother twenty years ago? And if so, what is Sarah Booth doing falling for this possible murderer? When she asks one too many questions and a new corpse turns up, she is suddenly a suspect herself...and Sarah Booth finds that digging up the bones of the past could leave her rolling over in her grave.

********

I had so much fun reading this book. I can't believe it's taken me this long to find this series. Sarah Booth Delaney is a Daddy's Girl, a group of privileged young ladies whose only real goal in life was to marry well and live a life of leisure. Sarah Booth jumped that ship and went to New York after college (Catching the male was an entire course of study for Delta girls and Ole Miss was the preferred hunting ground) to become an actress. That didn't pan out so well and she came home to Zinnia Mississippi to save her home, Dahlia House, which she is about to lose to the bank if she can't find the money. She kidnaps her friend Tinkie's dog and 'rescues' it for the reward. Tinkie hires her as a person she can trust to keep a secret and use her intelligence to find out why Garrett Hamilton the Fifth is in town. All kinds of secrets, lies and long ago murders and deaths come to the surface.

I love getting the inside look at the use of feminine wiles, the gallantry of men, how to make an entrance, how to make an exit, conversational skills to include how to cloak an insult with a sweet smile. One of my favorites: "Oh Kincaid, you look lovely tonight. But how do you get your eyeliner so straight when you don't cast a reflection in the mirror?"

The conversations are great fun and I love Sarah Booth's moxie, think Scarlett O'Hara without the bitchy 'tude.

Five Southern moxie beans....

18 June 2009

GARDEN SPELLS - Sarah Addison Allen

This is my favorite book so far this year. Enchanted is a start to how I felt while reading this lovely magical book. I could identify with the emotionally encased main character, Claire, needing to keep people out so as not to be hurt as she was sure she would be. I loved watching her bloom as her garden perpetually did once she realized that some things are worth the possibility of heartache.

I enjoyed disliking the wealthy, self-centered characters of Hunter John and his wife, Emma and their clique of like-minded narcissists.

I loved meeting Claire's runaway sister Sydney and Sydney's daughter, Bay. Sydney ran away from Bascom, North Carolina as a teen to escape what she thought of as a prison. Now she realizes it is a safehaven for her and Bay.

Then there are the magical recipes Claire, a successful caterer, creates for her clients from the flowers and plants in her garden. I had to grin at the apple tree at the center of the mystical garden. It had a character all its own, producing apples year round, throwing them at Claire and others to get attention. Claire buries the apples as they fall so that innocents won't eat one and discover the biggest event in their lives, some wonderful, sometimes awful.

I am loaning this to my sister with the proviso that I get it back for my keeper shelf. I will read this again.

Five magically warm beans.....

15 June 2009

BOOTLEGGER'S DAUGHTER - Margaret Maron, narr CJ Critt

I read this first in the Deborah Knott series a while back. It must have been a long while back as it was practically like a brand new book for me! It could be that I am getting older and I've pushed some knowledge and memories out to make room for new schtuff....nah...I read it a really really long time ago.....
Deborah Knott is a lawyer in Colleton County, North Carolina and is running for district court judge after a run in with a definite justice is not blind judge. She has one or two things going against her: her daddy was a reknowned bootlegger back in the day and Deborah has been asked by 18 year old Gayle Whitehead to investigate the unsolved murder of her mother, Janie, when Gayle was 3 months old.
The judgeshop campaign and the investigation all snarl up to cause Deborah headaches and trouble, but she perseveres.
My favorite of the series, this one introduces the colorful (but not overdonely so) (is so a word!) characters and family members. I'd love to see Maron's charts for keeping each brother and their families straight. They do come to life while reading or listening to the story.
Five Southern comfort beans.....

07 August 2008

QUESTIONABLE REMAINS: A Lindsay Chamberlain Forensic Mystery - Beverly Connor

I finished QUESTIONABLE REMAINS this afternoon when I woke from my pre-mid shift nap. It might have taken me a little longer, but I sort of skimmed the flashbacks to the time when the conquistadors were bringing disease and murder to the Native Americans along the Southeast. That part of the story was sort of extraneous to me even though I am sure it was to parallel the current time story going on.
Dr Lindsay Chamberlain is going on vacation in Tennessee after testifying in a murder trial and the fallout is becoming to be a bit much. Lindsay's idea of vacation is to visit and help at various students' and co-workers' archeological digs. Along the way she has agreed to help a family find out what happened to a brother whose body has been found in a cave. There are some questions that need answering for their closure.
The back story of the conquistadors and Native Americans follows along with the sites Lindsay is visiting, but it took me away from the mystery that was going along.
Three beans.

30 June 2008

LAST LESSONS OF SUMMER - Margaret Maron

This is one of the best books I've read in a long while. I have been a fan of Margaret Maron's Deborah Knott series, but hadn't read anything not of the series before. I gave myself the Summer Challenge to get me started on this one and so glad I did.
Now I posted above that this isn't part of the Deborah Knott series, but it does have a couple of recognizable characters, if you've read any of the series' books. Major Bryant and SBI Terry Wilson play fairly significant roles in the story.
This book starts in New York and moves to North Carolina. There is a questionable death of an old rich woman, the grandmother of the main character, Amy Steadman. Amy has come down to clear her grandmother's house before selling the land for a development project. Along the way she is also looking for answers to past mysteries....Why did her mother kill herself when Amy was only 3 years old? Why was her grandmother the standoffish person she was to all but a few? Who wanted her grandmother dead?
This a great character study as much as it is a well written mystery. Thank you Margaret Maron.
Five beans!!!

31 May 2008

SKYDOG: THE DUANE ALLMAN STORY - Randy Poe

This has to be one of the best books I have read in a very long while. I could say it's because of who it is about, a rock guitar god who DH admires greatly. I could be transferring. Whatever, the book is a story of a highly talented, troubled soul who was rated the second best guitarist in the history of rock only after Jimi Hendrix.

Duane was only 24 when he died 29 October 1971 when he and his Harley motorcycle collided with an unexpectedly stopped truck. In his short life he accomplished so much musically and with the people in his life. He was a natural leader, driven to excellence.

The book goes into possibly more detail than some people might want to know about each song played at any given venue, or how each song came into being, but to me it was a fascinating insight into the man and his bandmates lives and their music.

This book gets a highly emphatic five beans! Long live rock & roll!

25 May 2008

LITTLE BITTY LIES - Mary Kay Andrews

A pretty good book to read by one of my favorite authors, but HISSY FIT remains my favorite by Mary Kay Andrews with BLUE CHRISTMAS running a close second.

Poor Mary Bliss has a heap o' trouble going on in her life....her husband has left her and left her in debt up to her eyeballs. She has a house to keep and a daughter to take care of. All around her seems to be collapsing. Thank goodness she has her best friend, Katharine, to help out in times of crisis.
What plan do they come up with to help bail Mary Bliss out of trouble? Why kill off the husband of course. It all goes to hell from there in a fabulously huge and funny way.

Gets three beans...