SECRET LIFE OF BEES by Sue Monk Kidd, 2002.

This Southern novel has been on my to-read list for a long time, and as soon as I began reading it, I was pulled in. Kidd is a fine writer who knows how to tell a story, is super with her characterizations and dialogue, and really puts some feeling into it.
   Set in South Carolina during the first part of 1964, President Johnson has just signed the Civil Rights Act. Shortly after that event, 14 year old Lily Owens, unhappy with who she is and her treatment by her unlovable father, T. Ray (who blames Lily for her mother's early death), goes into town with Rosaleen, the kind black woman who has raised her. Rosaleen intends to register to vote, but on the way she insults three of the town's racists, and the two females are thrown into jail. Once freed, Lily springs Rosaleen, and the pair take off for Tiburon, S.C., a place known to Lily only from the back of a picture of a black Madonna that Lily found among her mother's things and kept in a box in her room. Once they reach Tiburon, they are taken in by three black beekeeping sisters, May, August, and June. Lily, anxious to discover the connection between her mother and the town, manages to insinuate herself into their lives in the hopes of sticking around a while. The kind, rather eccentric sisters protect the two refugees and provide a temporary haven from their troubles.
   August takes the teenager under her wing, and Lily learns about beekeeping and making honey, about relationships and memories and stories and living the life you are given. She and Rosaleen soon fit right into the ladies' routine; they are even invited to the sisters' somewhat unorthodox religious services surrounding the figurehead of a ship, which they call the "Black Mary," and meet other community members who attend their services. As stories are told and old secrets emerge, bits and pieces of information fall into place and the full story is revealed gradually to Lily, who realizes just how important these women are to her life. When the mystery of her mother's connection with these black women becomes clear, it means everything in the world to Lily and her future.
   Kidd has created a beautifully told story, with an interesting plotline, great descriptions of beekeeping practices and honey making, and colorful characters that the reader can care about. I found it enjoyable and homey and comfortable, a good read.

GEORGIA BOTTOMS by Mark Childress, 2011.

Full of charming small town humor and quirky characters, the story concerns Georgia Bottoms (family name was previously Butts) in Six Points, Alabama, a good looking woman who makes a living serving as the mistress to six important men in the town. She's a great cook, faithful churchgoer, a superlative hostess, and she takes care of her mother who has borderline dementia as well as watches out for her bum brother. Each of her gentlemen callers is unaware of her relationship with the others, and so her life is a juggling act that she has totally perfected and she makes sure that everything stays on schedule. Her callers leave her weekly generous gifts (money) to help with her lifestyle. However, when the preacher (her Saturday night lover), feeling a huge burden of guilt, threatens to spill the beans on their set up, her world begins to come crashing down. Then her annual September luncheon is totally ruined by 9/11, and when things just can't seem to get any worse, a strange young man arrives at her front door, and Georgia realizes the jig is up and it's time to face the music. Even her best friend and co-conspirator Krystal, the town's mayor, can't help her, as she has problems of her own, and one of them involves her own feelings about Georgia. This novel is all about human frailties and failings and misplaced values, done with great humor and insight.  A light, fun read, on the order of Fannie Flagg and Clyde Edgerton.

I STILL DREAM ABOUT YOU by Fannie Flagg, 2010.
Fannie Flagg is a novelist who really knows how to write good stories. While this one is not as good as some of her previous books, her sense of humor is still present, her characters shine in all their wonderful quirkiness, and the story (part mystery, part drama, part comedy) is involving and appealing. Set mainly in contemporary Birmingham, Alabama, with some flashbacks, Flagg's story concerns former Miss Alabama Margaret Fortenberry--Maggie, lovely and charming and the most successful agent of her realty company, feels she somehow has lost her way in life, and missed out on her dreams. Her dreams of having a wonderful husband and children, living in one of the elegant old houses on the mountain, and having a great life. And since her business partner Hazel died, business has gone from bad to worse and so has Maggie's life in general. To everyone else, Maggie's life seems almost perfect, but Maggie has regrets and secrets and decides to end it all, and she comes up with a great plan how to do it. But each time she tries to carry out her plan, circumstances occur to make her put it off, again and again. Flagg's sense of humor and her wiseness are present in this story and she moves things along at a good pace. Her cast is fun and odd, as is her usual--the overweight Brenda, who is Maggie's best friend and real estate partner, the ancient and funny purple-haired Ethel Clipp, who runs their office, the mysterious Edward Crocker, who owned the fabulous mansion that Maggie has always dreamed of living in, all add color and humor. This is a pure pleasure to read, even if it's not her best work. Fannie Flagg is still one of my favorite Southern authors writing today, and I'd recommend any of her books to someone who enjoys Southern humor and quirkiness.

THE THREE MISS MARGARETS by Louise Shaffer, 2003.
If you enjoy the likes of Fannie Flagg, this may appeal to you. Set in a small town in southern Georgia, the  main part of the story involves a dark secret buried for years. Laurel Selene McCready, a white trash reporter for the local paper, starts digging around after meeting an out of town writer working on a book concerning a former resident, Vashti Johnson. Miss Peggy, Dr. Maggie, and Miss Li'l Bit, who have known each other for years, are solid citizens of Charles Valley, Georgia, and thirty years before, they helped do a terrible thing--they hid the truth about a murder in order to protect someone close to them. In so doing, however, other lives were affected in various ways. When Laurel starts poking around and asking questions, old memories are stirred up and loyalties tested. These women must decide whether it's the right time to reveal the truth about what happened. Enjoyable, suspenseful, with plenty of quirky characters, strong regional flavor, and humor. It's partly a mystery, but it's mostly about friendship, loyalty, righting wrongs, and forgiveness.

Just finished reading THE KITCHEN HOUSE by Kathleen Grissom, 2010.

A truly absorbing and interesting story set in southside Virginia during the period 1791-1810. Lavinia, a 7 year old Irish girl, has survived the Atlantic crossing but  her parents died and she has been separated from her surviving brother. The owner of Tall Oaks, Captain James Pyke, brings her to work there as an indentured servant. Lavinia is placed in the kitchen house under the care of Belle, who is the master's illegitimate daughter and light enough to pass for white. Lavinia bonds with the family in the kitchen house: Mama Mae, Papa George, Dory, Fanny, Beattie, and Ben, and she becomes intertwined with their lives; she is less concerned with the white family in the big house. The captain is often absent for months at a time, the mistress is usually in an opium fog, and their son Marshall is less than kind. Over time, however, she is taken in by the Pykes; Lavinia comes to care for Captain James, helps Miss Martha, and comes to an understanding with Marshall. Belle, for her part, is offered freedom by her father, but refuses it; the kitchen house is her home, the plantation's people are her family. Even later, when she is cruelly abused by the Pykes' overseer Rankin (a truly nasty character) and by Marshall, she's determined to stay. But when Lavinia, who ends up straddling both worlds and is forced to choose between them and unknowingly entangles Belle, events are set in motion that ultimately lead to tragedy for all the people at Tall Oaks. This is a story of race and boundaries; violence and cruelty and madness; goodness and love; loyalty and forgiveness; lust and betrayal. Grissom writes well, emotionally involving the reader with the characters, making you feel their pain and anguish and triumph, giving a storyline that moves along and creates suspense. Her use of two unusual narrators, Lavinia and Belle, and her main themes of history repeating itself and isolation are interesting and effectively presented. It also begs the question of just who is enslaved and who is free? Not your typical Southern plantation life novel.

Just finished this yesterday: SOUTH OF BROAD by Pat Conroy, 2009.

Conroy is not a writer whose books I necessarily seek out. In fact, the only book of his I had read before this one was Prince of Tides, and that was many years ago... I was drawn to this one mainly because it's set in Charleston, South Carolina, an historic city I've visited several times over the years and am very fond of.

Most of South of Broad's action takes place in Charleston, and Conroy does an excellent job in his descriptions of the city, his use of real place names, etc. I could feel myself walking down Meeting Street, stepping into St. Michael's Church, and strolling along the Battery. The story involves a group of teens who meet the summer before their senior year in 1969 and who become lifelong friends, and continues 20 years later, in 1989, when they are adults and following their various paths. The two time periods/stories move back and forth through the book. Leo King, isolated and lonely, struggling to heal himself, is the heart of this group, which includes the glamorous just-come-to-town Sheba Poe and her brother Trevor; the damaged orphans Niles and Starla Whitehead; Ike Jefferson, Leo's football training partner and son of the new black coach; Betty Roberts, a sassy black orphan; the old Charleston money kids Molly Huger and Chad Rutledge and his sister Fraser. These kids become a close-knit group, whose lives remain intertwined as their circle widens. They survive issues of integration, loyalty, love, parental authority, prejudice, depression, alcoholism, acceptance, and multiple tragedies, some becoming stronger and some ruining their lives. These kids are troubled as teens, and they become more messed up as adults. Conroy piles on plenty of old secrets and scandals, supplies chilling horror when the Poes' insane father shows up, and uses Hurricane Hugo to set some things right in their world. While at times Conroy's characters seem a little too old and wise (especially as teenagers), they are interesting and well defined, full of emotion and energy. His writing is just wonderful, with plenty of wit and humor, as well as solemness and elegance and grace. Full of enthusiasm, beauty, wildness, cruelty, social graces and customs, emotional turbulence and the power of love and redemption, this novel really is thought provoking and moving. It was a very worthwhile read for me.

THE HELP by Kathryn Stockett, 2009.

Even though snow is falling outside as I finish this, it was easy to feel the heat and humidity of a Mississippi summer while reading this book. Stockett's debut novel concerns three women (one white, two black) living in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1962. Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan is 22, an Ole Miss graduate, who is living back at home and who yearns for something meaningful in her life. She wishes her maid (caregiver) Constantine were around to give her support and comfort, but she has disappeared and no one will tell her what happened...Skeeter also realizes that life in the South between the races is not as it should be and wants to help somehow. Aibilene is a black maid, wise and dignified and kind, who has raised 16 white children as her own, and loves her current charge Mae Mobley enough to teach her a better way to live even though it could cost her everything and continues to mourn her only child--killed on his job while white coworkers looked on. Sassy and smart Minny is a great cook but doesn't know when to shut up and keeps losing jobs, but is loyal and true to her friends. These three determined females come together to work on a secret project that could start a movement and change everything in their town. In the process they learn much about each other and what it means to be black and white and female in the South, about barriers, about lines that can't be crossed and how to gain the courage to try. At times heartbreaking and sometimes funny, the author portrays life during that time and place honestly and painfully, with all the moonlight and magnolias and scars of slavery and racial prejudice and hatred on both sides.

Stockett knows how to write well, her language and dialogue are spot on, her descriptive passages are well done, and her characters seem real. She is able to portray both black and white characters equally well. She knows the South of the Sixties and what it was like growing up with a black servant. It all comes together as a very appealing and readable story and in the hands of a good screenwriter, it would make an excellent movie. As someone who grew up in the South during this period with a black caregiver, I found it really resonated with me in some small ways, and I think it will be one of those books that will continue to linger in my memory years from now.

THE SUGAR QUEEN by Sarah Addison Allen, 2008.

A nice, light piece by the author of Garden Spells, this story concerns three youngish women, living in a small North Carolina town, who are tied together by secrets and lies: Josey, who lives with her mother as basically an unpaid servant, keeps a hidden closet full of sugary junk food for herself and dreams of escape; Chloe, who owns and operates the best sandwich shop in town, is in the throes of a breakup and is hounded by books that appear whenever she needs them; and Della Lee, a tough talking waitress with a heart of gold who is fleeing an abusive relationship and hiding out in Josey's closet. Murder, abusive behavior, illicit affairs, forbidden love, and blooming romances all play a part in the plot, and these characters' lives intersect when secrets are slowly revealed and all comes to light in somewhat surprising ways. Full of small town quirkiness, recognizable and interesting characters, humor, and a little bit of magic, it's a pleasant and charming read.

Last night I finished reading:

THE BIBLE SALESMAN by Clyde Edgerton, 2008.

Edgerton is one of my favorite Southern writers. From the time I read RANEY, I have enjoyed his sense of humor and his writing style. This particular novel concerns a car thief, Preston Clearwater, who picks up a young Bible salesman, Henry Dampier, and makes the innocent faced, somewhat naive kid his partner in crime. Set mainly in the post-World War II South, Edgerton includes plenty of down-home language and customs and foods and plot twists and odd characters (the old lady who throws her voice so that her cats talk is hilarious) to keep the reader interested. I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys good Southern storytelling.