Happy Friday! I am continuing spotlighting books that my friends have recommended with Mt. Moriah’s Wake by Melissa Norton Carro. This book is indie published Southern fiction endorsed by Amy Grant! Check out the details below.
Here’s the first line:
For every person, there is a place.
Orphaned at age eight, JoAnna Wilson was raised by her eccentric aunt in the bucolic southern community of Mt. Moriah. Now a twenty-six-year old would-be writer, JoAnna faces several crossroads: in her marriage, in her career, and in her faith. She left home for Chicago in 1997 immediately following the murder of her best friend, Grace. Now she comes back to Mt. Moriah for the first time in four years to attend her aunt’s funeral—and realizes that she must confront both the profound sorrow she feels over Grace’s death and the mysterious guilt she carries. She must finally grieve.
A hauntingly sweet story of love and loss that alternates between JoAnna’s childhood in Mt. Moriah, her life in Chicago and her present encounters upon returning home, Mt. Moriah’s Wake ponders deep questions: When we experience unspeakable tragedy, do we see ourselves as victim or survivor? Is it possible to regain happiness in the face of such? And how do we find our faith again, once it is lost?
As her past and present worlds collide, JoAnna grapples with these questions—and her journey moves toward an unexpected conclusion.
A native southerner, Melissa Norton Carro has over twenty years of experience in marketing and communications, including her own business, Norton Carro Communications. She has edited textbooks and been a non-fiction ghostwriter, as well as a regular copyeditor for Gannett Publishing. She received her Bachelor of Arts, with Honors, from Vanderbilt University, where she currently works. Carro was a closet fiction writer for years while raising three daughters, and Mt. Moriah’s Wake is her first novel. She writes a weekly blog, In the Middle, about life in the sandwich generation and is currently working on another novel, Bagels at Nine. She lives in Nashville with her husband and blue heeler.
Happy Tuesday! Can you believe that 2024 is almost half over? Even though I am so behind on my reading, I can’t resist adding upcoming releases to my staggering TBR pile. No apologies, though. 😉 There are a variety of genres (although there is A LOT of suspense) represented in my list, so I hope there is one that will pique your interest.
Happy release day to Rhonda McKnight! Her latest novel, Bitter And Sweet is now available. I very much enjoyed The Thing About Home and am looking forward to a return visit to Georgetown, South Carolina and another novel centered on complex family dynamics. Find out all about it below.
From the beloved author of The Thing About Home comes a dual timeline tale of family, grief, secrets, and the sweet redemption that lies within the bonds of sisterhood.
-The Present-
When summoned to Georgetown, South Carolina, sisters Mariah Clark and Sabrina Holland both assume their ailing grandfather’s health has gotten worse. Neither expects their grandmother’s undeniable request–save the family restaurant.
Mariah is at a crossroad in her life. After being dumped by her husband and forced to walk away from their diner that she helped rescue from bankruptcy, bitter feelings consume her. Even though the restaurant has been in the family for eighty-six years, giving her all to another struggling business isn’t something she wants to do.
Living out of her van and striving for a fresh start, Sabrina yearns for stability for herself and her daughter and a chance to turn her baking hustle into a bona-fide business. The family restaurant may be just the blessing she needs–but as old tensions and angry disagreements resurface, Sabrina wonders if her sister will let her have a say.
-The Past-
After falling victim to a love she thought would last a lifetime, Tabitha Cooper finds herself away from home and struggling to survive in Charleston in the early twentieth century. She is determined to turn corn into cornbread and to take care of her children the best way she knows how–by serving food that’s good for the soul–and along the way forges a path that leaves a legacy of success for generations to come.
Through letters that reveal Tabitha’s complicated past, the sisters discover truths that just might be the right recipe to mend their hearts–if they can find a way to savor the blessing of today and leave the bitter aftertaste of old memories behind them.
Rhonda McKnight is the author of twenty-five traditional and indie-published award-winning bestsellers, including An Inconvenient Friend, What Kind of Fool, and Unbreak My Heart. She is a two-time winner of the Emma award in the categories of Inspirational Romance of the Year (2015) and Debut Author (2010). She has been nominated thrice for the African American Literary Award. She writes inspirational book club fiction and Christian romance about complex characters in crisis. Her goal is to touch the heart of women through her stories using the themes of faith, forgiveness, and hope. Originally from a small coastal town in New Jersey, she writes from the comfort of her South Carolina home.
Happy Tuesday! Today’s TTT topic is books that bring out all the feels — sadness, joy, anger — you name it! My list includes books that made me really feel what the characters were feeling. Thanks to all the fabulous authors that can elicit that in a reader. That makes me very happy! 😉
Valerie Fraser Luesse immediately became a favorite author with her debut novel Missing Isaac. I make sure I read everything this talented author of Southern historical fiction writes. I finished Letters from My Sister a few days ago, and I just can’t let this story go! It made me laugh, it made me cry, and it made me think — all positives in my book. Find out more below.
Two Sisters. One Single Event. A Family Changed Forever.
At the turn of the twentieth century, sisters Emmy and Callie Bullock are living a privileged life as the only daughters of a wealthy Alabama cotton farmer when their well-ordered household gets turned upside down by the arrival of Lily McGee. Arrestingly beautiful, Lily quickly–and innocently–draws the wrong kind of attention. Meanwhile, Callie meets a man who offers her the freedom to abandon social constraints and discover her truest self.
After Lily has a baby, Callie witnesses something she was never meant to see–or did she? Her memory is a haze, just an image in her mind of Emmy standing on a darkened riverbank and cradling Lily’s missing baby girl. Only when the sisters are separated does the truth slowly come to light through their letters–including a revelation that will shape the rest of Callie’s life.
Valerie Fraser Luesse is the author of four novels set in the South: Christy Award winner Missing Isaac (2018), AlmostHome(2019), The Key to Everything (2020), and the upcoming Under the Bayou Moon (August 2021), all published by Revell Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group. An award-winning magazine writer, Luesse is perhaps best known for her feature stories and essays in Southern Living, where she wrote major pieces on the Mississippi Delta, Acadian Louisiana, and the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Her editorial section on the recovering Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina, photographed by Mark Sandlin, won the 2009 Travel Writer of the Year award from the Southeast Tourism Society. Luesse earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English from Auburn University and Baylor University, respectively. She is a native of Harpersville, Alabama, and lives in Birmingham, where she is the senior travel editor for Southern Living. Find her online at valeriefraserluesse.com; facebook.com/valeriefraserluessebooks; bakerpublishinggroup.com; bookbub.com/authors/valerie-fraser-luesse; and goodreads.com
My Impressions:
I absolutely loved Letters from My Sister by Valerie Fraser Luesse. An historical novel set in rural Alabama, it features the large and rambunctious Bullock family, especially the two daughters, Callie and Emmy. The book takes place in the early years of the twentieth century — there’s some technology and medical/scientific insight, but no cell phones, automobiles, or social media to distract the characters and readers. I found the look at a large family in a small community to be refreshing. But don’t think this book doesn’t have any deep themes. The characters are left to confront loss, prejudice, identity, and purpose. The male characters add a lot to the narrative — color, wit, and some romance — but the women’s stories are the heart of this novel. The author draws on the relationships within her own family to inspire the book, but as pointed out in the afterward, Callie and Emmy and Hepsy and Lily and Tirzah are their own people. And this is what I really loved about Letters from My Sister. The characters became very real to me. That’s probably why I didn’t want to let them go as I read the last page. I rejoiced as Callie grew, I mourned with the family’s losses, I was angry when evil men seemed to get their way. and I was relieved as justice prevailed. There is also a spiritual element that is very special. It may not be conventional for the modern reader, but it points to a God who sees and is active in our lives.
Letters from My Sister does not begin with a bang. Its slow pace fits the story — it fit my reading mood and took its time to touch my heart. The only negative is that the story had an ending. 😉 My book club is discussing this book later in the month. I sure am glad, because this book just begs to be talked about.
Highly Recommended.
Audience: adults.
(Thanks to NetGalley for a complimentary copy. All opinions expressed are mine alone.)
This month’s book club pick comes from talented author of Southern historical fiction, Valerie Luesse. I have had Letters From My Sister on my TBR shelf way too long! I can’t wait to discuss this book with my group.
Have you read it? Please share your thoughts with us.
Two Sisters. One Single Event. A Family Changed Forever.
At the turn of the twentieth century, sisters Emmy and Callie Bullock are living a privileged life as the only daughters of a wealthy Alabama cotton farmer when their well-ordered household gets turned upside down by the arrival of Lily McGee. Arrestingly beautiful, Lily quickly–and innocently–draws the wrong kind of attention. Meanwhile, Callie meets a man who offers her the freedom to abandon social constraints and discover her truest self.
After Lily has a baby, Callie witnesses something she was never meant to see–or did she? Her memory is a haze, just an image in her mind of Emmy standing on a darkened riverbank and cradling Lily’s missing baby girl. Only when the sisters are separated does the truth slowly come to light through their letters–including a revelation that will shape the rest of Callie’s life.
Valerie Fraser Luesse is the author of four novels set in the South: Christy Award winner Missing Isaac (2018), AlmostHome(2019), The Key to Everything (2020), and the upcoming Under the Bayou Moon (August 2021), all published by Revell Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group. An award-winning magazine writer, Luesse is perhaps best known for her feature stories and essays in Southern Living, where she wrote major pieces on the Mississippi Delta, Acadian Louisiana, and the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Her editorial section on the recovering Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina, photographed by Mark Sandlin, won the 2009 Travel Writer of the Year award from the Southeast Tourism Society. Luesse earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English from Auburn University and Baylor University, respectively. She is a native of Harpersville, Alabama, and lives in Birmingham, where she is the senior travel editor for Southern Living. Find her online at valeriefraserluesse.com; facebook.com/valeriefraserluessebooks; bakerpublishinggroup.com; bookbub.com/authors/valerie-fraser-luesse; and goodreads.com
Happy Tuesday! Whew! The inaugural Turning A New Page Book Festivalis officially in the books 😉 . If comments from readers and authors alike can be trusted (and they can) it was a roaring success! Over 40 authors shared their books and writing journeys with 200+ attendees. The board members are all pooped, but eager to get on with the planning for 2025!
Today’s TTT topic is new-to-me authors in 2023. My list today features the writers I discovered while working on the book festival planning. I hope you find a new author to increase your TBR!
Novelist Randy Pierce is a participant in the Turning A New Page Book Festival taking place in my small town on Saturday. He’ll be talking about Missy, a small town story with a big message. I’m looking forward to hearing him discuss this book, as well as describe his writing life.
A college party Wayne Jacobs and the love of his life, Missy Vance, did not really want to attend. A final beer Wayne did not need before he got behind the wheel. A horrific crash which killed Missy and, in many ways, destroyed Wayne, a beloved young man from a good Leakesville, Mississippi, family with a bright future. Today, as the crusty, hardscrabble roofer goes about his business and lives out his life, a cloud of despair those close to him can almost reach out and touch hangs over his head. Though Wayne paid his debt to society, spending twenty years behind bars at the state penitentiary in the Mississippi Delta, he just cannot let go of the guilt. Reminders of Missy are everywhere, not the least of which is her still-grieving and angry mother, Margie, an elderly woman in poor health who lives just minutes away and has not spoken to Wayne since the accident. Then Lacy Chamberlin hits town. It gets back to Wayne that the young journalist from Memphis has a fascination with the thirty-year-old accident and the accompanying fallout. Horrified when even his mother and their pastor agree to discuss what happened, Wayne angrily refuses to respond when Lacy begins leaving messages for him. What Wayne does not know is that Lacy Chamberlin carries a secret, a significant one. Her goal is not just to ask Wayne a few penetrating questions, but unburden herself in a way that will turn his life upside down all over again. A hard-hitting, spellbinding tale of loss, grief, and redemption with characters so real they feel like your own friends, neighbors, and adversaries, Missy will make you laugh, cry, and think about what is really important in life … and why it is so crucial that we learn to forgive.
By day, Randy Pierce is the Director of the Mississippi Judicial College at the Ole Miss law school. By early morning and night, he is a writer. The author of three novels, he started writing in 2010 and cannot stop. Randy enjoys learning more about the craft, and his goal is to write stories that cause readers to miss the characters when the last page is turned.
My Impressions:
Missy, by Mississippi author Randy Pierce, is small town southern fiction that explores the impacts a terrible accident can have on a community, as well as individuals. The theme of forgiveness is front and center, and many of the characters struggle with giving and accepting grace and mercy. Wayne and Missy were high school sweethearts before Wayne drove under the influence and destroyed their and their families’ hopes and dreams. I found the story to be poignant, and could definitely see both sides that Pierce presented. But it’s evident that grief and resentment, even uncontrolled hatred, can eat away at someone’s soul. You’ll find twists and surprises as you turn the pages, and the ending was hugely satisfying to me. I did shed more than a few tears too. 😉 While there is a Christian worldview presented in the book, there is some language. It all seemed natural and in context to me — not gratuitous in nature. This is a quick read that I am glad I discovered.
Recommended.
Audience:
(I purchased this book from Amazon. All opinions expressed are mine alone.)
My book club chose The Bookshop at Water’s End by Patti Callahan Henry as a recovery read following our discussion of a particularly difficult and emotional novel. It looked like a fun summer-y read featuring our favorite — a bookstore. It is summer-y, since its setting is a vacation home — the River House as it is known to those who spent summers there. This Southern women’s fiction explores mother-daughter relationships, dreams both fulfilled and unfulfilled, and romantic relationships within and outside marriage. The opinions on this book were mixed — some loved it, others said it was okay, while I am in the really didn’t enjoy it camp. For those who have read Surviving Savannah or Becoming Mrs. Lewis, this book is a departure from faith-based themes. Henry’s writing style is easy and her descriptions of emotions are beautiful. I just didn’t care very much for any of the characters. Was it my mood? I don’t really know. I just found them tiring. 😉 I also didn’t care for the adult language and situations used and described. It has an overwhelming favorable rating on Amazon, so you need to judge it for yourself.
(I purchased the Kindle version of this novel from Amazon. All opinions expressed are mine alone.)
The women who spent their childhood summers in a small southern town discover it harbors secrets as lush as the marshes that surround it…
Bonny Blankenship’s most treasured memories are of idyllic summers spent in Watersend, South Carolina, with her best friend, Lainey McKay. Amid the sand dunes and oak trees draped with Spanish moss, they swam and wished for happy-ever-afters, then escaped to the local bookshop to read and whisper in the glorious cool silence. Until the night that changed everything, the night that Lainey’s mother disappeared.
Now, in her early fifties, Bonny is desperate to clear her head after a tragic mistake threatens her career as an emergency room doctor, and her marriage crumbles around her. With her troubled teenage daughter, Piper, in tow, she goes back to the beloved river house, where she is soon joined by Lainey and her two young children. During lazy summer days and magical nights, they reunite with bookshop owner Mimi, who is tangled with the past and its mysteries. As the three women cling to a fragile peace, buried secrets and long ago loves return like the tide.
Patti Callahan Henry is a New York Times, Globe and Mail, and USA Today bestselling author of seventeen novels, including her newest, The Secret Book of Flora Lea. She’s also a podcast host of original content for her novels, Surviving Savannah and Becoming Mrs. Lewis.
She is the recipient of The Christy Award “Book of the Year”; The Harper Lee Distinguished Writer of the Year and the Alabama Library Association Book of the Year for Becoming Mrs. Lewis. She is the co-host and co-creator of the popular weekly online Friends and Fiction live web show and podcast. Patti also was a contributor to the monthly life lesson essay column for Parade Magazine. She’s published in numerous anthologies, articles, and short story collections, including an Audible Original about Florence Nightingale, titled Wild Swan narrated by the Tony Award winner, Cynthia Erivo.
A full-time author, mother of three, and grandmother of two, she lives in Mountain Brook, Alabama with her husband, Pat Henry.
Happy Tuesday! As I was researching this week’s TTT topic — animals in a title or on a cover — I was surprised to find so many books with a bird in the title. So I decided to go with it! Seven of the books even have a bird image on the covers! There are lots of different genres represented in my list, so you’re sure to find a book to love.
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