- This is a re-read for book club this month.
- Sweetie by Kathryn Magendie
- The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen
Summary from GoodReads:
For years, twelve-year-old CeeCee Honeycutt has been the caretaker of her psychotic mother, Camille. The tiara-toting, lipstick-smeared laughingstock of an entire town, Camille was a woman trapped in her long-ago moment of glory as the 1951 Vidalia Onion Queen. But when she is hit by a truck and killed, CeeCee is left to fend for herself. To the rescue comes her previously unknown great-aunt Tootie in her vintage Packard convertible.
My Review:
This is the second time in less than a year I’ve experienced the joy that is CeeCee Honeycutt and the crew of beautiful women surrounding her. I talked about how much I loved this book in an earlier review, so this time I want to just talk about a little of what we discussed in our book club.
Many women, after reading this story, felt as if they’d heard it somewhere else. There were shades of To Kill a Mockingbird, Steel Magnolias and other very famous southern stories wrapped up inside CeeCee’s little story – but don’t think that this is a heavy book, because it’s not. It’s predicable in a very loveable way, it will touch your heart, it’s sweet with just the right touch of bittersweet to keep it from being too sappy.
What I loved most about this story is how Beth Hoffman manages to inject a little 60′s flavor into the book by noting various historical things (MLK speech), by touching on the barrier between races – but also keeps a very modern feel in the book. Aunt Tootie was a very modern woman, especially for the time and her deceased husband, from all accounts, encouraged her.
I was a bit concerned going to the book club as to what we’d talk about, since the questions given for the reading guide were more personal in nature then I felt like asking – but we did manage to have quite the lively, and meaningful discussion that lasted over an hour. So if that is worrying you, don’t let it. I think you’ll find that if you suggest this to your own book club, it will be one of those books that everyone takes some enjoyment from.
