The Kitchen House

I don't often read newly published books. It takes me awhile to get interested; I usually want to read a couple of reviews or get a personal recommendation from someone especially if it's fiction. I spied "The Kitchen House" by Kathleen Grissom at my local library, though, and since this little library has a pretty limited selection (seems like it's mostly romance novels and popular fiction that you can buy at Wal-Mart), I decided to give it a try. It's set on a small Virginia plantation circa 1790-1810. The story revolves around Lavinia, a white servant girl given to a black slave, Belle, to raise. Lavinia comes to love Belle, Mama, Papa, and Uncle Jacob as her family; it's not until she marries the Master's son that she realizes that she must reject her black family in order to exist in the white world. The book jacket describes the story as 'tragic,' and indeed, as I shed tears before I finished the fourth chapter, I knew this description was correct. The story contains love and hate, drug and alcohol addiction, sexual abuse, rape, violence and cruelty that leave the reader gasping. It could all read like a bad melodrama, but the author's skillful use of language and storytelling that has the events revealed from both Lavinia and Belle's point of view keep it grounded and balanced. Life was hard, but there was joy as well. Love was shared irregardless of color. Family was all-important. If your book club is looking for a read to stimulate conversation on race and family, this is a good choice. If you're just looking for a good read, it's a good choice as well.

Labyrinth

I just finished a novel that brought back such memories for me. Labyrinth by Kate Mosse is set in southwest France, the Languedoc, in and around Carcassone. It's a book replete with medieval history, Crusaders, the Cathars and legends of the Holy Grail. While it's fiction, Ms. Mosse has done extensive research on the period she writes about, i.e. the 13th century. The story is what she calls a 'timeslip;' it moves back and forth between the 13th century and the 21st century. Various characters are mirrored across the millenia. Alice Tanner is an ancestor of Alais Pelletier du Mas and bits of memory of Alais' life in medieval France haunt Alice's thoughts and dreams. Competing secret societies seek the Grail; Alice as a volunteer on an archaelogical dig in the Sabarthes Mountains stumbles on clues that will lead everyone to the Grail's mysteries. 21st century murder and magic mimic the mayhem of the 13th century. Does Alice really 'stumble' or is she lead by the influences Alais, Guilhem and Escarlmonde across the centuries? Is she able to bring rest and peace to the restless souls who protected the Grail from the onslaught of the only Crusade mounted inside France? Is there a way for her to avenge the deaths of thousands of Cathars burned by order of the King of France and the Pope? If you love medieval history, this novel is for you. Fictional characters in a story interwoven in real history and real people. And it will be even more meaningful if, like me, you've visited this part of France, climbed the pog to Montsegur and journeyed through Cathar land.

A Redbird Christmas

Okay...I know it's 'way beyond the holiday season, but really, you need to get this book now! Tuck it away until next Christmas, if you must. It's not exclusively a holiday book, though; it spans a whole year in the life of a small community, Lost River, in very rural Alabama. You can read it anytime of year. Miss Fannie Flagg is one of my very favorite authors. I love Southern genre books in general; Miss Flagg does 'southern' to perfection! I can just hear my Mom and her sisters speaking Fannie's dialogue as they sit in Mabel's kitchen eating grits, sipping sweet tea and gossiping about the rest of the 'generation' as they called the family. "A Redbird Christmas" is a feel-good story about community, love, and a rascally redbird named Jack who touches the lives of everyone who sees him. Little Patsy loves Jack, Roy, the grocer, loves Jack, even Mildred who thought she hated Jack, really loves him deep down inside. Miss Flagg hasn't written a totally syrupy-sweet story, however. Oswald T. Campbell has a drinking problem; Roy and Julian LaPonde have vowed to shoot each other on sight, and Tammy Suggs is the very worst kind of 'white trash.' Here's my confession: I drag out my copy of "A Redbird Christmas" every December. I pick a snowy Sunday afternoon and let the story transport me to warm and wonderful southern Alabama; I can almost smell the magnolias and the musky river, taste Frances' scuppernong jelly, and hear Jack chattering away with Patsy in the back room.

Other books by Fannie Flagg: Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe,Standing in the Rainbow,Welcome to the World, Baby Girl,Can't Wait to Get to Heaven (Random House Large Print),Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man (Random House Large Print (Cloth/Paper)). They're all good!