Call Your Daughter Home by Deb Serpa

CALL YOUR DAUGHTER HOME by Deb Serpa is a work of historical fiction set amidst the rural poverty and segregated society of 1924 South Carolina. Three women share the storytelling: Gertrude Pardee, Oretta Bootles, and Annie Coles. Gertrude, forced to marry as a teen, has four young daughters and an often drunk and abusive husband.  She can barely afford to feed the family until she is offered a job at the Sewing Circle.  That business is owned by Annie through her own family legacy, although her husband Edwin is an influential plantation owner dealing with the cotton crop’s destruction by the boll weevil and trying to make money by converting to tobacco. Retta lives in Shake Rag, with her ailing husband and other former slaves or their descendants. She has long worked as housekeeper for Miss Annie’s family and is a kind soul who often helps others, including Gertrude and her girls. CALL YOUR DAUGHTER HOME is filled with conflict between family members, especially mothers and daughters. There are questions of morality, faith, guilt, and retribution which are adeptly handled and woven throughout the story. At one point, Preacher quotes Ephesians 6:11, “put on the whole armor of God” in order to stand “against spiritual wickedness in high places.” In addition, these women, two of whom have lost children, have to rely on their own mothers’ words (“Mama used to say if you don’t ask for help, nobody will know how to give it”) and the concern they develop for each other. Each experiences both physical and emotional pain and questions her own abilities, as expressed in reflections like: “I wasn’t a good mother, that much is fact, but I was the only kind I knew how to be” or “I can’t see what is to come. … I fear I will stumble over the edge without knowing, and tumble to the sharp rocks below, too late to save my own soul.” In a note on “A Bit of Background,” Serpa explains how her own grandmother and great-grandmother influenced this book, including details like the peach cobbler recipe. She says that she was “humbled and inspired by the ferocity of their motherhood.” Book group members, especially readers of titles like Delia Owens' Where the Crawdads Sing or Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees, will certainly empathize with the characters in Serpa’s debut novel which was a LibraryReads selection in June. This title might work for Junior Theme; Booklist recommended CALL YOUR DAUGHTER HOME for teens, too, due to the “complicated mother-daughter relationships.”

Dreams of Falling by Karen White

DREAMS OF FALLING by Karen White combines elements of traditional women’s fiction, mystery and historical fiction for a satisfying, absorbing beach or airplane read. The setting is the Lowcountry of South Carolina and the time period shifts from contemporary times (2010) back across two generations of intertwined families. Initially, it is the middle generation – Ivy – whose accidental injury brings together her daughter Larkin and the friends of Ivy’s mother, Margaret, who herself died in in the early 1950s due to a fire at the family’s plantation. That tragedy left friends Ceecee and Bitty to raise Ivy.  DREAMS OF FALLING moves back and forth between decades and between narrators as Larkin seeks to discover more about her family’s past. At times, it was hard to believe that she had never asked these questions, but there are numerous secrets and betrayals (intended or otherwise) to uncover. Ivy, in a coma, cannot communicate with other characters, but muses to readers, “Love, I have found, is a treacherous companion. When you do something out of love, it usually backfires. People need to know that.”

Like White’s other titles (The Night the Lights Went Out or The Sound of Glass), this novel is full of observations about motivation and relationships: “There’s something about mothers and daughters, I think, that makes us always want to hold close at the same time we try to push each other away.” DREAMS OF FALLING is a story of small town life in the South which allows for growth in its characters; saying, “It’s because everything that’s beautiful and worthwhile on this earth starts out as a pile of mess. Think of butterflies. It’s the struggle to get past the messy part that makes us who we are.”

Some fun mysteries

It seems like time to mention a few good mysteries since I have not done so in a while.  My guess is that you are likely familiar with Jeffery Archer’s writing since he has sold roughly 330 million books worldwide.  I read (and reread) Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less which was published in 1974 and would still recommend it for its twists in turns. His early works continue to be my favorites, and recently some individual short stories are becoming available for purchase to be read electronically.  One is “CHEAP AT HALF THE PRICE” and involves Consuela Rosenheim who is shopping in London for an ideal birthday present for herself and thinking about finding a new husband, too. It’s light, short and typically Archer with a fun twist at the end. Another is “NEVER STOP ON THE MOTORWAY” which is more of a thriller and involves the danger which Diana, a single Mum, faces as she attempts to flee a menacing van on the highway.  Once again, classic Archer in that the ending is almost impossible to predict.

What about works by award winning author Carolyn Hart?  I am in the midst of WALKING ON MY GRAVE, the 27th (!) book in her Death on Demand series which revolves around the book store of that name. Its proprietor, Annie, is once again trying to help friends in danger.  This time, a local resident named Ves Roundtree is frightened by her vulnerability as heir to a fortune that will pass to others once she dies.  Of course, each of the others has various reasons for needing the money NOW and Annie sets out with husband Max, his mother and her friends, plus local police to protect Ves.  Regular Hart readers are likely to predict the murderer relatively early, but still enjoy this entertaining, quick read.  It’s a cozy mystery for sure, complete with references to other titles in the mystery genre. 

 

It seems that bookshops and mysteries go together since Paige Shelton is offering a second Scottish Bookshop mystery called OF BOOKS AND BAGPIPES. This, too, is a cozy mystery and features Delany Nichols who has been sent by her boss to a castle for a meeting arranged to retrieve a collectible book. Once there, Delaney discovers a body which, of course, is the person she was supposed to meet. The mystery deepens as she actually locates the valuable manuscript and learns it had ties not only to her boss, but to a man who supposedly died years ago.

Have a favorite mystery or author in the genre?  We look forward to hearing your recommendations.