Jewel by Bret Lott

About the book: In the backwoods of Mississippi, a land of honeysuckle and grapevine, Jewel and her husband, Leston, are truly blessed; they have five fine children. When Brenda Kay is born in 1943, Jewel gives thanks for a healthy baby, last-born and most welcome. Jewel is the story of how quickly a life can change; how, like lightning, an unforeseen event can set us on a course without reason or compass. In this story of a woman's devotion to the child who is both her burden and God's singular way of smiling on her, Bret Lott has created a mother-daughter relationship of matchless intensity and beauty, and one of the finest, most indomitable heroines in contemporary American fiction.

First line: I was born in 1904, so that when I was pregnant in 1943 I was near enough to be past the rightful age to bear children.

My thoughts: This one has been in my TBR pile for a while. It was the story of an ordinary family facing hardships together. Though it was a heart touching story with lovely prose it was a slow read. There were a few high points of course but between them it was a long haul. I got to know Jewel, from whose POV the story was told, and her husband Leston. Even though Brenda Kay, Jewel's child with Down Syndrome, was the focus of their lives we never got to know her too well, other than as a burden. I wish there had been more moments that showed ways that she added to the family.

Jewel is realistic - it accurately reflects the attitudes towards minorities at the time as well as the lack of services available for people with disabilities.

Rating: B

Quote: One day they'd do the bolts, another day the nuts, then the bolts, then the nuts. Certainly there'd been joy in her accomplishing that much; she even brought home a paycheck once a month, always for some odd small amount, $7.31, or $6.96. On those afternoons, she came home waving the check, we'd go right down to the bank, cash it, then go to dinner at a Denny's or Sizzler, where I'd let her pay for her meal herself, though money still meant nothing to her, only pieces of paper, chunks of metal handed over to a smiling waitress.

A Touch of Dead by Charlaine Harris

Product Description: Every Sookie Stackhouse short story ever written-in one special volume-from the New York Times bestselling author. New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris has re-imagined the supernatural world with her "spunky" (Tampa Tribune) Southern Vampire novels starring telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse. Now, for the first time, here is every Sookie Stackhouse short story ever written-together in one volume. Stories include "Fairy Dust," "One Word Answer," "Dracula Night," "Lucky," and "Giftwrap."

Quote: Bubba the Vampire and I were raking up clippings from my newly trimmed bushes about midnight when the long black car pulled up.

Why this book you might ask: I'm a fan of the series.

My thoughts: As I've said before I'm not into short stories much, but I wanted to read these since I like this series. The 5 stories were:
"Fairy Dust" In which Sookie is asked to help find a murderer.
"Dracula Night" Eric Northman is a frantic fanboy? Well he is hoping that Dracula will visit his party this year.
"One Word Answer" The begining of the story about the death of Sookie's Cousin Hadley.
"Lucky" Can luck be used up? Read and see.
"Gift Wrap" Sookie is alone at Christmas but it turns out to be one of the best.

The only problem I found was that the stories were short (HAHA) and there weren't enough of them.

Links:
Charlaine Harris Interview

Hardcover: 208 pages
Publisher: Ace (October 6, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0441017835

Why Beulah Shot Her Pistol Inside the Baptist Church by Clayton Sullivan

From the Book Jacket:Raised in the Primitive Baptist Church, teenage Beulah Buchanan marries the much older deacon Ralph Rainey to escape from her oppressive parents, thus jumping from the frying pan into the fire.
Over the next six years, Beulah works in her domineering husband’s cafe and cooks him dinner at home every night, dutifully attends church, and lets herself be led into an affair with the preacher. When she embarrasses her husband by not cooking enough food for the ravenous visiting revival preacher, Ralph “chastises” Beulah with his belt. When he tries to beat her again, she fights back and locks him in the cooler at his cafe.
Why Beulah Shot Her Pistol Inside the Baptist Church is a new take on the Southern Gothic tragedy, told in Beulah’s innocently hilarious voice. Beulah evokes the Southern women of Clyde Edgerton’s Raney and Mark Childress’s Crazy in Alabama, but is a totally original and winning character, a young woman breaking free.

Quote from the book: By five o'clock I was back in the kitchen cookin' full speed ahead. I was cookin' like I was Betty Crocker. I knew the preachers would turn up at the house at six o'clock.

My thoughts: The title of this book made me laugh so I checked the blurb and bought it. I've chosen to read more than one book just because of the title. I was prepared to like this book and was looking forward to reading it, I wanted to know just WHY did Beulah even have a pistol at the Baptist church. I really do like reading southern literature.

Beulah tells her story in first person to the reader. At times she is funny, sometimes darkly so. She tells the story of her life in rural Mississippi, marriage to an older man, domestic violence, and hypocrisy in her church. She was a sympathetic character, a 16 year old in a loveless marriage being used and abused. She should have listened to her mother. Her life with Ralph was nothing but misery as her mother had predicted. For six years Beulah works for and serves her cold hypocrite of a husband. Then the preacher starts calling, after Ralph is gone to work. He cons her as surly as Ralph did with the sweet words she craves. It breaks her heart to finally learn this.

Since she was raised in the church, and the author is a retired minister, I did not expect her language to be so very crude. Yikes. It was way out of character for an overprotected church girl. The constant repetition, (Beulah kept saying the same thing 3 or 4 different ways) was annoying. It was strange that she could repeat the F word and the P word without hesitation them apologize for saying hell. Go figure.

I don't know whether to recommend this or not. I liked the story but the language really put me off.

Hardcover: 238 pages
Publisher: NewSouth (October 30, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1588381676
ISBN-13: 978-1588381675