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A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty

by Joshilyn Jackson (Goodreads Author)

3.92 of 5 stars 3.92 · rating details · 7,667 ratings · 1,269 reviews

A GROWN-UP KIND OF PRETTY is a powerful saga of three generations of women, plagued by hardships and torn by a devastating secret, yet inextricably joined by the bonds of family. Fifteen-year-old Mosey Slocumb-spirited, sassy, and on the cusp of womanhood-is shaken when a small grave is unearthed in the backyard, and determined to figure out why it's there. Liza, her strok...more

Hardcover, 322 pages

Published January 25th 2012 by Grand Central Publishing

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2012: What the Over 35s Have Read So Far

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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg

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Community Reviews

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Feb 06, 2012 Debby rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 5-star-books

If you've never read a book by Joshilyn Jackson (Gods in Alabama; Between, Gerogia; The Girl Who Stopped Swimming; or Backseat Saints) you are missing out on a most phenomenal experience!

Jackson's newest book, A Grown Up Kind of Pretty, was everything that I like in Jackson's books; being swept up into the story and the characters and enjoying every minute of it! I couldn't put this book down.

The characters are definitely outside the bos: The Alabama matriarch of this family is "Big". Big is 4...more

29 likes · like · see review

Mar 27, 2012 Jennifer rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I am a huge fan of Joshilyn Jackson's novels, and I think A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty might be her best yet. Ginny, Liza and Mosey Slocumb are instantly lovable characters and their shared story is at turns pee-your-pants hilarious and heartbreaking. The plot has more twists and turns than a storyline from Days of Our Lives (which Jackson references a lot in this book--I love that!)--and she keeps the pacing fast but not breakneck. Jackson gives her characters such honest, self-aware voices, espec...more

12 likes · like · see review

Mar 06, 2012 ☆Jessie☆ (Ageless Pages Reviews) rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary-fiction, general-and-literary-fiction, netgalley-arc, arc, 2012-reads, 2012-reviews, reviewed

Read This Review & More Like It On My Blog!

3.5 out of 5

I've read two other novels by this author, long before I started blogging, and I was less than impressed by what she had to offer in Between, Georgia and Gods in Alabama . Both of these Southern-set novels were just sort of...there. I didn't love them, didn't hate them; I didn't have enough emotion invested to feel either way. Nothing called to me from their pages; the characters weren't favorites or interesting; they simply did what th...more Read This Review & More Like It On My Blog!

3.5 out of 5

I've read two other novels by this author, long before I started blogging, and I was less than impressed by what she had to offer in Between, Georgia and Gods in Alabama . Both of these Southern-set novels were just sort of...there. I didn't love them, didn't hate them; I didn't have enough emotion invested to feel either way. Nothing called to me from their pages; the characters weren't favorites or interesting; they simply did what they had to for the story - I felt no connection to the plots, the settings, the people. Happily for me, A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty diverges from the path set down by its predecessors. The unfolding stories and pasts of these three similar but disparate women (Mosey, Liza, Ginny) is engaging from early on and the mystery at the heart of Mosey's life is both compelling and immensely readable.

Ginny is 45 and the matriarch of her tight-knit, all-female family, and in her short-ish years has experienced a cyclical pattern for three periods of extreme difficulties: her 15th year, her 30th and 45th. Jackson paints Ginny as a strong, Southern woman, one who can readily buy that she and her family are cursed by the number 15, but one that steadfastly hates religion, mostly Baptists. She's just "Big" to both of her girls, and has a big personality to match her sobriquet. Ginny is a complex character: I'd say she's even more dimensional than her wild-child daughter Liza, and reading about this determined Grandma reminded me a bit of my own hard-as-nails grandma. Ginny feels real, as do most of the characters herein, and is humanly flawed. But it is her unceasing sense of humor that keeps her narrative from veering into too pessimistic of territory or from sounding downtrodden ("I'll go straight under any number of ladders if you put the right kind of pie on the other side..." p. 8 ARC) despite the biblical amounts of crap that continually fall her way during A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty. While the three rotating POVs of the Slocumb women worked to illuminate each woman separately and uniquely, Ginny's POV was resoundingly my favorite to read for the entire duration of the book.

Mosey is the hinge upon which this whole book turns, and surprisngly, this teenager is able to bear the pressure. While I may haaaate her name, Mosey's story is by turns funny, confusing, and emotional. While my liking for Big was immediate and I was curious about Liza from the start, Mosey was a slow-burn character for me. What really reversed my indifference was her relationship with Roger. I laughed out loud at the two of them ("he was just Roger, fixing my tit for me") when they were physcially present together: their texting drove me up a wall. Prepare oneself for 1337 speak and horribly mangled sentences when reading the interchanges between the mischievous pair. The slang felt very 'Southern' but the abbreviations and such were a bit much for me to handle.

Liza is the most unformed personality among the women, but for obvious, plot-adjacent reasons. Since Liza's situation is so different from her daughter and mother, I appreciated how distinct her "voice"/thoughts were. Though this is the second book in two weeks I've read that features a female main character with a 'brain event' ( The Vanishing Game being the other), Liza's story is riveting. Described as a "half girl, half hurricane", Liza was the crazy, uncontrolled member of this family tripod. Even diluted by her injuries, "Little's" narrative is easily identifiable as hers, and almost as much as I wanted to unravel the mystery of Mosey, Liza's story has a great, unpredicted, attention-grabbing twist of its own.

A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty is an easy, but very involving read. I'm not too proud to admit that several of my heartstrings were tugged very effectively, and unexpectedly often. I didn't cry, but my eyes did have tears in them at the resolution that Jackson extends to her readers. A slow beginning eases one into a story of what family really means and how the past does not have to define the future. This is not perfect, but it is very likeable and executed well. These are three very different women, all sympathetic despite any sins they have perpetrated. And for once, the rotating POV frame of storytelling worked very well - the breaks from each's story allowed for percolation of ideas/plots/assumptions. I had way more fun with this than I anticipated. My vote: give it a chance.(less)

7 likes · like · see review

Mar 06, 2012 Shellys♥ Journal rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, chick-lit, contemporary-fiction, fiction

Three women. Grandmother. Mother. Daughter. A mysterious baby buried in the back yard - and the mystery of who this baby is consumes these women. As they search for the answer, other mysteries unfold themselves from the web of the past.

I loved this book!!!! It was a story of truth and identity. The characters and connections were captivating. I also like how the three main characters told the story. Each chapter not only had "real time" details, but allowed whatever character was in queue to rel...more

3 likes · like · see review

Apr 06, 2012 Juju (Tales of Whimsy.com) rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I was held captive by the mystery that begins with the bones found in a yard, amazed by the slow unraveling of Liza's twisted history, and transfixed by what Big (Ginny) is willing to do for her child. These flawed, brave, spunky characters tackle real issues and ultimately, when the truth is revealed, realize just how much they need and love each other. I may be nothing like these ladies, but they really moved me and I want to be just like fierce mama Big.

To read my review in it's entirety, ple...more

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Jan 12, 2013 Kathy rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is the first book I have read by Ms Jackson. I thought it was very good. Loved the strong female characters, the humor and the southern setting. I will definitely read other books.

1 like · like · see review

May 04, 2013 Emily rated it 5 of 5 stars

Joshilyn Jackson is by far my favorite author right now, and I loved, loved, loved this book. With that being said, the reviews she's gotten -- through the roof, I might add -- but they've all praised this as her "greatest work by far" and such.

And I don't think so. Yes, it's an amazing read. I started it on a Friday night and finished Saturday before lunch. It grips you. But so does everything else she's written. I can't say that it's better than any of her others because they're all so high-c...more

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Apr 22, 2013 Beth rated it 4 of 5 stars

I was pretty sure I'd like this book before I even started it. I've yet to read a Joshiliyn Jackson novel that I haven't liked. I was right.
The Slocumb women are victims of a fifteen-year curse. First Ginny got pregnant at fifteen, giving birth to Liza. Fifteen years later, Liza becomes pregnant, too. Now fourteen-year-old Mosey is so paranoid about becoming pregnant (she is a virgin) that she takes pregnancy tests constantly- just to remind herself that everything is ok- that she is not a victi...more

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Mar 30, 2013 Alicia rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is the first book of Joshilyn Jackson's that I've read and I wasn't even half way through when I went and got every other title of hers that I could find at my library. Its about three generations of women: Big (Jenny), Liza, and Mosey--and how a mystery of baby bones in their backyard sends them off on different tangents to the same conclusion: that family and love is forever. The chapters are broken up and told from each character's perspective. Big, 45, laments the fact that every 15 yea...more

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Mar 02, 2013 Sheila DeChantal rated it 4 of 5 stars

Fifteen year old Mosey Slocumb wants to be like other girls her age. She wants to have close girl friends, she wants to date boys, and she wants to have a mom and a dad who love her to the core.

But none of this seems to be in the cards for her.

Mosey lives with her grandmother “Big” Virginia who feels that something bad happens every fifteen years. Why she had her own daughter, Mosey’s mom, Liza, when she was 15. Liza in turn had Mosey at 15 and when Liza turned 30 she has a massive stroke, that...more

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Feb 21, 2013 Louise rated it 4 of 5 stars

Story Description:

Grand Central Publishing|September 25, 2012|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-0-58236-0

A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty is a powerful saga of three generations of women, plagued by hardships and torn by a devastating secret, yet inextricably joined by the bonds of family. Fifteen-year-old Mosey Slocumb – spirited, sassy, and on the cusp of womanhood – is shaken when a small grave is unearthed in the backyard, and determined to figure out why it’s there. Liza, her stroke-ravaged mother, is hau...more Story Description:

Grand Central Publishing|September 25, 2012|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-0-58236-0

A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty is a powerful saga of three generations of women, plagued by hardships and torn by a devastating secret, yet inextricably joined by the bonds of family. Fifteen-year-old Mosey Slocumb – spirited, sassy, and on the cusp of womanhood – is shaken when a small grave is unearthed in the backyard, and determined to figure out why it’s there. Liza, her stroke-ravaged mother, is haunted by choices she made as a teenager. But it is Ginny, Mosey’s strong and big-hearted grandmother, whose maternal love brands together the strands of the women’s shared past – and who will stop at nothing to defend their future.

My Review:

This is my first Joshilyn Jackson novel and I wasn’t disappointed. Her writing is simply magical and she has a way with words that make you feel even more endeared to the story.

In A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty, trouble visits itself every fifteen years upon three generations of Slocumb women. The matriarch of the family, Ginny, is forty-five –years-old and gave birth to her daughter, Liza, at age fifteen. Liza, at age fifteen begat her daughter, Mosey, and now that Mosey is at that mysterious, trouble-ridden number of “fifteen” years of age, Ginny knows problems are arising. After all “something” bad happens every fifteen years and it won’t be good.

The personalities of the three Slocumb women are diverse and shaped through years of desperate lives and very hard times. Liza had a stroke at age thirty and at age forty-five is still struggling to fight her way back to some sort of normalcy.

Now that, Mosey, has turned fifteen, Ginny, is very worried that she will repeat the mistakes in her life that both she and her mother did. On the other hand, Mosey, is determined and committed to NOT repeat those same mistakes.

The story is told in all three voices through alternating chapters. You’re so glued to each woman’s story that it makes you wish you had a whole book on each of their lives. I was so enamoured with these three women that I wished I could befriend them all! A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty is definitely the next book you should be reading. Well-done Ms. Jackson, I’ll be ordering the rest of your novels!!
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Aug 26, 2012 Jen McConnel rated it 5 of 5 stars

The Slocumb women don't have skeletons in the closet: they keep them buried in the back yard.

Told from three POVs, this is the story of Big, Liza, and Mosey. Big (who's name is Ginny, but to her family, she's always been Big) is in her third "trouble year": every fifteen years, without fail, God throws her a curve ball and tries to bring her down. When she was 15, she got pregnant. When she was 30, her daughter, Liza, got pregnant and took off with the baby. And now, at 45, her world is crumblin...more

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Jul 22, 2012 McGuffy Morris rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

Every fifteen years, trouble comes knocking on the door for the Slocumb women. First it was Virginia, and then her daughter Liza. Now 15 year old Mosey is facing this curse. Yet the trouble is fall out from years of secrets kept from her by her mother and grandmother.

As the secrets are literally unearthed in their own backyard, Mosey suddenly is forced to question not only what is going on, what secrets they have, but who she is as well. Having always been a good girl, in the shadow of her rebel...more

1 like · like · see review

Jul 17, 2012 Lydia Laceby rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 5-star-must-read, contemporary-women-s-fiction

Originally reviewed at Novel Escapes

I LOVED this novel. I laughed. I chocked up. I grinned. I cried. I giggled. A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty has everything I love in a novel – a unpredictable plot, emotion that leaps off the pages and characters as real and believable as the person sitting next to me. An ode to the bonds of family, regardless of its makeup, and the enduring strength of women, A Grown up Kind of Pretty is a compelling page turner that will keep you up late at night.

Narrated via alte...more Originally reviewed at Novel Escapes

I LOVED this novel. I laughed. I chocked up. I grinned. I cried. I giggled. A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty has everything I love in a novel – a unpredictable plot, emotion that leaps off the pages and characters as real and believable as the person sitting next to me. An ode to the bonds of family, regardless of its makeup, and the enduring strength of women, A Grown up Kind of Pretty is a compelling page turner that will keep you up late at night.

Narrated via alternating viewpoints of three main characters, each of which delivers a sucker punch to the heart, Big, Liza and Mosey reveal that not all families are perfect and immerse us into their lives full of secrets that all three generations of Slocumb women are desperate to keep from each other and the outside world. Although not able to directly relate to their circumstances, life in the South, or the strife they have suffered through, I could sympathize and somehow relate and really, really liked each character even though I didn’t always agree with their choices. They were all deliciously flawed, utterly likeable and will remain with me long after I finished the last sentence.

Initially I was wary of Liza’s viewpoint with her limited speech capability and her wandering thoughts, but Jackson did a marvelous job at conveying her disability, frustration and compulsion to communicate and protect her daughter regardless of her limitations. Both Liza and Big’s love for Mosey made the hair on my arms stand up and Mosey’s confusion surrounding the secrets she uncovers and her identity made my heart ache as did Big’s rehabilitation efforts with Liza.

The prose in this novel is brilliant. I loved reading each word and was amazed at how Jackson portrayed their characters so effortlessly and impeccably through their view of the world. Big was sharp, witty and wry, full of love, tenderness, compassion and wisdom. Liza was frustrated and tortured and stuck mainly in her mind of tortured memories and failed attempts to communicate while Mosey was a typical teenager, sarcastic, sullen, frustrated and annoyed with all adults in her world yet desperate to cling to them at the same time. These characters had some of the most fantastic and amusing observations I have ever read and this was in addition to the sparkling dialogue that snaps, crackles and pops between the women. Even the minor characters are well portrayed, essential to the story and won’t be easily forgotten.

At times amusing, but mostly a compelling, gritty, and heart wrenching portrayal, A Grown Up Kind Of Pretty kept me on the edge of my seat. Every time I thought I had it figured out, Jackson threw in another twist and I downed this novel in two days.

I can’t wait to explore more from Joshilyn Jackson. Make this your next book club pick. You won’t be disappointed. (less)

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Jul 08, 2012 Mary Shackelford rated it 5 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book. I ended up listening to the audio instead of reading the book and was pleasantly surprised. I do not always enjoy an audio book due to the reader mainly. The author herself reads this and I found that she did a wonderful job! Her southern accent was charming to me as I have lots of family from the south and enjoyed listening to the author as she read the material. She actually seemed to be the characters and not just reading the text. Sometimes a reader changes their...more

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Jul 01, 2012 Jill rated it 4 of 5 stars

One of the fun things about going to a book festival, like we have in Tucson, is getting a sense of the real personalities of the authors. Often they seem to “go with” the kind of books they write, sort of like dog owners picking out dogs that match them. Joshilyn Jackson is so bubbly and electric that if you put her inside a power grid, you could light up a whole city for months.

A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty is about three remarkable women: Big (Ginny Slocumb, age 45), her daughter Liza (“Little”),...more One of the fun things about going to a book festival, like we have in Tucson, is getting a sense of the real personalities of the authors. Often they seem to “go with” the kind of books they write, sort of like dog owners picking out dogs that match them. Joshilyn Jackson is so bubbly and electric that if you put her inside a power grid, you could light up a whole city for months.

A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty is about three remarkable women: Big (Ginny Slocumb, age 45), her daughter Liza (“Little”), age 30, and Liza’s daughter Mosey (age 15), and each voice alternates in different chapters. They live in Immita, Mississippi in a small house with a big yard, where Big wants to put in a swimming pool. Liza had a stroke several months earlier, and hydrotherapy would be good for her. But in the process of getting the yard dug up, the past also gets dug up, and secrets sprout like weeds from the newly upturned soil.

Discussion: Joshilyn Jackson’s main female characters are delightful, full of spit and vinegar and impassioned love and loyalty. They are women you absolutely wish you knew; women you admire who fight for what they believe in and for whom they love. This alone makes Jackson’s books worth reading, but there is always more. She adds tension and humor, and in this book, she adds mystery. She kept me guessing the whole way.

Using three generations like she does in this book, she provides an extra kick by writing about the concerns of females at three different pivotal times in their lives. I absolutely loved the great job she did with Mosey, the teenager, and how expertly she could switch to the voice of a woman on the verge of menopause. Each one of the women has a voice that sounds so authentic, and so different from one another in some ways, but what binds them all is love. As Liza observes, Big and Mosey are "soaked" in love: "They have so much it spills out and makes more." Liza doesn't think she is like them, but fierce love drives her as well. And these women are so brave - all three of them! You could wish for worse things in life than to know and be loved by women like these.

Evaluation: Joshilyn Jackson gets better with each book she writes. I understand she does a great job on reading this too, in the audio version. Highly recommended!

Rating: 4.5/5
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Jun 19, 2012 Abby rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is my favorite novel of Joshilyn Jackson's since Gods in Alabama. She is a fantastic author who knows southern women, the strencth they have beneath their nail polish and lipstick, and the almost terrifying dedication they have to their children. Her aunts and mothers are never afraid to do what they have to to protect their children, even if it means committing felonies to do so. But ultimately, these books aren't about the drama coming from crimes and secrets, they are about the strength...more

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May 28, 2012 Cristy rated it 4 of 5 stars

My first encounter with Ms. Jackson was on an email list-serv for writers. Drawn to her quirky humor, I picked up her debut, "gods and Alabama", and was impressed enough to send her an email full of praise (which is embarrassingly fangirl now that I think about it). She responded in her usual eccentric manner, and I became a faithful follower of her blog where, among other things, she waxes poetic about her family's furry members, and it's impossible not to relate.

So it almost goes without sayi...more

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May 06, 2012 Gayle rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is pure delight. It's nothing fancy but is a really good read.

Ginny, known as Big to her daughter and granddaughter, gave birth to Liza when Ginny was fifteen years old.
Then when Liza, now called Little by her mother, was fifteen she gave birth and refused to tell anyone who the father of her child was. With Mosey approaching fifteen, this household of females are feeling the pressure of the fifteen-year evil that seems to come their way.

I laughed: Mosey hasn't even been out with a boy...more

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May 02, 2012 Jlnpeacock rated it 1 of 5 stars

A book like this, in former days, was considered a trashy romance. It is on book club lists because Jackson is of the up and coming generation of writers, which only proves to me how far our values have sunk. There was a great deal of profanity and crudeness of language with an overwhelming emphasis on sex. It was highly anti-Christian. The author claims she is from the South, but it didn't stick. It seems her agenda is to portray Southerns in an unreal light; i.e., Dukes of Hazard and Hew Haw t...more

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Apr 02, 2012 Nicola rated it 4 of 5 stars

Reason for Reading: I love southern fiction and have had this author on my want-to-read list for some time now. I actually own one other of her books (I won it) but haven't read it yet and finally got around to reading her with this book. I just love the cover! I used to have a few gingham summer dresses as a kid.

I adored this book! What a beautiful, touching story. Set in Mississippi, each chapter is told from the point of view of one of the three women, each 15 years apart in age: Mosey is 14-...more

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Mar 29, 2012 Kim rated it 4 of 5 stars

Love Joshilyn Jackson books. This book centers around three women, a grandmother and mother who both had babies at age 15. Now that the baby is 15 their world turns upside down when the body of a baby is found in the backyard. Pick this up if you would like a book with strong women, a mystery, sass and wit.

A couple quotes just for fun:

Big: I could have put an ad up on the Craiglist and tried to get one of my own: "Desperately seeking lawyer. Must like long walks on the beach, not getting paid,...more

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Feb 19, 2012 Christa rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: ebook-arc

A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty was a very touching book about three females - Ginny, her daughter, Liza, and granddaughter, Mosey. These three characters found their way quickly into my heart, and this is a story that will stay with me. The three main characters are all flawed, yet very sympathetic. I was rooting for good things for the three of them.

Ginny, "Big," knows that every fifteen years holds a trying time for her. When she was fifteen, she had a baby. When that baby daughter, Liza, was fifte...more

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Feb 15, 2012 Mary Gramlich rated it 5 of 5 stars

A GROWN-UP KIND OF PRETTY by Joshilyn Jackson

Is the simplest answer always the right one?

Mosey has grown up in a house with her mother and grandmother, two women that have been scandalizing their Baptist community for 46 years. She is a great student, and a good kid but her family is one kind of obsessive about keeping her that way to the point of ridiculous. Mosey has no desire to be 14 and pregnant she has bigger goals set for herself if only the self-righteous would step aside.

She was born il...more

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Jan 29, 2012 Susan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: women-s-fiction

Every 15 years bad things happen to the Slocumb women. It started when Ginny got pregnant at 15, and continued when her daughter Liza also become a mom at 15 and ran away from home. Now that Liza's daughter Mosely is 15, things are already falling apart. Liza has suffered a stroke that has left her unable to speak. Ginny watches Mosely like a hawk, watching for signs that she is about to go wild. But when Ginny hires someone to cut down the willow tree in the back yard of their small Mississippi...more

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Mar 06, 2012 Cara rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fun-or-frivolity

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Dec 27, 2012 Candy rated it 4 of 5 stars

I should own up to being a big fan of this author before I even start to give you my opinion. I picked up this book when it came out but just got around to reading it. I was born and raised in South Carolina and I really do enjoy Southern Fiction - when it's done well. So many authors try too hard with the dialect and locations and just make all southerners sound like morons. I kind of think Joshilyn is actually FROM the south, so perhaps that's why she excels at capturing the spirit without mak...more

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Jul 05, 2012 Chris rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

Every 15 years, something bad happens to Ginny Slocumb. She got pregnant when she was 15 and her daughter, Liza, went and did the very same thing. Now, as her granddaughter, Mosey, approaches her 15th year, "Big" (as Mosey calls her) and Liza "Little" are determined to protect her from making their mistakes. Liza's wild personality is buried in the effects of a stroke, potentially caused by a drug habit, and Big is already overwhelmed, keeping Mosey safe and trying to reach through Liza's disabi...more

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Mar 19, 2012 Bridget rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorite-loved-it, favorite-authors, book-i-can-t-getenough-of

I really enjoyed this book. It was the old fashioned J. Jackson I'm used to. Love is binding no matter how it comes!

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Oct 08, 2012 Florinda rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I haven’t actually read a Joshilyn Jackson novel since her first, gods in Alabama (pre-blog), but I have a couple of them hanging around in TBR Purgatory. However, I recently decided to skip over them in favor of reading her latest, A Grown-up Kind of Pretty, in audiobook, as narrated by Jackson herself.

Jackson is a perfect reader for her own work. Her fiction's Southern voice is unmistakable, and her southern-accented speaking voice reinforces that. She tells the Slocumb women's story in three...more

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About Joshilyn Jackson

SHORT VERSION:

Jackson's latest novel, SOMEONE ELSE'S LOVE STORY, pubs on November 19, 2013!

New York Times Bestselling novelist Joshilyn Jackson is the author of six novels: gods in Alabama, Between, Georgia, The Girl Who Stopped Swimming, Backseat Saints, A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty, and most recently, SOMEONE ELSE'S LOVE STORY. Her books have been translated into a dozen languages, won SIBA’s nove...more SHORT VERSION:

Jackson's latest novel, SOMEONE ELSE'S LOVE STORY, pubs on November 19, 2013!

New York Times Bestselling novelist Joshilyn Jackson is the author of six novels: gods in Alabama, Between, Georgia, The Girl Who Stopped Swimming, Backseat Saints, A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty, and most recently, SOMEONE ELSE'S LOVE STORY. Her books have been translated into a dozen languages, won SIBA’s novel of the year, twice been a #1 Book Sense Pick, and twice been shortlisted for the Townsend prize. A former actor, Jackson reads the audio versions of her novels; her work in this field has been nominated for the Audie Award, was selected by AudioFile Magazine for their best of the year list, and garnered two Listen Up Awards from Publisher’s Weekly.

She is hard at work on a new novel expected in 2015.

She lives in Decatur, Georgia with her husband, their two children, and way too many feckless animals. She

LONG VERSION:

Joshilyn Jackson was born by the sugar white beaches of Florida’s Redneck Riviera and raised by a tribe of wild fundamentalists who taught her to be virtuous and upright. Unfortunately, it didn’t take, and Ms. Jackson dropped out of college to pursue a career as an actor. She worked in regional repertoire, wrote plays, and traveled the southern third of the country with a dinner theatre troupe.

She decided both virtue and an education were worth the work, so she went back to college to study English literature, focusing on Modern and Medieval Theater. She graduated with honors from Georgia State. She fell for the hometown guy who’d been her best friend since she was a teenager and followed him north, braving Chicago’s winters to marry him. She recovered from a near-terminal case of culture shock in time to earn her MA in English from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Jackson spent seven years in as a southern ex-pat in Illinois, working with various theatre groups as an actor and playwright and selling short fiction to literary magazines and anthologies such as Calyx and TriQuarterly. She also taught English at UIC, trying to explain the function of the gerund and why Waiting for Godot is a great play to crowds of hung-over 18 year olds. In her first year of teaching, she won the Student’s Choice Award for Best English Instructor.

Motherhood made her homesick, and in 1998 she moved back to the South to teach part time, raise kids full time, and try her hand at writing novels in her copious spare time (read: every day from 4 am ‘til the baby woke up.) She’s been a full time novelist since gods in Alabama sold at auction in 2005, but Jackson’s teaching experience and theatre background have both come in handy. She enjoys reading the audio versions of her novels, and she’s been on faculty of writing workshops all over the country and enjoys speaking at book festivals, libraries and literary events. She occasionally teaches a creative writing class, most recently at Vermont College of Fine Arts and Emory University.

She currently lives in Decatur with her husband Scott and their two kids, Sam and Maisy Jane. They share space with Bagel the hound dog, Ansley the small auxiliary dog, and Mango, a huge yellow tom. Their outsize aquarium has, over the years, hosted a pair of brother gerbils who turned out to be an incestuous brother-sister baby factory, tadpoles who turned out to be mosquito larvae, more tadpoles who turned out to be newt larvae, caterpillars who turned out to be verminous hairy tent worms, and an egg sack that recently hatched out several zillion cannibalizing mantises who are now living in the back garden. This crew is often supplemented by stray beasts of all stripes seeking permanent homes.(less)

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“I would take today's joy, and tomorrow's. I would take it with both hands, anywhere it came.” — 2 people liked it

“It was more like when I was little and used to run everywhere for the sheer fun of fast moving.” — 1 person liked it

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