false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1223649743m/5158.jpg 5158 15 <b>Oprah Book Club® Selection, October 1997</b>: Gibbons's novel, <I>A Virtuous Woman</I>, takes place in the same hardscrabble part of the world as <I>Ellen Foster</I>. The virtuous woman is Ruby Pitt Woodrow, a woman who might have ended up like Ellen Foster's mother if fate, in the shape of Jack Stokes, hadn't crossed her path. The daughter of prosperous farmers, Ruby runs off with a migrant worker who treats her badly, then abandons her far from home. When she meets Jack, a man 20 years her senior, she's working as a cleaning woman in another prosperous farmer's house. Jack is a man women don't look at even once, let alone twice; Ruby is a woman who needs someone to take care of her. Out of this unlikely union grows a quiet kind of love that is no less powerful for being unstated. <p> <I>Ellen Foster</I> and <I>A Virtuous Woman</I> share more than just location and a few characters in common. Though each is a complete novel in and of itself, taken together the two books resonate one another: Ellen Foster and Ruby Pitt Woodrow are both damaged people who find the kind of love they need to heal. These multilayered novels are tough-minded and resolutely unsentimental, just like their protagonists. Yet like Ellen and Ruby, each contains a nut of sweetness at its core that takes the bitter edge off the hard lives and hard stories Kaye Gibbons has to tell. 3166 1989 A Virtuous Woman (Oprah's Book Club) total:1768|5:227|4:562|3:699|2:237|1:43| 1768 5997 2347 163 1 1 false false Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Apr 19 21:30:25 -0700 2008 Sat Apr 19 21:44:06 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 1 false false Sun Sep 14 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Sep 12 06:37:55 -0700 2008 Mon Sep 15 08:32:04 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Mon Apr 11 00:00:00 -0700 2005 Sat Jul 25 07:24:16 -0700 2009 Sat Jul 25 07:25:01 -0700 2009 Once more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Oct 27 15:17:48 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 27 15:17:48 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Mon Oct 08 12:43:50 -0700 2007 Tue Dec 04 15:12:39 -0800 2007 5 1 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1989 Sun Jul 27 18:20:25 -0700 2008 Sun Oct 12 14:52:29 -0700 2008 2 1 0 false false Mon Nov 10 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Nov 04 15:43:44 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 15 16:08:31 -0800 2008 once & never again more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Aug 09 19:36:49 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 09 19:41:11 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Jun 16 17:49:22 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 16 15:30:05 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 16 17:49:22 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Jan 25 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Dec 17 16:12:30 -0800 2008 Sun Jan 25 18:53:45 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Jan 03 17:16:49 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 22 13:34:18 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2005 Mon Oct 05 17:35:45 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 08 21:28:06 -0700 2009 The male narrator had an accent and used many swearing words, it didn't affect me ...more...]]> 5 1 false false Thu Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2001 Thu Jan 01 23:51:12 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 01 23:55:22 -0800 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Sat Nov 05 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Thu Aug 06 08:04:48 -0700 2009 Thu Aug 06 08:05:26 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Dec 17 10:53:52 -0800 2008 Wed Dec 17 10:54:05 -0800 2008
...more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Jan 06 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 04 17:43:06 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 06 10:57:23 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Mar 28 08:36:08 -0700 2009 Sat Mar 28 08:40:31 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1998 Sun Aug 30 12:06:56 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 30 12:07:14 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Oct 10 14:14:25 -0700 2008 Fri Oct 10 14:14:28 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Sep 27 22:12:21 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 27 22:13:38 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=5158