Jo's comments (member since Feb 28, 2008)

Jo's comments from the Southern Lit Lovers group.

Monica wrote: "I think the 60s or 70s is a good guess. I like how the time period is kind of a mystery. I love the simplicity of the story and how it's written. It makes me want to visit Alabama! :) "

I like it too, helps the story to remain timeless.

What will y'all be doing for the holidays this year? What are some of your favorite traditions and yummy things to make?

Welcome Kristina! Hope you can join us for A Redbird Christmas!

Hotel burned in 1911. I was debating between the 60's and the early 70's, the market having been run for 50 years by Roy's uncle before he inherited it from him.

For some reason the book keeps making me tear up every so often as I read!

Welcome Kristina! Can't wait to see your blog!

Dee your blog is Gorgeous! And I love your "Firmly rooted in the Oklahoma soil." Firmly rooted. Something I have been looking to be for so long now. I'm adding you to my blog roll!

(These are from LitLovers.com)

~ Describe Oswald Campbell at the beginning of the story. How did he come by his name...and how might his naming incident be symbolic of the life he has led (so far)?

~ Fannie Flagg seems to be having fun with names in this novel: not just Oswald's name, but also the name of Lost River. In what way do many of its residents fit the name of the town? What have some of them lost...or missed out on...?

~ Who are your favorites among the cast of characters and why—Betty Kitchen, Roy Grimmitt, Frances Cleverdon, Claude Underwood, Mildred, Dottie ...? (Exclude Jack or Patsy; we'll get to them next.)

~ Jack, the redbird...do you love him? How does he "serve" the community? In what way does he foreshadow what happens to both Patsy and Oswald?

~ Talk about Patsy and her plight. Why is she so drawn to Jack? And why is Lost River so drawn to her?

~ Healing is a central motif in this novel. Who gets healed in this book—and it what ways? And, more importantly, what enables healing to occur? What is Flagg suggesting about the power of community?

~ Can you relate the sense of community in A Redbird Christmas to where you live? What are the attractions, or drawbacks, of a tightly-knit group of people? What other types of community are there? In other words, what do we mean by "community"... what makes a community?

~ Why is this book and its title centered around the Christmas holiday?

~ Talk about the ways in which this book might be considered a fable, as well as a novel?

~ Do you find this book satisfying—is it what you hoped for? Is it too sweet, or saccharine, for your taste? Or is it just right—its sweetness cut by Fannie Flagg's wit? If you've read other works by Flagg, how does this one compare?

That's a great question Curtiss! I've been debating that in my mind as well & haven't yet decided.

I want to mention, I love Cardinals. Every Winter I watch them (males & females) come to the feeders I have in the back yard (along with dozens of other kinds of birds) and it still amazes me the pure & simple joy I get from seeing them. They are such beauties when there's an absence of color here during our winters. As a result, I'm given things with Cardinals on it as gifts now which I enjoy (since it hasn't gotten out of hand yet which it can sometimes when people know you like something yet don't veer from it ever when gifting, lol!).

I'm posting discussion questions in a separate thread so we can keep chatting here as we've been.

I'm so glad you're liking it! Me too! (Though at first I was a wee bit iffy about it). Seems right up my alley now!

Everyone reading feel free to post your initial thoughts here. I've got questions for discussion coming soon!

Welcome to Dee, Lara, Vanessa, Amy and anyone I may have missed!

I hope many of you will join us for our current group read, "A Redbird Christmas" by Fannie Flagg.

Hi Kat! Welcome! So glad you've joined us and look forward to seeing more of you here! (We're reading "A Redbird Christmas" By Fannie Flagg for our December group read).

I am SO sorry I've dropped the ball here, but I'm getting back on track as we speak. Things have been a bit difficult on the family home front as of late and there hasn't been time for much else (along with NaNo in November and decorating for Christmas once December started).

It does seem very sweet. Hope you'll be able to join us Monica!

Welcome to our December group read, A Redbird Christmas by Fannie Flagg!

There are 22 short chapters in the book, so our reading schedule will be as follows:
~December 1-December 8:
The Windy City thru Dinner at Eight

~December 9-December 15:
The Christmas Dinner thru An Awakening

~December 16-December 22:
A Visit thru Leaving Home

~December 23-December 29:
The Big City thru Epilogue
(& Recipes if you'd like)

If we have to take a little bit longer for reading & discussing with Christmas and New Year's rapidly approaching, that's more than fine with me!

Here's a link to a discussion author Fannie Flagg had with BookReporter.com about A Redbird Christmas: http://www.bookreporter.com/authors/au-f... as well as her site at Random House: http://www.randomhouse.com/features/fann... and here's some great info about her as well at LitLovers.com http://www.litlovers.com/guide_redbird_c...

Our December group read will be... (Drumroll) A Redbird Christmas by Fannie Flagg! Discussion will be lead by yours truly to begin on or about December 1st. Hope y'all will join me! Have a wonderful & Happy Thanksgiving!

One part laughter. Two parts love. Mix together and enjoy!

Christmas has come to Valentine, Oklahoma and everybody's got a special wish . . . For thirteen-year-old Corrine, it's really about keeping what she has: a happy life with her aunt Marilee and Papa Tate; her beloved horses; and an almost boyfriend, Ricky Dale. Now is not the time for the mother who abandoned her to come back into her life.

Anita, though, is determine. She is coming home for Christmas to fix the mistakes she's made. Despite some bad times and the bridges she's burned, Anita loves her daughter, and she is desperately hoping a bit of Christmas magic will help Corrine decide to love and trust her again.

As for Marilee, she loves Corrine like her own, and fears losing the girl to a beautiful, irresponsible mother who might just break her daughters heart all over again. As always, Anita's arrival fans old flames of anger and stubbornness between the two sisters. Then again, it is a season of miracles. And if one tiny miracle could find its way to Valentine this year, then everybody might just get the most perfect gift of all.


A journey home to the heart . . .

Lacey Bryant is the ever-hopeful waitress at Gerald's Truckstop Restaurant in Albuquerque, New Mexico, a spot that is clear across the country from her home and family in North Carolina. It has been eleven years since Lacey, pregnant and unmarried, ran away from her angry father. Now she wants to go home again. A single mother struggling to raise her own children, she longs for her father's forgiveness, her mother's sweet embrace and to share with her aging parents the grandchildren they have never seen.

Cooper is every inch a Scrooge who wants no part of traveling across country with two children, but he has promised to help out a friend, and so he loads Lacey and her brood into his eighteen-wheeler and carries them along with him on his trip down Interstate 40. As the miles roll under the big truck's wheels, it turns out to be Lacey and her children who are bringing Cooper along with them, on a journey that takes them home to the heart.

In this revised edition of a Curtiss Ann Matlock classic, readers are treated once again to a cast of lovable characters in a magical romance as sweet and tender as a Christmas cookie.


With the same incomparable style and warm, inviting voice that have made her beloved by millions of readers far and wide, New York Times bestselling author Fannie Flagg has written an enchanting Christmas story of faith and hope for all ages that is sure to become a classic.
Deep in the southernmost part of Alabama, along the banks of a lazy winding river, lies the sleepy little community known as Lost River, a place that time itself seems to have forgotten. After a startling diagnosis from his doctor, Oswald T. Campbell leaves behind the cold and damp of the oncoming Chicago winter to spend what he believes will be his last Christmas in the warm and welcoming town of Lost River. There he meets the postman who delivers mail by boat, the store owner who nurses a broken heart, the ladies of the Mystic Order of the Royal Polka Dots Secret Society, who do clandestine good works. And he meets a little redbird named Jack, who is at the center of this tale of a magical Christmas when something so amazing happened that those who witnessed it have never forgotten it. Once you experience the wonder, you too will never forget A Redbird Christmas.


(A Plantation Christmas: No description available and doesn't appear to be currently in print - I went beyond GoodReads and Googled it to no avail).


Robert is a successful attorney who has everything in life-and nothing at all.Focussed on professional achievement and material rewards, Robert is on the brink of losing his marriage.He has lost sight of his wife, Kate, their two daughters, and ultimately himself.Eight year old Nathan has a beloved mother, Maggie, whom he is losing to cancer.But Nathan and his family are building a simple yet full life, and struggling to hold onto every moment they have together.A chance meeting on Christmas Even brings Robert and Nathan together-he is shopping for a family he hardly knows and Nathan is shopping for a mother he is soon to lose.In this one encounter, their lives are forever altered as Robert learns an important lesson:sometimes the smallest things can make all the difference.The Christmas Shoes is a universal story of the deeper meaning of serendipity, a tale of our shared humanity, and of how a power greater than ourselves can shape, and even save, our lives.AUTHORBIO: Donna VanLiere is an actress and speaker, and the author of Sheltering Trees:The Power, Promise, and Refuge of Friendship and They Walked With Him.She lives with her husband, Troy, in Nashville, TN, where they are expecting their first child any day now: Gracie, from China.


What would make your Christmas perfect?

For Cassie Beaumont, it's meeting her perfect match. Cassie, at thirty-three, wants a husband and kids, and so far, nothing's worked. Not blind dates, not the Internet and certainly not leaving love to chance.

What's left? A professional matchmaker. He's Simon Dodson, and he's very choosy about the clients he takes on. Cassie finds Simon a di[fb03:] cult, acerbic know-it-all, and she's astonished when he accepts her as a client.

Claiming he has her perfect mate in mind, Simon assigns her three tasks to complete before she meets him. Three tasks that are all about Christmas: being a charity bell ringer, dressing up as Santa's elf at a children's party and preparing a traditional turkey dinner for her neighbors (whom she happens to dislike). Despite a number of comical mishaps, Cassie does it all—and she's finally ready to meet her match.

But just like the perfect Christmas gift, he turns out to be a wonderful surprise!

Curtiss wrote: "Jo--Of course I'm thrilled that you've nominated two of my books! And you nominated a book I would have nominated: 'A Redbird Christmas'.

Jo wrote: "Here are my nominations (in keeping with the ho..."

They were the first ones that came to mind! :~)

***The Poll is up! Vote for 1 book. Poll Closes Friday!***

Book Descriptions in following post:

Just a quick note to say ~ Sorry I've dropped the ball a bit over here! NaNoWriMo, (http://www.nanowrimo.org) a complicated family drama & not always feeling too well has had me busy busy busy! I'm catching up and promise to be around more as of this week.

I've gotten some reading done recently which is good but I feel like I'm faltering with my writing. (My NaNo'ing doesn't count - I'm writing completely blind for that now). But I have a feeling this is either a normal dry spell or as a result of our family stress. (Or I'm losing more of what's left of my mind again, lol!)

How are y'all doing? I hope things are well for my SLL's.

Love,
~Jo

Thanksgiving is in 8 days. Eight Days! Where has 2009 gone?!

We're growing by leaps & bounds it seems! I'd like to take a quick moment to Welcome all new members! I look forward to getting to know y'all better here. Please feel free to jump in on past threads and start new ones of your own!

Here are my nominations (in keeping with the holidays):

Recipes For Easy Living

Miracle On I-40

A Redbird Christmas A Novel

Post your nomination (if you have one) by Wed., 11/18/09 so I can create a poll for us to vote on.

Please only list nominations here and do not cast your vote or 2nd a book here - wait for the poll. Also, if your book is chosen, please be prepared to lead the read. (I will help you if you haven't done so before!) Thanks so much!