I really enjoy Karen White‘s writing. Her writing has a way of making you feel you‘re there with her characters. In this series her protagonist Mellie can be annoying, but is mellowed by the other characters. White does a great job of establishing a sense of place in her stories, and I love the southernness of her stories. Her books are quick reads, and they include romantic elements without being over the top. I typically shy away from romances.

I really enjoyed this book. We‘re going to use it this coming school year in sophomore ELA. I think it‘s ripe for discussion with a research component. It was insightful and objective.

“Human knowledge is never contained in one person. It grows from the relationships we create between each other and the world, and still it is never complete. And Truth comes somewhere above all of them....”

“None of our brains can be trusted to accurately measure the value of anyone, much less ourselves.”

“Any librarian or scholar will tell you: close is not the same as accurate.”

“Grief is not an event, my dear, but a passage, a pilgrimage along a path that allows us to reflect upon the past from points of remembrance held in the soul. At times the way is filled with stones underfoot and we feel pained by our memories, yet on other days the shadows reflect our longing and those happinesses shared.”
-Dame Constance-

“There is a hideous invention called the Dewey Decimal System. And you have to look up your topic in books and newspapers. Pages upon pages upon pages...”

Uncle Will frowned. “Didn‘t they teach how to go about research in that school of yours?”

“No. But I can recite ‘The Battle Hymn of the Republic‘ while making martinis.”

“I weep for the future.”

“That‘s where the martinis come in.”