Recommended Reading

[Barbara]

Additional Recommended Reading

On Grandma's Porch
Sandra Chastain, Bert Goolsby, Maureen Hardegree, Debra Leigh Smith, Debra L. Smith
Seventeen Southern writers (including Sarah Addison Allen) contributed to this anthology of stories and true facts about growing up southern in the gold old days.

More Sweet Tea
Deborah Smith, Sandra Chastain, Debra Dixon, Virginia Ellis, Sandra Chastain
Sarah Addison Allen also contributed to this collection of warm and fun stories based on deep southern culture.

Practical Magic
Alice Hoffman
Practical Magic is a tale of two sisters, Gillian and Sally Owens, brought up by their two aunts in a world of spells and exotica from which they eventually escape - one by running away, the other by marrying - but which never escapes from them. Many years go by before strange circumstances bring them together, and again they are in a world that blends the mundane and the mysterious, the familiar and the fantastic, the normal and the numinous. Three generations of Owens women are then united in an experience of unexpected insight and revelation, teaching all of them that the perceptions provided by what is called the magical are rare and wonderful endowments.

Second Nature
Alice Hoffman
A New York Times bestseller, Second Nature tells the story of a suburban woman, Robin Moore, who discovers her own free spirit through a stranger she brings home to her perfectly ordered neighborhood. As Robin impulsively draws this beautiful, uncivilized man into her world - meanwhile coping with divorce and a troubled teenage son - she begins to question her wisdom and doubt her own heart, and ultimately she changes her ideas about love and humanity.

The Edge of Winter
Luanne Rice
Neve Halloran and her daughter have shared a fierce love for the austere beauty of Rhode Island's South County ever since Mickey was a baby. Now, with Mickey a teenager and Neve's last hope for happiness with her daughter's loving but unstable father gone, both will struggle to make a new life together amid the windswept landscape that sustains them. Captivated by a fragile wildlife sanctuary, Mickey will move toward womanhood in the company of a lonely boy who shares her instinctive way with the creatures of the coast. And Neve will find herself drawn to a man who has devoted his life to the sanctuary, but who is unable to share the pain of a recent loss.

The Shop On Blossom Street
Debbie Macomber
There's a little yarn shop on Blossom Street in Seattle. For owner Lydia Hoffman, the shop represents her dream of a new life free from cancer. Lydia teaches knitting to beginners, and in the first class three women join. These four very different women, brought together by an age-old craft, make unexpected discoveries - about themselves and each other. Discoveries that lead to friendship and more.

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
Rebecca Wells
A powerfully literate yet thoroughly engaging and accessible novel, this story of a close-knit society of southern women has become a modern cult classic bolstered by author Rebecca Wells's abiltity to transcend standard-issue chick lit with bold and unique characters and a tale that digs deeply into the complex bonds of family.

[shnello]

Thanks for sharing this list, Barbara! And I can't wait to reread Sarah's "Garden Spells" and to read her upcoming books!