Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living — Bailey White

I was look­ing for some­thing more recent by White but she doesn’t seem to have done any­thing oth­er than a christ­masy book since her hey­day in the late 90’s. So I reread this because every­one needs to have an aunt who teach­es an alli­ga­tor to bel­low on com­mand and a moth­er who… well Ms. White is a force of nature but often that nature is most­ly with­out ref­er­ence to mod­ern mores and con­ven­tions. Continue read­ing “Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living — Bailey White”

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe — Fanny Flagg

(pub. 2002)
A mix of the con­tem­po­rary inter­views, in the moment sto­ry telling, and lit­tle bits from news­pa­pers make an inter­est­ing way of telling a story.
Much of the sto­ry is nar­rat­ed by Ninny Threadgoode — a woman who mar­ried in the to the Threadgoode fam­i­ly. She’s not exact­ly an unre­li­able nar­ra­tor but she has her own per­spec­tive on things. Other parts of the book are told in the present tense as the action hap­pens over the course of the years. Continue read­ing “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe — Fanny Flagg”

Pachinko — Min Jin Lee

(pub. 2017)
The game of pachinko is lit­tle like pin­ball and lit­tle like a slot machine. You don’t need to know much more about the game oth­er than to under­stand that the machines are manip­u­lat­ed in much the same way the slot machines are pro­grammed. To favor the house at all times but to allow enough win­ning to make the thing addic­tive. There is always hope. Continue read­ing “Pachinko — Min Jin Lee”