P is for Pearson

I knew there would be some tough choices to be made when I started this project. I knew some letters wouldn't have as many authors as others. I'm still not to the really dreaded letters of Q and Z, but I'm getting there. I thought there would be more choices for the letter P than there were, but I'm oh, so glad I had this choice. Our P novel hits close to home, I mean really close to home. "A Short History of a Small Place" is a novel by Winston-Salem native T.R. Pearson.

In this novel, Pearson takes us to the fictional town of Neely, North Carolina. Ok, Neely is about as close to Reidsville, where I live, as you can get. He talks about the ice house, which has now been torn down, he speaks of Scales Street and Lawsonville Avenue. He even mentions from time to time the statue in the square. While other parts are truly fictional, you can see that Mr. Pearson modeled Neely, at least loosely, on Reidsville. This made the story more vivid for me. Now, if you don't live here and have never visited Reidsville, it wouldn't clear things up any for you, but believe me, it's kind of cool. Let's get to the story, which is very entertaining.

"A Short Story of a Small Place" is narrated by young Louis Benfield, but it's the story of the life and death of town socialite and eventual eccentric Miss Myra Angelique Pettigrew. We learn about Miss Pettigrew from watching her through the iron fence that surrounds her yard. Young Louis is not alone in watching Miss Pettigrew's life through the fence. He is joined frequently by his father, Louis, Sr., who is allowed by young Louis's mother to smoke, but not carry matches. He is also joined by other interesting and sometimes hilarious characters like litigation happy Pinky Throckmorton, Casper Epps, the plumber turned preacher and Mrs. Phillip J. King who knew everything about everyone in Neely. Of course every good story needs a monkey, right? Well, this one has one. Miss Pettigrew has a companion in Mr. Britches, a monkey who takes pleasure in shimmying up the front yard flag pole to relieve himself on the bushes and sometimes people below. This is the story of a small, southern town and its quirky, sometimes downright strange residents.

You'll laugh at the antics of the Neelyites while also thinking that you probably know someone just like many of them. Pearson has written a wonderfully entertaining book. Even if you've never visited Reidsville and don't know the Bypass from the Boulevard, you'll get a kick out of the residents of Neely and the wonderful tale spun by T.R. Pearson.

D is for Duncan, Pamela

I decided to go with the no research approach to picking my D book. I had realized after researching for B and C that my little library didn't have all of the books I'd picked, so I might as well see what they had before making my decisions. So off I went to pick up D.

When I got to the stacks, I noticed that D was just on the end of one row. That kind of surprised me. D doesn't seem like a letter that would not be popular for last names. Apparently, there is not an overabundance of fiction authors with a last name starting with D. So, I walked down the row and began looking for a D book. Since I did no research at all, I figured it would take a little while. I started by looking for catchy titles. Of course, I stopped for a bit when I got to the Di's. There in front of me was a shelf of Charles Dickens novels. I seriously considered going with Dickens on this one. I love Dickens. Then I got to thinking about it and realized that I had 52 weeks to read 26 books and I was running a bit behind. Dickens would take a while to digest, so I said farewell and moved on.

When I got toward the end of the D's, I started getting worried. I had nothing in my hand and not many looked like I might go back for a second look. I'm trying to stay away from series because it's going to be so long before I can get back to them and while I'm venturing into some unknown reading territory for me, I'm not quite ready to venture into the land of science fiction. These restraints do make things a bit more difficult in a small category.

My library does something I really appreciate. If an author is from North Carolina, they put a little NC sticker on the spine of the book. I like to read local or regional authors and this little sticker makes that so much easier. I tell you that to lead you to my D book. I was nearly at the end of the D's and saw an NC sticker on a couple of novels. One title caught my eye. I picked it up and read the synopsis. Hmm, not bad. I just wasn't sure about it though, so I kept looking. I finished all the D's and started over, going back to front this time. Still nothing, so I returned to the book I'd seen.

"Moon Women" was the title and it was written by North Carolina native Pamela Duncan. Honestly, I wasn't sure I was going to like this book at all. It sounded kind of like something maybe I'd read before or seen in a movie. I really wanted to give it a chance though since the author was from NC.

I started "Moon Women" that evening and after reading the first couple of pages, I was ready to throw the book through the window. I hated it. I'm not the grammar police, but I am an honorary deputy and this book is written in the vernacular of uneducated and undereducated rural North Carolinians. Yeah, it sounded like I was standing in the middle of Food Lion listening to a conversation. I have determined in this journey that I am going to finish every book I check out, so I read on. I still cringed at the grammar, but I started liking the characters.

"Moon Women" is at it's core a story of three generations of women from the western part of North Carolina. Ruth Ann Moon Payne is a daughter, mother, sister, grandmother and recent divorcee. She's a nervous woman who worries about her elderly mother Marvelle and her 19-year-old daughter Ashley who is just about ready to get out of rehab. While Ruth Ann is the central character in the novel, she is not in any way the only primary character. Marvelle Moon is an amazing old woman. She's the mother of 12 children, not all of whom made it to adulthood. She's a strong woman, but is now in the early stages of dementia. Ashley is the wild child. She'd run away and hadn't been heard from in years until she landed herself in rehab. Now, she needs a place to live and start over. She also needs to decide what to do about the young man who got her pregnant and about the baby now growing inside her. How will Ruth Ann deal with the added stress of a pregnant teenage daughter and an elderly mother who now walks away from home and gets lost?

"Moon Women" struck a special chord with me. As the daughter, granddaughter and great-granddaughter of strong Southern women, I identified with many of the characters. I still wanted to correct their grammar, but I really fell in love with the Moon women.

Throughout the novel, Marvelle takes us on a journey through her long life. I had to wonder if that's the way things were for my great-grandmother, raising 11 children in the early decades of the 1900's. Marvelle didn't have an easy life. She lost babies, she saw tragedies, but she persevered. She was strong and raised strong daughters.

I heartily recommend "Moon Women" to any woman, but especially to Southern women who will identify with the hardships and victories seen by Marvelle, Ruth Ann, Ashley and the other members of the Moon clan. When this year long journey is finished, I will read more from Pamela Duncan.

When you are browsing books in your local library, I recommend you check into local or regional authors. They may not be best selling books, but you might connect more closely to them. Today, I head back to the library to return "Moon Women" and to check out my E and F novels.

Read on!