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Saturday, March 31, 2012

Celebrating Women's History Month with a Book Review & a Giveaway: "Southern Fried Women" by Pamela King Cable

I am excited to share with you my first book review for the readers of The Southern Fried Bride. My first book review is a wonderful piece of Southern literature from a visionary female author. It is probably no surprise that I am a fan of Southern literature. March is "Women's History Month" and I believe in the spirit of celebrating women's history all through the year. I have the honor of living in the vicinity of Seneca Falls, New York, location of the First Women’s Rights Convention, held in 1848 (did you know this is also the model town for the movie, "It's a Wonderful Life"?) and home to the Women's Rights National Historical Park with its wealth of information on women's history.

I was so excited to receive a copy of the book "Southern Fried Women" by Pamela King Cable to review for you. I believe with a book title like that, it was surely meant to be for The Southern Fried Bride to review it!

Living in New York now, I dearly miss the "Southern breeze" that I believe comes with the geographic region of the South, blowing about the distinct hospitality and the distinct personalities that abound in this region. I believe these are among the characteristics at the heart of a Southern voice, and I believe Pamela King Cable is a delightful Southern voice. The author herself is an example of a woman following her heart, ending a medical career spanning 20 years to fulfill her dream as a full-time writer and speaker. I was delighted to find out this book is being taught as part of Southern Studies in some high school classrooms.

In "Southern Fried Women", she weaves a collection of short stories set in the South together to transport the reader to balmy, slower days of a Southern yesteryear, set in several different timeperiods. The subjects run the gamut of emotions. You'll find stories invoking everything from love, faith, innocence and forgiveness to guilt, racial conflict, tragedy and death. At the forefront of each of the stories is the theme portraying the strength of Southern women and by the time to turn the last page, you will have seen a menagerie of Southern women emerging as survivors.   

Beautiful sepia-tone pictures included with the short stories and an eye-catching vintage-style book cover, add to the experience of reading this book.

The characters she gives life to through her hearty storytelling are classic Southern personalities come alive through who will resonate with many readers. The names alone invoke such a reminiscent feeling. Names such as Gideon, Thirl, Aunt Sye, Noah and of course, since this is the South we are talking about, there has to be a Reverend. You will find many of the characters' faith in God at the forefront of the stories.

I smiled with delight when I read the name of one of the communities: Needmore, North Carolina. My late Grandma Cleva grew up in the Needmore community in rural Cherokee County, Oklahoma and this name immediately invoked my memories of sitting on Granma's knee as she told me stories of her childhood growing up in the Needmore community. As I read this particular short story, I immediately began to see so many similarities between the two communities of the same name.

Each of the short stories was a wonderful literary journey, but the standout story to me personally, was  "Beach Babies", which in her true writing style, invokes so many emotions within the confines of the story. The story involves Pentecostal raising and two young women with independent spirits. I began laughing heartily when reading the first paragraph of the story. During the course of the story, I was full-on crying at the beautifully written story.

I highly recommend this book as a Southern journey of the senses. "Southern Fried Women" is also an ebook available on Amazon for Kindle, iTunes and Barnes and Noble.

In celebration of March as "Women's History Month", one of you will WIN your own copy of this wonderful book!

To enter, all you need to do is leave a comment below and tell me, in celebration of "Women's History Month", a woman you admire. Entries will close on Monday, April 2 at 11:59 pm EST. Winner will be announced on Tuesday, April 4 at 8:00 am EST. Winner must contact me within 48 hours or another winner will be chosen. Good luck!

FTC Disclaimer: I received a copy of the book "Southern Fried Women" for the purpose of reviewing in my honest opinion. I also was provided with a copy of the book to give away to one of my readers. All opinions expressed in this blog post are my own.

7 comments:

  1. I admire my Mother in honor of this month! She is a two-time cancer survivor, mother of 4, has earned her doctorate, and now that my father has been unemployed for almost 2 years she's working her tush off with overtime every week so she can try to keep things normal in the family and even help my siste with her wedding (as much as she can).
    Yay for the most important woman in our lives and the best month ever ;)

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  2. Sounds like a great read!
    The woman I admire most is my dear "MaMa" (my maternal grandmother). MaMa grew up on a farm during the Great Depression. She married her sweetheart in October and then sent him off to WWII with all her love in April. When he returned they had their family and built their lives together. She cared for his older sister in her final years, then cared for PaPa when his health failed him. When my own husband went off to war she was my greatest prayer warrior, my encouragement, and a shoulder to lean on. She battled and defeated breast cancer in her 80s, but now a stroke followed by a series of seizures has made her a shell of her former self. Sometimes her spark shows up, and she will always be my hero.

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    1. Congratulations Jamie! You're entry number was chosen as the winner. What a wonderful story about your maternal grandmother you shared that invokes memories of my own maternal grandmother! How blessed we both were with amazing maternal grandmothers!

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  3. In honor of Women's History Month, I would like to share a bit about my paternal Grandmother (91yrs), a woman I admire and deeply appreciate. She is truly the best person I have ever met. She puts everyone else first and herself last. There were 7 of us Grandkids born very close together but her gift is loving everyone differently, but equally. Of all the things we fought about, and there were a bunch, we never had to fight over Granny for her time, attention or love. It's still that way now, though we are all in our 40s. She is the epitome of a Southern Lady and I'm proud to call her Granny.
    Lynne Killingsworth

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  4. Thank you, Angela, for your wonderful review! I'm so happy you enjoyed the book! I hear your love for all things southern in your voice. Bless your heart.

    Pamela King Cable

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  5. I admire my grandmother so much. She has made a career out of what she loves and is always finding new experiences to try. She has raised two beautiful children, one of which is my mother. She has instilled the values of hard work and creativity. She is the epitome of a Southern woman.

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  6. You ladies made me cry with your wonderful and heartfelt stories of the special women in your life, all of whom invoked memories of my own late mother and late maternal grandmother. The random number generator chose Jamie from "Him, Me and our Three" as the winner. Congratulations Jamie! Please e-mail me your mailing address at angelaskitchen@rocketmail.com

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