Biscuits and Gravy

Image from Amazon.com, here.

I just finished 'These is My Words' by Nancy E. Turner, a couple of weeks ago for my book club. Which, if you don't belong to a book club and you love to read but have a hard time making time to do it. What happened with me is that a few of the Mom's from Joe's football team and I were talking about how much we always wanted to be on a book club, but we didn't have time to read a book in just a couple of weeks or even just a month. So, we started our own. We meet every two months, and each month the hostess chooses what book for us to read and a restaurant for us to meet at. We decided on a restaurant, again to make it easier on us. We didn't want to put added pressure on the hostess to have to clean their house and make food, etc. So now we enjoy a breakfast, brunch, lunch, or even dinner out, and chatting with friends. It's been so much fun, and I have read books that I would never have read otherwise. It doesn't have to be a chore to read!

On to 'These is My Words'. I admit, at the beginning I wasn't really into the book, but as it went on, I had a hard time putting it down. I have included the editorial review from Amazon.com here:

"Based on the real-life exploits of the author's great-grandmother, this fictionalized diary vividly details one woman's struggles with life and love in frontier Arizona at the end of the last century. When she begins recording her life, Sarah Prine is an intelligent, headstrong 18-year-old capable of holding her own on her family's settlement near Tucson. Her skill with a rifle fends off a constant barrage of Indian attacks and outlaw assaults. It also attracts a handsome Army captain named Jack Elliot. By the time she's 21, Sarah has recorded her loveless marriage to a family friend, the establishment of a profitable ranch, the birth of her first child?and the death of her husband. The love between Jack and Sarah, which dominates the rest of the tale, has begun to blossom. Fragmented and disjointed in its early chapters, with poor spelling and grammar, Sarah's journal gradually gains in clarity and eloquence as she matures. While this device may frustrate some readers at first, Taylor's deft progression produces the intended reward: she not only tells of her heroine's growth, but she shows it through Sarah's writing and insights. The result is a compelling portrait of an enduring love, the rough old West and a memorable pioneer. First serial to Good Housekeeping; author tour; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club selections. (Feb.) FYI: Selected as the March 1998 Good Housekeeping "Novel of the Month."

Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title."

I hope you give it a try.