Goodreads.com 2018 Reading Challenge Book 24/40 Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen.

I lived the Southwestern part of Virginia for 10 years of my adult life.  I absolutely love what American literature categorizes as “local color” that is still exhibited among Southern people, towns, and communities.  Upon leaving the South I took up reading the Fannie Flagg fiction novels just to remind me of those Southern days.  After reviewing a Fannie Flagg novel, Goodreads.com sent me an email suggestion that I take a look at author--Susan Gregg Gilmore.  By such good luck, I found Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen, Susan Gregg Gilmore's first novel.  Just the title that hinted a possibility of salvation at a Dairy Queen sparked my interest.  However, this novel demonstrated the comfortable joy of reading fiction novels set in the South that is more addictive than a Blizzard. There is no doubt that this novel fit that "comfortable joy" category for me. 

Plot synopsis but no spoilers:

So without spoilers (and there are a couple of shockers in this novel that you do not see coming) here is a quick synopsis:

The story is set in small town Georgia.  The narrator, Catherine Grace, is the older of two daughters of the town preacher.  Their mother died in a drowning accident when the girls were 6 and 2.  They have lived their entire childhood under the scrutiny that comes with being a preacher's child, but they cast their dreams far and away while eating Dilly Bars at the town Dairy Queen every Saturday afternoon.  The novel follows these two girls through school with the charmingly typical things that girls do included.  Catherine Grace graduates from high school and pursues her one dream of escaping a small town and making her mark in a big city.  She chooses to stay in the South and off she goes in a Greyhound bus to make that dream come true in a Big Southern City.  Her sister, Martha Ann, chooses to stay close to home and although she voiced an interest in dreaming like her older sister, once Catherine Grace leaves, Martha Ann pulls back and sticks where she feels much safer, and that is in the embrace of family and community in their town of Ringgold, Georgia.

A few Southern lessons:

Any non-Southern readers may benefit by a few lessons I learned while living in Virginia (and these lessons are all included throughout this novel.) 

1.  People in the South talk gently--so they have many wonderful sayings that communicate exactly what they are fixin' to tell you.  You will find some of those sayings in this novel--and you will love them.  

2.  There are two powerful forces in Southern towns and intrinsically in Southern people:  Family first and Community second.  No matter how far one travels from Southern roots, the roots will pull back and that pull never stops.  The "pull" is a strong element throughout Catherine Grace's dream, her move after high school and how she lives out her dream.

3.  Southern communities do not particularly like secrets.  If a member of the community tries to keep a secret, shame or no shame, he or she runs the risk of being villified as Southerners are story-tellers and they will fill in the blanks. But instead of secrecy there is transparency, the member is accepted, assisted and embraced in the community without a single objection.  Yes, Southerners prefer to be in the know and part of the action. 

4.  Once is never enough for Southerners.  The answer to every problem is to visit, and bring a casserole.  Not just once, but three or four times or until the next problem occurs and the casseroles move on to someone else.  These casseroles are a little high in calories, but they are so, so good.  There are several casserole events in this novel.  Don't miss them.

5.  Religion is very important to the Southern communities--it is how they come together and stay together.  One look at the Blue Ridge Mountains, I was sold.  It is truly God's Country.

Susan Gregg Gilmore writes with humor, strong story plot, lots of surprises, includes characters found in every Southern town and an obvious effort to extend the local color of the Southern life to a new generation of readers.  I recommend this book to any reader who wants to get comfortable and relax with a good book, not just at the beach but in any season. 

Favorite quote in the book: 

Chapter 2 when Catherine Grace and Martha Ann are talking about their memories of their mother, (which are few, since they were so young when their mother drowned):

     "It's funny how you can take just one memory of someone and create a lifetime of feelings and attachments."

Not a complaint--just distraction:

If I had one thing that distracted me while reading this book it is the name of the narrator--Catherine Grace.  I actually went to school with a Catherine Grace through high school at which time she took off to follow her dream of living in another part of the country.  The girl in this novel had an eerie likeness in character to my classmate. After many years, my classmate did feel the pull and she did come back to a class reunion, and then again to see the total solar eclipse last summer, but did not come back to stay. 

I learned to “can” while living in the south.  Yes, Southerners are experts at “putting up” tomatoes, green beans, strawberry jam, peach preserves, etc.  I would have loved to have seen the strawberry jam recipe that Catherine Grace and Martha Ann used included in this novel. I lost mine when I moved--it substituted red wine for some of the sugar.   Sound familiar, anyone???? 

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The Good Reads 2018 Challenge is underway. Book #16

OK--I just finished reading COME SUNDOWN by Nora Roberts. Initially I honestly did not know how I would finish reading 40 books pledged to the Goodreads.com 2018 challenge BUT once I set up some rules on how I would choose the books I would read, its easier. Now, I am pretty confident that I will make it to 40 reads before December 31.

Each book chosen for this challenge must fall into one of the following categories:

     1. Authors recommended by other readers (author must be new to me)
     2. Any recommendations by my fellow readers of our online mystery reading group established in 1993 on Prodigy
    3. The next book in a series I have been reading
    4. The next book in a series I have abandoned (in an attempt to revive my interest)
    5. A book that references a historic event or period that is not in my lifetime
    6. A book that references any historic event or biographs a famous person who lived in my lifetime.
    7. New mystery author with setting in USA.
    8. New mystery author with setting in western Europe.

This book was chosen for a few reasons and the selection followed Rule #1.

• Nora Roberts is an author whose name is familiar to me, but I have never read any of her books. 
• She is listed as the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than 200 novels. 
• She also writes under the pen name J.D. Robb. 
• But most importantly, she was recommended to me on a Sunday morning in St Louis.
•  When I dropped into Michael's craft store to pick up a little collectable toy for my granddaughter, the cashier was not busy and she was reading a book. It seemed that reading on the job was against the rules as she held the book under the counter and had the book wrapped in brown paper bookcover. HEHE--must be good!! I asked her what she was reading, and she began to tell me the joy that Nora Roberts' books bring to her--she is NEVER disappointed. So, I went to the library in St Louis and found the Nora Roberts 2017 book titled COME SUNDOWN (satisfies Rule #1).

Here is what happened when I read this book. The book is set in Montana outside Missoula. I have been to Montana and the sunsets are phenomenal. That was a positive reason to choose this book. As I read the first quarter of the book, I tried to categorize the genre of this book fell and realized it could be called any of these:

·      a psychothriller,

·      a murder mystery,

·      a multi-generational family dilemma fiction,

·      a western,

·      a romance novel,

·      a battle of the sexes, and/or

·      the demographic and political landscape of the wild west.

YIKES.  All those genres in one exciting book. BUT it worked. Reviewing my notes taken during reading this book, it seems Nora Roberts absolutely followed the scheme or design or rules trueto each of these genres. In fact, the denouement included the resolution of the psycho problem, the murderer was revealed, there was a shootout, the family dilemma appears to be resolving, the demographics and the political issues were addressed and the battle of the sexes worked out.  There is a potential for further development and a storyline hinting toward a sequel. (Nora Roberts writes many of her books into a series--so there is always that chance that a standalone like this book won't be alone forever).

Discovering that Nora Roberts books seem to be conversation starters was a pleasant surprise. People actually just started talking to me when they saw me carrying or reading the book.

·      I was told by a woman in the grocery checkout line ( I always take a book to the grocery store in case there is a line at checkout) that she thought that COME SUNDOWN was Nora Roberts' best book so far, and that she actually hoped that there would be a sequel as she missed reading about characters she felt she had come to know!!!!

·      Someone else who saw me with the book told me that there were rumors that this book would be a movie soon.

·      A very nice woman asked if I liked the book--that reader had not picked it up yet. 

So kudos to you, Nora Roberts.

I cannot promise that I will read another Nora Roberts book--but I will watch and see if this book ends up as Book #1 of the Montana series and then maybe consider it. Should it become a movie--I will not see the movie at the theater--but will wait to enjoy this on NetFlix, sitting on the couch under my comforter--exactly the way I read it.
_____________________
NOTE to Nora Roberts--if you do make this into a series, perhaps you can use my name "Susan Grimes" as a character who escapes the east coast  with her golden retriever and stays at the resort in one of those posh cabins. A minor role or "mention" is fine with me!! (I love wearing fashionable hats!! )   Thank you in advance.

James Murray Weinberg, Esq. May 28, 1955-August 21, 2006

You´re better then the best
I´m lucky just to linger in your light
Cooler then the flip side of my pillow that´s right

Completely unaware
Nothing can compare to where you send me
Lets me know that it´s ok
Yeah it´s ok
And the moments when my good times start to fade

You make me smile like the sun
Fall outta bed
Sing like a bird
Dizzy in my head
Spin like a record
Crazy on a Sunday night
Even when you´re gone
Somehow you come along
Just like a flower poking through the sidewalk crack and just like that
You steal away the rain and just like that

You make me smile like the sun
Fall outta bed
Sing like a bird
Dizzy in my head
Spin like a record
Crazy on a Sunday night

Don´t know how I lived without you
'Cuz every time that I was around you
I saw the best of me inside your eyes

Lyrics of SMILE by Uncle Kracker.

My Hometown A - Z: Letter J

There are so many strong choices for the letter "J" when looking around St Louis.

The Jewel Box in Forest Park, the Johnson Shut-in's just outside the St Louis area, the St Louis Jazz Festival, and Scott Joplin's House open for tours at 2658 Delmar featuring his Ragtime music on a player piano are among the fabulous "J's".

However, the outstanding "J" in my hometown is the historic and continuing influence of the Jesuits in the religious and educational culture of the city.

It is accepted by most Catholics that the Jesuits and Rome have not always agreed on issues and topics having to do with the practice of Catholicism. In fact, Pope Clement XIV had suppressed the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in 1773 rendering them relatively inert (or so Clement must have thought) in all things Catholic world-wide. Only Germany allowed the Jesuits to continue to practice as a religious order.
Clement died a year after suppressing the Jesuits and his death certificate said he was poisoned.

Apparently the Jesuits were a bit too vocal and opinionated towards heads of state in countries where they had established their provinces. According to Clement XIV "the very tenor and terms of the said Apostolic constitutions show that the Society from its earliest days bore the germs of dissensions and jealousies which tore its own members asunder, led them to rise against other religious orders, against the secular clergy and the universities, and even against the sovereigns who had received them in their states". (Dominus ac Redemptor) He then follows with a list of the quarrels in which the Jesuits had been engaged, from Sixtus V to Benedict XIV.

Well, silencing the Jesuits did not last too long. Two popes later, Pius VII, restored the order to full operation, worldwide and in 1823 Jesuits from Belgium established the Missouri Province in St Louis.
Their first parish in St Louis was St Ferdinand's in the suburb of Florissant--and it still exists today. It is a reminder of the Spanish influence in St Louis at the time.






Close by, the Jesuits established the St. Stanislaus Seminary as a novitiate on what was called Bishop's Farm.
The Old Rock Building was built by hand by the Jesuits seminarians and brothers out of rock they cut themselves from the bluffs overlooking the nearby Missouri River. It replaced an earlier log structure. In its earlier days, this seminary of 999 acres was self-supporting, like the monasteries of old. This was one of the first seminaries west of the Mississippi River. It served as the home base for Father Pierre De Smet who named St Louis as the "missionary gateway of the West".
The Jesuits left in 1971 and the St Stanislaus Seminary, once considered part of the "Rome of the West, is no longer a Jesuit property, but now a center for pentacostal evangelism.

In 1829, the Jesuits took over St Louis College and Academy at the urging of Bishop DuBourg and under their charge, became St Louis University in 1832. The Jesuits continued to expand their influence in the catholic diocese of St Louis by establishing St Francis Xavier College Church at Grand and Lindell in 1841. In 1888, the Jesuits re-located St Louis University to Grand and Lindell next to the church where it remains today in the part of St Louis classified as Mid-Town.

Jesuits take to the air in 1921 with WEW--an AM radio station broadcasting from St Louis University. WEW was the second radio station licensed in the country--and the Jesuits and St Louis University owned it for over 40 years. No longer a Jesuit property, WEW remains on the air in St Louis today--but does not use a religious format.

In 1924, the highschool students were moved off the University's campus to their own building and campus at Oakland and Kingshighway. SLUH as its known is still at that location and still all-male. It is considered the premier Catholic highschool in St Louis.






The White House Retreat was opened on the Mississippi River Bluff in 1922 and remains a Jesuit-run retreat to this day. The White House Retreat sits 150 feet above the river protecting it from flooding. The buildings on the grounds are all constructed in the traditional Gothic style and




there is an outdoors Stations of the Cross placed to overlook the river.



The White House Retreat is one of the Jesuit sites involved in the 1949 exorcism of a Maryland eighth grader who came to St Louis supposedly possessed by the devil. His story and the religious interventon by the Jesuits at St Louis University inspired the famous 1971 novel and movie, The Exorcist, by William Peter Blatty (Jesuit educated).







In a newer book, published in 2006 titled, The Devil Came To St Louis, author Troy Taylor attempts to unravel all the rumors and folklore about the event, the Jesuit's involvement, the locked room at the Alexian Brothers' Hospital and the final disposition of the furniture from the exoricism room. St Louis Jesuit Heavies like Father William Halloren, SJ and Father Paul Reinert, SJ are mentioned in the book. Its an interesting read.





In 1967, DeSmet Jesuit High School for boys opened in West St Louis County.

I am educationally indebted to the Jesuits as a graduate of St Louis University. I am the daughter of a graduate of both St Louis University Highschool and St Louis University, the mother of an attorney from St Louis University Law School. I am part of the Jacobsmeyer family who are considered legends in the Jesuit community having had Jacobsmeyer Jesuits who were prominent as college presidents and department heads in the sciences and classical languages.

Despite this rich history of Jesuit influence and my indebtedness to them for my liberal way of thinking, I was a member of only the 25th graduating class at St Louis University to include women undergrads. The Jesuits were the last to admit women undergrads following the University of Missouri and Washington University by almost 30 years and 116 years after its founding.

My Hometown A - Z: The letter J is for Jesuits.

My Hometown A - Z: Letter I

Innovators and St Louis

St Louis seems to be a breeding ground for innovators and inventors to florish--either within the city and county limits or become successful because of the support of the St Louis community.

Lets take a look at some of the innovators who herald from a connection with St Louis. . my hometown.

Ice Cream Cone


The walk-away edible ice cream cone made its American debut at the 1904 Saint Louis World's Fair. Ice cream in a cone was served by several vendors at the Fair--some historians estimate that there may have been as many as 50 vendors selling ice cream cones on the World Fair grounds in Forest Park.

Paper and metal cones with handles were used in Europe for ice cream in the 1800's but it was the innovation of edible cones that transformed the joyful cultural shift in ice cream eating that continues today. And had you been alive in 1904--you would have met the ice cream cone in St Louis--met at the Fair.







Peanut Butter:

Peanut butter was invented and reinvented many times during history. Peanuts were known as early as 950 B.C. and originated in South America. The ancient Incas used peanuts and were known to have made it into a paste-like substance. As a crop peanuts emigrated from South America to Africa by early explorers and then traveled by trade into Spain who then traded the product to the American colonies. The first commercial peanut crop was grown in Virginia in the early to mid 1840's and in North Carolina beginning around 1818. According to the Corn Products Company, Dr. Ambrose Straub of St. Louis patented a peanut butter-making machine in 1903.

Transportation



The steamboat era began in St Louis on July 27, 1817, with the arrival of the Zebulon M. Pike. Replacing the hand-propelled barges and keel boats that were once the choice vehicle of Mississippi River trade, steamboats could travel upriver, and against the current, just as easily as downriver.

Rapids north of the city made St Louis the northernmost navigable port for many large boats. The Pike and her sisters transformed St Louis into a bustling boom town, commercial center and inland port. By the 1830's, it was common to see more than 150 steamboats at the St Louis levee. by the 1850's, St Louis had become the largest U.S. city west of Pittsburgh, and the second-largest port in the country, with a commercial tonnage exceeded only by New York.

Architecture

St Louis is one of several cities claiming the world's first skyscraper. The Wainwright Building, a 10-story structure designed by Louis Sullivan and built in 1892, still stands at Chestnut and Seventh Streets.

Tall buildings were called skyscrapers as early as 1880's. They were built on a steel structure and had central heating, electrical pumps and lifts. In 1890, Louis Sullivan along with Major William Le Baron built The Home Insurance Building in Chicago--which included the basement. The Wainwright Building in St Louis was 10-stories without counting the basement. Frank Lloyd Wright called the Wainwright Building "the first human expression of a tall, steel office building as architecture".

The impact of the skyscraper:

• changed how people live and work
  
• defined the outline and skyline of our US cities,, including my hometown, St Louis
  
• gracefully enhanced the photographic memories of tourists and of those who embrace big cities and call them "home".
  

St Louis is a city of innovation and inventors, ideas and impact. And its my hometown, A - Z.

James Murray Weinberg, Esq

May 28, 1955 - August 21, 2006

Kiss today goodbye,
The sweetness and the sorrow.
Wish me luck, the same to you.
But I can't regret
What I did for love, what I did for love.
Look my eyes are dry.
The gift was ours to borrow.
It's as if we always knew,
And I won't forget what I did for love,
What I did for love.
Gone, Love is never gone.
As we travel on, Love's what we'll remember.
Kiss today goodbye,
And point me t'ward tomorrow.
We did what we had to do.
Won't forget, can't regret
What I did for Love

Lyrics:What I Did For Love. A Chorus Line
Written by Edward Kleban
A Chorus Line won Pulitzer Prize for Drama, 1976
Last run on Broadway--2006

Happy 7th Birthday

Seven years ago today, the revamped $20 bill debuted with a colorful new look and a slew of high-tech security features. Let’s take a look back at the history of the “double-sawback” to uncover five things you probably didn’t know about the bill:

1. The average circulation life for a $20 bill is 25 months.
2. The current face of the twenty, Andrew Jackson, replaced Grover Cleveland in 1928, although U.S. Treasury Department records don’t reveal the reason for the switch.
3. Interestingly, Andrew Jackson was vehemently opposed to the National Bank and paper money, and cautioned the nation about paper currency in his presidential farewell address.
4. In 1963, the phrase “Redeemable in Lawful Money” was replaced with “In God We Trust” on the bill.
5. About 22% of all bills printed today are twenties.

Published with help from Alltop.