In 1987, Ezra is the teenaged son of Pixie, a former Miss New Jersey. Ezra's father sees him once a year, and the rest of the time he has his loud obnoxious stepfather Dilworth and cute half-sister Mitzie. Because Ezra was part of Pixie's life from before Dilworth and Mitzie, he and Pixie have a strong strange bond. There are many secrets and omissions, and it all comes to a head when Pixie shoots Dilworth in the middle of the night.

Like a Greek chorus, Ezra tells us at the beginning that this will happen, and the first part of the book is spent trying to explain Pixie and how she came to be a dentist's wife in suburban Delaware when she set out to be so much more. The chapters alternate between Pixie and Ezra for the entire book, telling of what is going on now and in the past from their own perspectives, trying to piece together what is going on in the present and why they are who they are.

It's a sad book at times but not without its humor.

In The Miss America Family (now out in paperback), Julianna Baggott has blown past an already high bar set by her first novel, Girl Talk, which was both a literary success and a bestseller. You can read a synposis of the book in other reviews, and it's a great story--you'll want to know what the main characters Pixie the aging beauty queen and her sickly, sarcastic son Ezra have to say and what happens to them. So let me just focus on the incredible experience it is to read this book. It wakes you up, flings you out of your normal ways of seeing, and the familiar no longer seems quite what it was anymore. Here's a few lines from one of the many pages I've bookmarked: "The room is filled with white moths, blurry, so thick with wings that I can barely breathe. I would whisper to my brother now, if I could, that my father was not the enemy, that I was not a country to be saved. Stop here, I'd tell him, with everyone as they are. And I try to stop, too, looking at my kids, my husband, stumbling down the hall. We are all real, suddenly obviously ourselves in a room. The moths escape through open windows. And it's like looking through the curve of clear water in a glass jar. I slip into my body, the tight fit of being stitched into this skin."

Do yourself a favor and get this book. Read it--you'll fly through it because you won't want to stop--and then read it again.

I found myself comparing this novel to the works of two of my favorite authors. The book is very well written and the scenes and situations that Ms. Baggott shows us could have been introduced to us by John Irving or Joseph Heller. The story itself, reminded me of the conflicted facade of Norman Rockwell's paintings. In his art, he gives us scenes from Main Street USA, that are no longer representitive our country today.

To do this Ms. Baggott presents us a dysfunctional woman named Pixie Kitchey, from a sad/tragic upbringing, trying to win her way, (in beauty pagents), toward the great American or shall I say, The Miss America Family. Pixie's goal is to build an all-american life and all-american family. A family with perfect smiles, perfect picket fences and perfect names. One-hundred percent white bread normal in contrast to her own upbringing. Of course, events happen, and the realization that you can't change people has to occur in Pixie's mind in order for her to come to the conclusion of what normalcy truly is.

The story is told from two points of view. One is from the perspective of the ex-beauty queen (Pixie) and the other is from the perspective of her awkward teenage son. Ms. Baggott is able to successfully speak in the son's voice and the reader is treated to her version of Boy Talk. The son, Ezra, gets to experience the great american crush/rejection that all boys go through. First love, first sexual experience and first separation from love is the most difficult. Ezra also gives the reader a nice perspective from the outside, looking into his mother's life.

Why is Miss America Family better than Girl Talk? I loved Girl Talk....I gave it four stars here at Amazon. I found myself liking Miss America Family even more. The plot successfully twists and turns, keeping the reading interested in both narratives as well as all story lines. I am not a fan of the quirky character or quirky tale which authors often use to spice a book up. In this novel the characters are quirky, but REAL, and the situations within are believably interesting and far-out, often sad and hysterical. I totally enjoyed this book.

I have made several recipes from this cookbook. They vary from easy to complex, but each recipe I have made has tasted wonderful. I have loved them - and so have the people I have made the recipes for. I highly recommend this cookbook.

These photographs show proud and dignified human beings living in a culture that once really existed in America (believe it or not). You will not find pictures of people being chased by dogs or being subdued with fire hoses. You will not find pictures of lynchings or cross-burnings...

I am a Greenville native who just sat down and shared this book with my mother who still lives in Greenville, Mississippi. She remembers the photographer and we both knew people mentioned in the book and some of the people in the pictures. It is a great depiction of early Black life in the Delta and tells a compelling story of the photographer,
Mr. Anderson. It shows that not all black Mississippians in the early days were cottonpickers living on plantations. The town of Greenville has a rich history, this book gives a minor glimpse of it. I wish the photo index had of had exact names of the people in them, that would have made it even more personal and touching.

Separate But Equal is a unique gem. A combination of historic photographs and personal essays, it chronicles the lives of an African American working middle-class living in the Mississippi Delta during the years of segregation.

H.C. Anderson snapped the deceptively simple but beautiful photographs, and they are a revelation. Through the lens of his camera, he documented a segregated but proud society aspiring to its own version of the "American dream." Anderson provides us a personal glimpse into the lives of children and families celebrating special events - beauty contests, weddings, proms, birthday parties - and they are truly dressed for the occasion!
One of the more striking photographs depicts a mid-wife who has just helped deliver a baby in a family home. The bedroom floor is covered in newspaper, as the new mother looks on from her bed, covered by a clean crisp white sheet. Although the photographs primarily focus on the every day lives of their subjects, there are also powerful photographs documenting the burgeoning civil rights movement, and a grim reminder of the fate suffered by some individuals who chose to play an active role.

The essays accompanying the photographs provide insight into Greenville's history. As seen through the wide-eyed amazement of a child, noted writer Clifton L. Taulbert paints a vivid picture of his youthful visits to the prosperous and magical Greenville, the "Queen City of the Delta." Taulbert along with Shawn Wilson provides the reader with a fascinating insider's view of the process involved in bringing this book to print. In a personal and touching essay, Wilson reflects on how the search for an old photograph of his mother, long since deceased, led him back home to Greenville and Mr. Anderson. It was there in Anderson's now defunct photography studio, that Wilson discovered the wealth of photographs comprising Anderson's life long work. Reluctant but trusting, the aging Anderson handed over his photographs so that Wilson might share them with the world. In doing so, we have the opportunity to view images of a rarely explored segment of society, one that combines both the struggle AND celebration of life during the period of Southern segregation.

This wonderful book would make a great holiday gift for those that love history or photography!

This book is not only a refreshing, beautifully written, realistic, and entirely credible account of a boy's struggle to make sense of the world and his own family, but it is also the reassurance that there is at least one modern writer who can truly capture a story and an entire life within the pages of a novel, a writer who deserves to be remembered just as his words will be remembered forever. Hays has breathed life into a family and an entire 1960s Southern town, making this created world as real as our own lives today. Not only is this story heartwarming and the characters people I wish I knew, but the writing itself is purely magic in words, a poetic portrayal in the hard-to-reach area between literary snobbery and lackluster simplicity. This writing will produce both laughter and tears, and will leave the reader changed, somehow finding a piece of himself in little Jeru, and realizing that a piece of Jeru will remain in his own heart long after the book has been placed back on the shelf.

Tommy Hays is a very talented writer, and it shows in this book. "In The Family Way" is about a family that has suffered the loss of a loved one. Jeru, the oldest son, has to deal with his mother's turning to Christian Science, and his father spending most of his time in the basement working on writing a book, due to the death of his brother Mitchell. Hays manages to put as much detail into the setting of the story as possible. He writes about how many restaurants and other public facilities, including Jeru's school, only allowed white people. This is a very compelling story and I highly recommend it.

As English department chair of one of the top high schools in the Atlanta area, I make it my business to keep up with the best of new fiction each year. Of the many wonderful books I read in 1999, "In the Family Way" is at the top of my list. I have rarely read a novel that evokes a Southern childhood so well. Hays' writing is exquisite; his spare prose pulls you in and won't let go. You laugh, you cry, and when it's over you really, really wish for more. Jeru Lamb is a boy you might have known, and Jeru's Greenville is a place that you may very well recognize. I highly recommend "In the Family Way!"

Bone is a very fleshed-out, believable character. Her swinging attitudes and emotions are realistic, and I applaud Allison for writing the situations so frankly instead of trying to muffle them in "sweet innocent child" patina. The end is also realistic--it's not always a fairy tale.

However, the story itself really doesn't offer anything new--perhaps because there have been so many books written on this topic, with the same narrators & points of view. Sometimes, if a character is distinctive enough, s/he rescues the story from being monotonous, but Bone doesn't quite. Though I like the way she is portrayed, she is still too similar to most other abused-child narrators (Bird from _Before Women Had Wings_ comes heavily to mind) for me to regard her as an individual. Despite the honest depictions of child abuse and its consequences, this book still somehow pales for me.

I read this book as part of a college literature assignment. Bastard Out of Carolina is a well-written, deeply moving, and unforgettable novel about a young southern girl's struggle with physical and sexual abuse, along with the stigma of being labeled "white trash" and "illegitimate." Ms. Allison's characters are vibrant and alive, especially the young girl, Bone, who poignantly tells the tale of her tormented youth. For all its literary worth, this is not a book that I would have read on my own. The story is deeply disturbing, not only in its content but in the underlying hopelessness of tone. One feels an overwhelming instinct to cradle Bone in one's arms to protect her from her frustrated, jealous, and emotionally disturbed stepfather and from her mother's senseless abandonment. Bone's reactions of burning anger, festering hatred, and perverted fantasies, along with her resultant self image, compound the hopelessness of her young life. Salvation and vindication can only be acquired through her love of gospel music...and although she's told repeatedly that she can't sing, her heart yearns and pleads to God for the gift of song. But the gift of salvation through Jesus that God freely offers is never accepted, and only Bone knows why. Instead of salvation, Bone finds a haven in the home of her lesbian aunt, Raylene. While Raylene is a compassionate, strong, and loving woman, the reader is left with the impression at the conclusion of the story that Bone struggles with her experiences for the rest of her life. Perhaps the quote by James Baldwin at the beginning of the book says it best: "People pay for what they do, and still more, for what they have allowed themselves to become. And they pay for it simply: by the lives they lead." In the end, no matter what injustices we face in this life, we all will have to answer for how we choose to live our lives. We can choose to be defeated, or we can choose to overcome. Bone's true vindication remains irretrievably in her hands.

Ruth Anne, better known as Bone, lives in South Carolina surrounded by a veritable force of strong womanhood, made up by her mother Anney and her many aunts. Her numerous uncles are lovable goons, in trouble with the law and getting into fights, and her cousins are also numerous and trouble-making, though essentially good at heart.

Bone's story begins when her mother meets and marries Daddy Glen. Bone never knew her real dad (hence the 'bastard' in the title) and her younger sister Reese's father Lyle dies shortly in the beginning of the book. Daddy Glen has it in for Bone, who is only in grade school when he starts his vicious beatings, which he justifies to himself and Anney, who is not strong enough to help her daughter, no matter how much her aunts lecture Anney that Bone is not safe.

During this same time in her life, there is a mosaic of what her life in the South is ..... discovering and enjoying gospel music, her aunt Ruth's terminal illness, her albino friend Shannon who both interests and fascinates her, and getting caught shoplifting. All of these events also come full circle as the years progress.

At times, though, you wonder where the author was going with several storylines because they just seem to be plunked down to create a novel and you wonder if she is ever going to get back to them. You also get the feeling that Bone is just Scout with more issues and no Atticus. Like most novels set in the South, you get the feeling it is set in the 1950s as usual. But it is still an enjoyable novel.

This is one of those books that is almost impossible to objectively review. The writing is elegant and evocative of an era in the South that died almost in tandem with Mr. Percy and yet I find some parts of it so arrogant and condescending that I feel myself grinding my teeth. You see, I am descended from those Mississippi hill people Percy so despised and, even after all this time, I can almost see the languid gaze and soft, drawling voice. My people came to the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta after the Flood of '27 and we build and earned what we got without the benefit of the massive slave labor that built Mr. Percy's fortune.

But this is a book review and I'll put aside old feelings to say that this is a literary gem that brings to life a way of life on which so many stereotypes of the South are built. And Will Percy is amazingly honest in his descriptions of his society. However, a society this simple and yet this complex takes more than just one book to grasp.

Thus, I also recommend "Rising Tide" by John Barry and "The Most Southern Place on Earth: The Mississippi Delta and the Roots of Regional Identity" by James Cobb to balance your view of this time and place in history.

Bottom line: This is a wonderful, beautifully written story that is refreshingly candid with none of the defensiveness and politically correct breast beating of many of the works of southern writers of recent years.

Percy's autobiogrpahy offers excellent insights into the heart and mind of those of his class (as close to an agricultural elite as this country has ever produced. But the best of this book is offered unconsciously, by accident or indirection.
If you're only going to read one book about the South, or about this elite, read John Barry's Rising Tide, a truly brilliant and magnificently-- almost breathtakingly-- written book. There you gte all of Percy's story plus more perspective and deeper understanding-- indeed, RT may even give you a deeper understanding of Percy than his autobuiography does.
If you're going to read 2 books on the South, then read RT and Mind of the South by Cash. Cash focuses more on the mindset of the rednecks, while Percy is very much an aristocrat. To a certain extent the Percy and Cash books complement each other. In fact, to Percy the word "anglo-saxon" was an insult. He considered himself descended from the Norman conquerors of the Anglo-saxons, and saw them as serfs. That little insight comes from Rising Tide.

Noble, refined, and distinctly tragic in sentiment, this book captures the proud soul of William Percy in eloquent prose. A man, in love with a vision of what is best in the world, in love with what is best in his fellow men, in love with what is best in his home emerges from these pages. He stands defiant in defense of the vision, despite all its imperfections, confident that its beauty outshines its faults. The book stands not only as a proud memorial to a noble vision that has passed into history, but a testimony to the beauty of the human spirit that continues to animate men to strive for nobility of life and the security virtues.

Johnston had a life-altering experience in the Mississippi Delta and was eager to share it. He witnessed some of the staggering problems in our educational system. But instead of being moved and challenged by his book, I grew increasingly irritated and unimpressed. How could a Yale graduate, English teacher and Grove Press author achieve publication of a work so riddled with grammatical and word usage errors? The mistakes cast doubt on Johnston's credibility as an educator and reporter. Just two examples: the repeated use of "disinterested" to mean "uninterested"; and the dozens of incorrect modifiers, such as, "Watching Corelle shuffle down the hall flanked by two security guards, a discomfort welled inside me." Like others, I too found his tone a bit self-congratulatory. Despite all, I'm glad I read the book. It covers a part of our culture one needs to know.

Tear-jerking and heartstring-tugging are well and good, but I found the writing to be melodramatic and even maudlin at many points. Besides, how can someone who jumps into two years of teaching in a place he probably would have known nothing about prior to landing there really, truly, genuinely come to understand the profound cultural riches (and poverties) of that place? It would take decades, perhaps, and the intimate understanding of a native son/daughter. I am skeptical. This felt--at least on some level--like the author is capitalizing on his experiences in the Delta. It's clear they had an impact on him, but I'm not sure they really allowed him to leave behind a subtle, smarter-than-thou attitude. Perhaps the best thing about this book is that it might awaken some readers to the horrific plight faced by American public schools.

I am a classmate and friend of the author at YLS and would like to refute the earlier character-attacking review from the YLS student. While I have not had the opportunity to read through the entire book myself, I have talked with the author about education issues and his book, and have found him to be highly informed. More importantly, I feel that he has a legitimate desire to improve the plight of those children from disadvantaged backgrounds through education reform.

Grisham's best books are the thrilling fights against powerful enemies not yet fully known; this theme makes The Firm, The Pelican Brief and The Client such exciting stories.

That his first book (A Time to Kill) did not sell at fist didn't suprise because it just goes on and on in this flimsy tale of legal chitchat of a starting lawyer defending a black man's murder of the rapist of his daughter.

The Chamber gave me the same feeling. It feels like a poor attempt to write a literary, philosophical and ethical thriller - presenting the death penalty as an issue (but not really discussing it) and missing the chances of real suspense in the story.

I gave it two stars because of the description of the last hours of Adam and his grandfather, which I found really moving.

But they didn't make me forget that I had thought I bought a thriller.

John Grisham produces another great book here. It starts out with a bombing gone awry. One man meant to only bomb a building, but instead kills two innocent children and destroys another life. Thirty years later, one of the bombers in sitting on death row, a former Klan activist, waiting to die when his unknown grandson appears as a lawyer in hopes to rescue him.

Grisham does another excellent job describing a story, with great mastery and fluidity, of one man's last ditch effort to save his grandfather from death. Even though his emphasis on law is profound, he delves into deeper issues such as family, the question of the death penalty, and other emotional issues that one does see in other Grisham novels (with the exception of A Painted House).

What's really fascinating is that nothing in this book is not black and white. For each issue he brings up, there are good and bad points - each issue is a gray area. He describes the horrors of death row, but then juxtaposes it with the deaths of the two youngsters. Instead of making the main character purely good or evil, he mixes it a bit. Sometimes you wish the inmate would fry, sometimes you feel he's innocent.

Another good point about the book is that it's not a farfetched story, like the Street Lawyer or the Firm, it's a book that could be confused with a documentary. He doesn't revolve action or plot twists, but instead relies on the psychological aspects of all sides of a death sentence.

The only bad point, of which Grisham tends to do a lot, is he is repetitive. Many, many parts were repeated over and over again. This 700-page book could have been reduced to 500-page book without any loss of detail. Pages 200 to 400 just dragged on and on and on. The last 150 pages, though nothing exciting happens, is really intense and emotional, and is what makes this book.

I highly recommend this book to anyone. It's a slight departure for Grisham, as he delves into more psychological elements, but it works well.

At first glance, one might assume that this book's title refers to a judge's chamber and that this will be another one of Grisham's thrill-a-minute page turners like his other books. This well-researched, movingly-detailed story is difficult to put down, but not for the same reason as his other novels. Instead, it closely resembles the author's first book,"A Time to Kill", an intense courtroom novel examining the politics of Mississippi justice.

The chamber in the title is the death chamber, where Sam Cayhall, a nine-year resident of death row, is slated to be killed with cyanide gas in a few weeks. Cayhall, a frail and elderly man, was a Ku Klux Klan bomber convicted in 1981 of bombing the office of a Jewish civil-rights lawyer in Mississippi in 1967. This explosion killed the lawyer's two young sons and badly maimed their father. Cayhall was freed after mistrials in 1967 and 1968; for the next 12 years, Sam led a normal life until an aggressive new district attorney reopened the case.

The novel's main action begins a month before Cayhall's scheduled execution. Adam Hall, a first-year lawyer in a large, prestigious Chicago firm which formerly represented Cayhall on a pro-bono basis, asks to represent Sam in an effort to get a stay of execution. Adam's secret weapon in the effort to have Sam agree to his representation is that he is Cayhall's long-lost grandson. Although Adam wants to help his grandfather, he must deal with his guilt for wanting to help someone whose beliefs he detests.

When Sam agrees to Adam's representation, a race against the clock begins. Grisham presents a picture of the controlled but frantic coordination necessary during the appeals process. It is literally a legal juggling act requiring split-second timing.

This book reads like non-fiction, with details about how the gas chamber actually works and what happens when it doesn't work perfectly. While it was not Grisham's intent to have "The Chamber" alter anyone's opinion of the death penalty, it will certainly cause many readers to re-examine their position.