A great coming-of-age novel about a feisty girl from Arkansas growing up in the 60s and 70s!

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Sending as a RABCK for my birthday month! Enjoy!

Thank you so much for this RABCk - and Happy Birthday!

This novel made me think of other novels (and even memoirs like The Glass Castle) with a girl on the edge of womanhood, confronting family issues, trying to find her way in a world that is also in turmoil. This is set in Arkansas in the 60s and 70s - a time of bellbottoms, rock music, and Vietnam vets. Martha's family is turmoil as her abusive father leaves and her mother turns to God's House of Whole Truth . Martha is an outsider at school, despite how desperately she tries to fit in, and the only bright spot for her is the middle Spoon daughter, another kid from the fundamentalist church. Martha's story is not always easy to read - there are wrong turns where you want someone to come to her aid - but in the end, this is a hopeful story of declaring your place in this world, even when the odds are stacked against you.

A bonus RABCK - I hope you'll enjoy this or release it as you see fit. Thanks for being patient with me.

Received, thank you very much!

April 18, 2022
How important are grandparents in the lives of grandchildren? I'm reading this while I have grandchildren visiting. The need for love and approval is evident in one pair of eyes, reserve and suspicion in the eyes of two others. They are very young and don't know us or don't remember us. But the bond is there, a fierce protective love and an awareness of family bonds from youngest to oldest.
I can't keep up the way I used to, my body is letting me down. But a little grandchild climbs up beside me and falls asleep leaning against me and the world is righted.
This book is about family and friendship and about the saving graces in our lives. One of those saving graces is the loving bond with a grandparent.

42nd off of S. Cuba