Like the Moon

It isn't often a book invites you to pull up a rocking chair on the front porch and sit a spell. From the first sentence, Lulu Quillen with her southern dialect and country idioms, paints a bright picture of the characters living in Hart County. Mattie Mae, a large woman, whose "suppers" of ham hocks and collard greens are always prepared with as much love as bacon grease. Willis, Mattie Mae's husband, started a series of hair-brained businesses whose remnants litter his farm after his death. Their daughter Cheryldine's picture perfect life suddenly becomes a mystery to Old Man Bone, her doting grandfather, and her mamma. Old Man Bone was born and raised on a tobacco farm, but isn't afraid of letting his "womenfolk" add a little refinement to his life by building a music room and learning to enjoy listening to Bach and Beethoven.