Plum Wine

About 10 years ago I took a creative writing class at NCSU and my instructor was Angela Davis-Gardner.  At some point during the semester she brought in a box and as she carefully pulled a stack of papers tied together with twine out of it, she excitedly told us that she had finished her book Plum Wine.  After completing the class my mom gave me two of her other novels Felice and Forms of Shelter as a gift, which I read and enjoyed.  But over the passing years I had forgotten about Plum Wine.  When I was in the library last week, they had a section of NC authors and there it was, right in front of me, telling me to read it. So naturally I checked it out and started reading it as soon as I got home.

It is the story of Barbara a young American woman teaching Literature at a women's college in Tokyo, Japan in the 1960s, during the Vietnam War.  She inherits a tansu chest from another teacher and dear friend, Michi, who has recently passed away.  The chest if filled with bottles of homemade plum wine that Michi and her mother made, dating back to 1930.  But the real story begins when she realizes there are letters wrapped around each bottle telling the stories of Michi and her mother and grandmother - telling the stories of their family and their survival of Hiroshima.

It is a beautiful story of love and loss.  And an unusual point of view - because in a way it is the Japanese point of view of WWII and Hiroshima as well as Vietnam, but it is the Japanese point of view told through and American woman in Japan.  So it's very interesting and intricate.  I loved this story and found myself easily lost in it.  And while reading it, I often thought of the class I took with her 10 years ago and how this novel gave me a new perspective of her, even more so than her other novels.  And it really made me want to start writing again...

Garden Spells

I would have to say that Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen is quite possibly my favorite book of all time.  If I could have written a perfect book for myself - this would have been it.  A story about sisters with great food, a little romance, a little suspense and some magic thrown in.  I've read it four times now and just thinking about it makes me want to read it again.  (Can you tell I love this book?)

Garden Spells is, as I said, a story about sisters, Claire and Sydney Waverley.  They grew in a fictional NC town, Bascom, where the entire town knows of their Waverly magic.  This magic is in the apple tree in their yard as well as in the Waverly women, whether they like it or not.  Claire embraces her 'magic' and hides from life in Bascom thinking she is content there.  Whereas Sydney runs from Bascom and the Waverly name and all its attachments and chases after life thinking that she will find happiness anywhere else.  Through a number a events Claire and Sydney are reunited in their home in Bascom and together they discover that Bascom has more magic than just their family as wells as learning what it means to be a sister and a Waverly.  And then of course there's Evanelle, who is quite possibly my favorite character, she is a distant relative - a second, third, or fourth cousin - and she too has the Waverly magic and she cracks me up! 

Basically if you have not yet read this book - you need to immediately.  And if you have not read this book, I am jealous of you because you will get to read it for the first time.  There's something about reading a great book for the first time that is like a first kiss - you only get it once but when it's a good one... oh yeah!  I love Allen's writing style so much I've learned to just buy her books and not bother waiting for them from the library, because I love them.  Garden Spells and Sugar Queen are my favorites, but The Girl Who Chased the Moon is a really good one too...  Can you tell I love these books?