Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Teaser Tuesday - Under Magnolia by Frances Mayes


Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by Miz B of A Daily Rhythm. Anyone can participate, just do the following:
  • Grab your current read and open to a random page
  • Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page.
  • BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure what you share doesn't give too much away! You don't want to ruin the book for others!)
  • Share the title and the author so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers.
Published March 31, 2015
by Broadway Books

"Walking with Willie Bell around the tabby remains of Oglethorpe's settlement, I stood looking at the site of the baker's house, just an outline of crushed shell, and imagined the oven, women walking under the oaks to get their bread, the fragrant smell as they stood at the door. I thought I'm walking here just as they walked. That was my first inkling of how the past pounces: Once they were here so I can be here thinking of the fragrance of their bread."
- p. 71

The synopsis from Goodreads.com: 

The author of three beloved books about her life in Italy, includingUnder the Tuscan Sun and Every Day in Tuscany, Frances Mayes revisits the turning points that defined her early years in Fitzgerald, Georgia. With her signature style and grace, Mayes explores the power of landscape, the idea of home, and the lasting force of a chaotic and loving family. 

From her years as a spirited, secretive child, through her university studies—a period of exquisite freedom that imbued her with a profound appreciation of friendship and a love of travel—to her escape to a new life in California, Mayes exuberantly recreates the intense relationships of her past, recounting the bitter and sweet stories of her complicated family: her beautiful yet fragile mother, Frankye; her unpredictable father, Garbert; Daddy Jack, whose life Garbert saved; grandmother Mother Mayes; and the family maid, Frances’s confidant Willie Bell.

Under Magnolia is a searingly honest, humorous, and moving ode to family and place, and a thoughtful meditation on the ways they define us, or cause us to define ourselves. With acute sensory language, Mayes relishes the sweetness of the South, the smells and tastes at her family table, the fragrance of her hometown trees, and writes an unforgettable story of a girl whose perspicacity and dawning self-knowledge lead her out of the South and into the rest of the world, and then to a profound return home.

What's your teaser this week? Share it or a link in the comments so we can check it out. Thanks for stopping by. Happy Reading!

No comments:

Post a Comment