“I just bought us a B&B on eBay!”

With 31 notes from Bitsy, how could you go wrong?  While this is not strictly considered a southern read as it takes place in the Missouri Ozarks, I think this small town community could be placed anywhere in the south.  (Being from Texas it is sometimes hard to determine what is southern, when really it all lies north of here – south of the Mason-Dixon line?  I’m not sure.  That seems awfully far north to me.)  Katy has just taken her divorce settlement and bought a quiet B&B on the shores of Warbler Lake.  She packs her son, Josh, up with her very protective older sister, Emma, in tow and quickly discovers she may have gotten herself in over her head as she arrives in town.  It turns out the description on the ebay listing was not exactly what she had pictured.  Instead of buying a quaint bed & breakfast, Katy has just become the proud (somewhat) owner of the lake town’s bait shop and BBQ joint.  Katy is determined to make the best of things and not show her disappointment to Emma, who definitely believes Katy is in way over her head.

Just when the sisters get into the swing of things at the B&B, complications (i.e. the ex-husband and ex-mother-in-law) show up.

While looking on my Amazon buying history (of which we don’t need to go into…eeek!), it appears I bought this one back in September of 2007. I really enjoyed this read and I’m a little sad it stayed so long in my ever-growing TBR pile.   Southern fiction readers will enjoy the idiosyncrasies of the lake town’s folks as well as the family bond between the new B&B owners.   While you’ll have to overlook a few spelling and word omission errors as well as the sappy makeup love reunion that felt a bit forced, overall, I thought Bitsy’s B&B was a light-hearted read with a happy ending. Definitely a fun summer beach read, even if you never make it to the beach!

Quotes:

Gwen on connecting to the outside world (p. 203):

She wrote copious notes on everything she saw, including quotes from the locals on specific topics.  And then took that information to the only place in town that could handle it: Lake Hill Cemetery.

It said something about Warbler Lake that the only group of people in town who had updated access to global communications were the dead ones.  It was only atop this hill that little towers showed up in the corner of her PDA, and she walked through the tombstones to find the best signal.  The Bullock bench wasn’t the very best, but it was close.

Luella’s response to Gwen sitting on her husband’s bench (p. 241):

“Gwen knows your husband,” Latt said.

The old woman’s face lit up with surprise.  Gwen turned to glance at her companion, completely dumbfounded.

“She sits every day on that wonderful bench you put up for him in the cemetery,” Latt explained.

Gwen was momentarily horrified that Latt should make such a casual mention of something so sad.  To her surprise, Luella laughed.

“Trying to make cell phone calls, I’d wager,” she said.  “I swear, I should have had them design it like a phone booth, that’s what everybody uses it for.”

“I…uh…”  Gwen felt that she should apologize, but she wasn’t quite sure how or why.

“I’m sure Carlton enjoys the company,” Luella said.  “But I’d be careful, an attractive young woman like you sitting above him, that old coot will be trying to get a look up your skirt.”

Latt’s joke for Gwen (p. 237):

Did you hear the one about the hillbilly gal who went to town?

She was sitting in a coffee shop with two city women,” he said.  “Suddenly there was a beeping sound and one of the city women touched her forearm.  The hillbilly gal asked her about it.  ‘That’s my pager,’ the woman told her.  ‘I have a microchip imbedded [sic] under the skin of my arm.’  The hillbilly gal was pretty impressed.  Then a couple of minutes later the other woman lifter her palm to her ear and began talking.  When she finished she told the hillbilly gal, ‘That’s my digital phone.  The entire integrated system has been surgically implanted in my hand.’  Well, the hillbilly gal was almost overwhelmed with the idea of that.”

“I’m sure,” Gwen said.

“So she was feeling very backwoods and low-tech and she just had to think of something to impress these city women.  Suddenly she got up and went to the bathroom.  When she came back she had a long tail of toilet paper hanging down from the back of her dress.  ‘Well, will you look a that,’ she told the city women.  ‘I’m getting a fax.’”

Book Details:

Bitsy’s Bait & BBQ by Pamela Morsi

Southern Reading Challenge Three #2

Fiction, Published 2007

Read July 2009

3/5

Read my first review for the Southern Reading Challenge Three – The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen

Southern Reading Challenge Three

May 15 – August 15, 2009

Maggie from Maggie Reads is once again hosting her very popular Southern Reading Challenge for 2009. She writes:

It’s that time of year!

The time when you pour a glass of lemonade or sweet tea and take your official summer spot on the porch. Lean back in that chase lounge surrounded by geraniums and ferns, and begin the summer long journey into Southern culture.

Participants may choose to read any style of Southern book such as Appalachian tales, Civil War sagas, Gothic myths, Grit lit, etc… The goal is THREE BOOKS in three months. As she did last year, Maggie will be holding weekly drawings and contests.

Looks like I’ll have plenty to choose from! =)

• The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen
• Sufficient Grace by Darnell Arnoult
• Shoot the Moon by Billie Letts
• Look Back All the Green Valley by Fred Chappell
• The Color Purple by Alice Walker
• The Known World by Edward P. Jones
  
• Widow of the South by Robert Hicks
  
• The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
• Light in August by William Faulkner
• Welcome to the World, Baby Girl! by Fannie Flagg
  
• Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven by Fannie Flagg
• Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man by Fannie Flagg
• On the Occasion of My Last Afternoon by Kaye Gibbons
• Charms for the Easy Life by Kaye Gibbons
• The Rock Orchard by Paula Wall