Charms for the Easy Life

Charms for the Easy Life

By Kaye Gibbons

"I have read two books a week for thirty years. I am satisfied that I know everything."

So says Charlie Kate Birch, and she's not shy about sharing any of what she  knows!  How she reminded me of a few women I know!!!!

A self-styled doctor, midwife and herbalist, Charlie Kate is a strong matriarch of the family and of her community.  She lives with her daughter, Sophia, and her granddaughter, Margaret in North Carolina in the early 1900's.  These three are smart book-loving women and the author paints a picture of these three who rely on each other rather than on men to rescue or defend. I do love me some strong female characters!!!!

I don't know why it is that I love  southern writing and descriptions so much....oh, I know, I'm from the South!!!! Transplanted for years I still can hear the cadence in the speech and feel the caress in their accents.  However Kaye Gibbons does it she captures the voices of her characters with care. This author had just the voice I wanted to hear. Her descriptions are colorful yet spare. Her metaphors were apt and it seems like I was attached to her words like a moth to a flame. 

This book was so easy to pick up and easy to come back to after a long day teaching. It was the perfect tonic for what ails ya.

Our book group loved this book and found it great fun to talk about....oh, and the charm for the easy life??? 

---If you want your own easy-life charm, you'll need to find the hind foot of a white graveyard rabbit caught at midnight, under the full moon, by a cross-eyed Negro woman who has been married seven times.---