South Carolina

A week or so ago Neco said, "Sue Monk Kidd wrote The Secret Life of Bees and The Mermaid's Chair. Dorothea Benton Frank has written Sullivan's Island, Plantation, Shem Creek, The Land of Mango Sunsets, Isle of Palms, Pawley's Island, and Full of Grace. Of all the above books, I would most recommend Sullivan's Island or Plantation for strong South Carolina culture/setting fiction while still being light and easy reads and following a personal journey of the protagonist."

I suggested (and posted) the first book on each author's list, but upon further reflection I realize I probably should have posted ALL of these books. (I apologize, Neco.) So I'm doing that here.

In The Mermaid's Chair, Sue Monk Kidd tells the story of Jessie Sullivan, which is a love story between a woman and a monk, a woman and her husband, and ultimately a woman and her own soul. On tiny Egret Island, off the coast of South Carolina, Jessie tries to care for her mother, Nelle, who is not particularly eager to be taken care of. Jessie gets help from Nelle's best friends: Kat, a feisty shopkeeper, and Hepzibah, a dignified chronicler of slave history. To complicate matters, Jessie finds herself strangely relieved to be free of a husband she loves ... and wildly attracted to Brother Thomas, a junior monk at the island's secluded Benedictine monastery.



In Plantation, a poignant mother-daughter story, Dorothea Benton Frank evokes a lush plantation in the heart of modern-day South Carolina, where family ties and hidden truths run as deep and dark as the mighty Edisto River.

In Shem Creek, single parent Linda Breland ditches a dead-end job and life in New Jersey to move back home to Mt. Pleasant and start a new life for herself and her teenage daughters. ("Look, if New Jersey had wanted us, it would have given us a reason to stay. It didn't.") The work she finds -- manager of a restaurant on Shem Creek -- introduces her to its owner, Brad Jackson, a man living out his own second chance.

In Land of Mango Sunsets, Frank gives us one woman's journey toward a hard-won truth, that life isn't always what it appears to be, and the sooner you realize that pride won't keep you warm at night, the happier you will be. When Miriam gets her head on straight, then in a whoosh she's off to the enchanted and mysterious land of Sullivan's Island, deep in the Lowcountry of South Carolina. Publishers Weekly says, "This isn't Frank's finest, but it'll sate her fans."



Isle of Palms is set off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina. Anna Lutz Abbot thinks she has her independence, and therefore her happiness, intact. She is a capable woman, a sensible woman, not someone given to risky living. This all seems true enough until her lovely daughter returns from college for the summer a very different person, her wild and wonderful ex-husband arrives, and her flamboyant new best friend takes up with her daddy, turning a hot summer into a steaming one. All the action unfolds under the watchful eyes of Miss Mavis and Miss Angel, her next-door neighbors of a certain age, who have plenty to say about Anna's past, present, and future.

In Pawley's Island Dorothea Benton Frank delivers a refreshingly honest and funny novel about an artist who suddenly enters the complacent lives of several Lowcountry locals ... and turns them upside down. It's a twist-filled tale of friendship, family, and finding happiness by becoming who you are meant to be.

In Full of Grace, Frank gives us Hilton Head, a South Carolina retirement heaven -- at least it's supposed to be. But for Big Al and Connie Russo, the move from New Jersey to this southern paradise has been fraught with just a few complications. Especially for their daughter, Grace. Well, that's what she likes to be called. Her family insists on Maria Graziella. That might have been okay in New Jersey, but now it's just plain silly, and Grace at thirty-two is, horror of horrors, still unmarried. No wonder her family drives her crazy. Well, that and the fact that she's living with the man she would marry if they both weren't so commitment phobic. Michael is a doctor and a scientist and Grace is pretty sure he's also an atheist. Over the years, Grace has become a bit ambivalent about her faith, but her family is as old-fashioned Italian as they come.