Augusta TrobaughBesprekingen

The Tea-Olive Bird Watching Society has some similarities to the Ladybug Farm books: single women friends living and thriving in a small town. In this case, the women have strong generational ties to the community. But, when their mentor dies and her house and land are sold, they discover that the outside world is ready to move in, in the person of a retired judge whose charm catches almost everyone off guard. Here is where the book takes a different path as two of the friends decide to take things into their own hands where the judge is concerned. I thoroughly enjoyed this dark comedy, where older women again play a strong role, showing what they can do despite their age.

This one has been lurking on my Kindle for a long time. I picked it to match the January RandomKIT: Early Birds. It had bird in the title and was, at least a little bit, about birds.

Written in a southern voice that allows the reader to become totally involved in this sweet story with endearing characters.
In a small southern town a young white girl becomes close to the family housekeeper, Peony and then Peony’s sister Pansy recently out of jail and looking after Jordan’s step grandmother, a elderly sweet woman who fortunately get released from an old folks home. There are more lively characters like chronically pouting Gertie, Aunt Rose ( part of the all flowered named women) and honey boy her challenged son. Add a few adventures and you get a enjoyable, very readable novel showing the strength in good old fashion values and kindness to others½

Good love story and about hate against the Japanese during the second world war. A gentle spinster who had taken care of her mother falls for a gentle Japanese man in the South.

I love all of Augusta Trobaugh's books, and this one is no exception. It's a wonderful book on so many levels and captures the essence of what relationship and redemption truly look like.

Sophie, a middle-aged single woman, lives in a small town in Georgia. Her neighbor, Anne, takes on a Japanese gardener, Mr. Oto. Slowly, Sophie and Mr. Oto begin to speak, eventually developing a relationship. When the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, Mr. Oto's life is in danger.

This book was a bit slow and meandering. The plot never really seemed to go anywhere. I didn't really enjoy this book, I felt like I was just plodding through. There was also no real conclusion, which drives me crazy. Overall, 2 out of 5 stars.

Lovely sweet story of two 50somethings finding love at the start of the second world war. The hero was an extremely mild mannered man of Japanese descent and the heroine was a spinster who had spent her whole life looking after her mother and aunts. Most of the story was told through the eyes of the hero. I really enjoyed how he felt so much for the heroine without even really knowing her. And after they met, he really treated her like a princess. I loved the description of the painting that he did of her and would have loved to really see it.

The book was a fast read but the story was slow moving and rather lyrical. The imagery was lovely and the relationship seemed destined and true.

I could have used just a bit more concreteness at the end but all in all a very sweet story.

I received this from netGalley for review.

I bought this book from a Friends of the Library shop in Florida, because the title grabbed me, and the synopsis said it was a blackly hilarious take on Arsenic and Old Lace.

It probably is (a take on Arsenic and Old Lace). And it's not bad. But it's not great either. It's a story that plays on, and exaggerates in small ways, the eccentricity that is often found in small towns in the Deep South (USA). These are all Good Christian Women (though the book isn't at all oriented toward 'being Christian') who have all been graced with names straight out of the Bible (Zion, Beulah and Sweet - from the hymn Sweet by and by) and have all grown up together. Sweet finds herself in a late-in-life marriage to a man that turns out to be a violent abuser, and Beulah and Zion take it upon themselves to graciously and politely do away with him before he does away with Sweet.

The elements are all there for a great story, but I found it a tad tedious. It felt like it took forever to get going, though as I look at it know, it was only 60 pages in that Sweet finds herself suffering the consequences of a hasty marriage and Zion and Beulah start plotting. If the domestic violence isn't a trigger warning, there is the aftermath of a horrible incident involving a pet canary that the main character Beulah kept bring up again and again. The first telling of it was bad enough but I almost DNF'd the book because she just kept bringing it up again and again.

The ending is ambiguous, which is fine, but the author stressed the ambiguousness of the ending too strongly so that by the last page I was muttering 'yeah, yeah, I get it - we'll never know' to myself.

It wasn't a bad book; I wasn't scrambling to read it, but I wasn't avoiding it either. It's very readable. It just isn't as gripping a story as it could have been had the characters and pacing been a bit more balanced.

I thought this was a charming little story. Sort of a combination of Golden Girls meet Agatha Christie, combined with elements of Arsenic and Old Lace. The main characters of the story are Beulah, Sweet, Wildwood and Zion, four genteel southern ladies in Tea-Olive, Georgia who attend church together and like to go birdwatching. Their old friend Love-Divine has died and left them a parcel of land for their bird watching activities. She's also left money to the local library and the Homework Helpers Group that helps local kids with their school work. The only caveat is, if the club breaks up, the town obtains the land to do what they want with it.

We learn how the ladies met, meet their families, and hear about their careers. None have children and a couple have never been married. They follow traditions where every girl is named for a church hymn, and they love their small town lives in Tea-Olive. Soon, retired New York Judge Hyson Breed moves to Tea-Olive where he courts Sweet. They marry and he immediately gains control of her family estate, which he plans to develop. In just a short time Hyson isolates Sweet from her friends. Beulah and Zion worry about Sweet and when they sneak over to see her they notice bruises and other signs of abuse. Once they realize Hyson is planning to exploit the town they decide the only way to save Tea-Olive and Sweet would be his death.

This book was witty and well written. The events and location of the story were interesting, and I loved the way it showed the ladies' friendship. The ending was really wonderful. It's not a story for anyone wanting a complex plot but is more of a cozy type of novel.

Started but didn't finish

Loved this, even though it started slow imo the characters & the lives they led were interesting, descriptions wonderful. The pace picked up & turned up all sorts of unexpected things to end in an unexpected way - I was able to get the full southern feeling by hearing the audible version too.

I thought this was a charming little story. Sort of a combination of Golden Girls meet Agatha Christie, combined with elements of Arsenic and Old Lace.

The main characters of the story are Beulah, Sweet, Wildwood and Zion, four genteel southern ladies in Tea-Olive, Georgia who attend church together and like to go birdwatching. Their old friend Love-Divine has died and left them a parcel of land for their bird watching activities. She's also left money to the local library and the Homework Helpers Group that helps local kids with their school work. The only caveat is, if the club breaks up, the town obtains the land to do what they want with it.

We learn how the ladies met, meet their families, and hear about their careers. None have children and a couple have never been married. They follow traditions where every girl is named for a church hymn, and they love their small town lives in Tea-Olive.

Soon, retired New York Judge Hyson Breed moves to Tea-Olive where he courts Sweet. They marry and he immediately gains control of her family estate, which he plans to develop. In just a short time Hyson isolates Sweet from her friends. Beulah and Zion worry about Sweet and when they sneak over to see her they notice bruises and other signs of abuse. Once they realize Hyson is planning to exploit the town they decide the only way to save Tea-Olive and Sweet would be his death.

This book was witty and well written. The events and location of the story were interesting, and I loved the way it showed the ladies' friendship. The ending was really wonderful. It's not a story for anyone wanting a complex plot but is more of a “cozy” type of novel.

This was a hard book for me to get into. It took me three tries to get started but I've finally finished it. I will say it ends better than it starts but the language of the book just doesn't grab me. I would have enjoyed more connection with the characters. I will say, the story itself was decent. As other reviews mentioned, it may be that it was just a little too southern for me.

Loved this! Like a blend of the Help and Driving Miss Daisy. Will read more from this author.

This book was a fun little read and highlights the unique form of women's friendships in the south. The book was set in little Tea Olive Georgia and we meet some fun and whimsical ladies of the Tea Olive Bird Watching Society. These are women that grew up together, and whose ancestors settled and farmed in the area around Tea Olive. They are all busy with volunteer work, board meetings and of course bird watching. Then a new man arrives in town, and a retired judge from the north no less. The whole community is all in a twitter. Then they begin to realize that this judge doesn't necessarily have their best interests at heart and has his own hidden agenda. When one of the club's ladies marries the judge, it brings all the troubles ever closer. Reading as these ladies plan ways to help their friend is hilarious. This author does a good job of character development, and the setting is portrayed realaistically too. Lots of fun and quite delightful.

I am not sure what I was expecting when I started this book but what I got was a beautiful chaste love story between southern belle Sophie and Japanese American Mr. Oto. This was a beautifully written look at the south during the time of Pearl Harbor and everything changed for Mr. Oto and the women in his life his boss Miss Ann and his friend (and woman he loves) Miss Sophie. But this was so much more than a love story; it’s a friendship story and also a historical look at a very tough time especially for Japanese Americans and the people who cared about them, and the people who blamed them for everything.

This was a sweet story and even the “bad guy/woman” was redeemable she wasn’t so much a bad guy just an old busybody. My favorite character was Big Sally, or Queen Sally as she’d rather be called, she took such good care of everyone. I liked the friendships in this book between Sally, Sophie and Miss Ann.

This is a short, but good story , if you are a fan southern fiction and/or friendship stories I would recommend this one.

This was narrated by Rue McClanahan of Golden Girls fame and she did a good job but sometimes with someone so recognizable her voice almost gets in the way of the story because you are picturing her as all the characters instead of the characters speaking for themselves.

4 stars

Book was a bit too Souther and a bit too religious for me. Was expecting something different. Did not enjoy the characters.

Sophie is always a good, obedient daughter, even after her mother has died. She has made a comfortable compromise with life. It is wonderful to see the possibility of something more for Sophie. But wars and hurricanes and gossip intervene.

What a wonderful book river Jordan is. I enjoyed it as much as I did Praise Jerusalem. Trobaugh does a wonderful job on this story about a dysfunctional southern family. The characters are engaging and the novel is well written. It delivers an uplifting wonderful message about finding oneself in spite of difficulties and toxic people in our lives. I highly recommend this wonderful story.

I had no idea what to expect from this Netgalley book. I knew the synopsis - basically that a middle-aged spinster forms a friendship, perhaps more, with the Japanese gardener working for a friend right at the onset of America's involvement in WWII; that could go any number of ways.

The way Sophie and the Rising Sun went was utterly beautiful. Mr. Oto - and that is all I'm going to call him, as his given name deserves the reveal it gets - is a lovely, lovely character, a man who has done a bit of drifting and is mildly startled to find himself fifty years old and gardening in Georgia. Sophie is a woman who has spent her entire life tending to the old ladies in her life, her mother and two elderly aunts, and now that they have all passed on she is doing some drifting of her own, continuing in the same direction like an object in motion remaining in motion without any outside influence. As the two drift together, something happens.

If this had been all there was to the story - a gently growing connection between two people of different races and very different backgrounds - it would have been a good book. Placing a significant step in the growth of the relationship on the morning of December 7, 1947 helped push it over into something beyond good. With the bombing of Pearl Harbor comes, instantaneously, a rage against the Japanese or anyone who might be Japanese which ... sadly, which is reminiscent of the backlash against anyone perceived as Muslim in the time right after 9/11. A layer is peeled back from the soft and gentle Southern way of life, and what lies underneath is dangerous. Suddenly the town busybody, Ruth, is more than just a plaguey nuisance: she is a very real threat to not only what is emerging between Sophie and Mr. Oto but to their safety. Theirs, and that of anyone who helps them.

There is a rather Asian feel to the story-telling, elegant and reserved, echoing the description of Mr. Oto's painting (one of those fictional pieces I'd love to be able to see). This is no ordinary romance novel where two people begin tearing each other's clothes off twelve minutes after they meet. The romance at its heart is gentler, harking back to older novels in the quiet intensity of feeling. Loved it.½

"...This is a story partly about love, and partly about that love not being confined to social constructs like race. For those of you who like their romance toned-down, this is especially a book for you, I think, as there is no smut at all..."

For full review, please visit me at Here Be Bookwyrms on Blogger:

http://herebebookwyrms.blogspot.com/2012/05/sophie-and-rising-sun.html

Review first published on my blog: http://memoriesfrombooks.blogspot.com/2012/05/sophie-and-rising-sun.html

Sophie and the Rising Sun is a story of World War II - specifically of World War II right as the attack on Pearl Harbor happens. It is a story of that time but set in a small Georgia town. As such, it is period piece about the American South.

Sophie is the town spinster with an overpowering mother and a lost love in her background. Ms. Anne is the one in town not afraid to do things a little differently. Ms. Ruth is the town busybody. And Mr. Oto is the anomaly in town - an American of Japanese heritage who lands in the town and stays. The book is about the "friendship" between Sophie and Mr. Oto and the ramifications of the Pearl Harbor attacks on this small town and these individuals. The book is about the choices the characters make in response to the war and the consequences.

Sophie and the Rising Sun is a delightful story to read. It is definitely more a story of small town America than war. The news of Pearl Harbor is the trigger for what follows. However, the focus clearly remains on the individual characters and this small town. It is interesting to feel the town and characters so far removed from the war yet at the same time so deeply embedded in it because of the prejudice and fear it created.

The prejudices in our lives come across so clearly in this book. Mr. Oto is as American as Ms. Ruth, yet is judged by the way he looks and speaks and by his heritage. Certain people cannot look past the surface differences to see that he is just like them. We would like to think this does not happen here in America, but unfortunately it did and it still does. So, I found myself laughing because the "period piece" nature of this book made the prejudices seem ludicrous. However, I also found myself thinking that this could very well occur now but hoping that it will not.

***Reviewed for the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program***

Set in small-town Georgia, the repressed old maid Sophie and the strange Chinese gardener take notice of each other. Then Pearl Harbor is bombed and Mr. Oto let's it slip that he isn't Chinese...his family is Japanese. Mr. Oto's employer hides him in her father's old fishing shack, but Sophie finds him and then the hurricane hits!
Not my usual fare, a little too Harlinqueny and predictable for me, but a pretty good twist on the old love story.

Wanted a bit more development in the relationship between Sophie and Mr. Oto. Also, I felt like I missed out a lot of Sophie's life before Mr. Oto came into the picture. The author went into quite some detail about Sophie's younger years, but then there wasn't so much in the years after her aunts and mother died. There was even less about Mr. Oto's life. Wanted to now more about the mystery of Sophie's past relationship and also Mr. Oto's past relationship.

There was some nice imagery in places.

I didn't have much feeling for Sophie or for Mr. Oto. The strongest feeling I had during the book was a horrible dislike for the Miss Ruth. I had to work through this book because I just wasn't feeling the relationship.

This is a sweet southern tale of a quiet love affair between an aging spinster and a mysterious Japanese gentleman who accidentally winds up in a small town in Georgia. Their love grows slowly and when the towns snarky gossip monger Miss Ruth starts to suspect something they must hide their feelings, and Mr. Oto himself as well. Pearl Harbor has just been bombed and being of Japanese decent was dangerous during this time. Despite the prejudice and racial bigotry it is a lovely read and rang true for me. I loved the characters voices, especially Miss Anne's, one of the books narrators. She is a hoot with her sneaky sense of humor. Highly recommended.

After some tragic events, a devastated and ashamed Mr. Oto, a middle-aged man born in America of Japanese parents, ends up in Salty Creek, Georgia, a couple of years before Pearl Harbor. Sophie is a middle-aged spinster who grew up in Salty Creek, a daughter and a niece of a group of bitter and needy women. Sophie spends the best years of her life taking care of these women with no thanks but manages to maintain an innate sweetness and dignity. Surprisingly, these two lonely people find themselves drawn to each other, a relationship that doesn't seem to have much chance of survival in the 1940s South and particularly after the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. The end of the story is filled with clues but isn't tied up in a neat bow. The reader is allowed to decide for themselves how things turn out for Mr. Ott and Sophie. A beautiful, well-written love story.½