Julie Cantrell

I learned a very good lesson from my father when he lost his sight and became an audio listener of books. I would ask him, "Dad, what are you reading?" he would often shrug as if he didn't know. I would then say, "What's it about?" and he would often reply, "Well, I don't know." To this, exasperated, I would say, "Is it good?" and he would always answer, "Why, yes. All books are good." What my dad was trying to tell me was simple, don't judge a book by its cover (or backflap).

I have once again become a voracious reader, listening and reading an average of two books per week as well as reading all day for my job. I have long since stopped reading backflaps or snippets from promoters, there's no time to cull through the one million plus titles published each year (true!). So, I just pick a book because it's next in line on a shelf, or in the queue of the Audible lineup, or I found it in a stack from the local thrift store. And, like my father, I am hard pressed to find a book where I don't learn something (even if it's meaningless), or don't enjoy some part of it. Books are good.

That all being said, and back to the book at hand, Perennials - I had no idea when I picked it up that it was published by a Christian house. I likely wouldn't have taken it on had I known, I would have judge the book before I picked it up. To my good fortune, I didn't know this until after I had finished listening (I did audio for this book).

What a wonderful, moral-rich, non-preachy, feel-good, tapped several of the big societal issues (adultery, death, divorce, pride, bullying, regret, work vs. family; you get the point), without ever once making me squirm with too much religious overtones, or want to run off to confess my improprieties. As a flower child at heart, I loved the continual nuances of people and growth compared to good soil and water, seasons, and blooms. This book was beautifully done.

Without a foul word one, a raunchy or explicit scene moving beyond butterflies or hand holding, I was intrigued, captivated, and anxious to read more. I strongly recommend Perennials on a day when you need a lift, need to know you are not alone in your struggles, and don't want to hear morality shoved down your throat.

Well done, Julie Cantrell!… (meer)

Self-exiled daughter of the South returns home to Mississippi at the behest of her parents and has to deal with painful memories, guilt, and her sister's hostility. There's drama and flowers and sweet tea and trauma, and a whole lot of name-dropping of Mississippi writers like Faulkner and Welty, along with shallow ruminations on their work. Faulkner and Welty would, no doubt, be turning over in their graves if Cantrell were representative of the state's crop of contemporary writers. Poorly written, with two dimensional characters, a bunch of God-talk and woo-woo quasi-spiritual bunk, I basically ended up hate-listening to this. The audio narrator did the book no favors with some really terrible accents and weird inflections.

2.5 stars

ETA: According to some other LT reviews, this is classified as "Christian fiction." Had I known that, I never would have picked it up :-P Buyer (borrower) beware, I guess...… (meer)

Historical fiction and coming of age story about Millie, a poor girl living in Mississippi in the 1930’s-1940’s with her abusive alcoholic father and depressed drug-addicted mother. She interacts with the Romany travelers that arrive each spring and longs to follow them out of town, but the responsibilities and love she feels toward her mother make it difficult to leave. Her life is further burdened by a series of tragedies.

This book is about decisions we make in life and the ramifications of those decisions. Oftentimes decisions must be made when very young and incapable of fully anticipating the consequences. It is also about the human responses to hardship and abuse. I thought the characters were well-drawn, especially the protagonist, and the writing flowed smoothly. This book contains an element of Christian theology, which was culturally appropriate for the time period in the American South. It shows both positives and negatives associated with “religious” people. I didn’t find it overbearing, but it will not be to everyone’s taste.

The primary difficulty I had with it concerned an immediate “bouncing back” from trauma. Horrible things have happened Millie and I found her actions afterward difficult to believe. I felt something was missing in helping the reader understand her responses. There were also several historical inaccuracies, especially with respect to references to WWII, which were not necessary to the plot and could have easily been omitted. Content warnings include domestic violence, rape, drug abuse, and scenes involving animals that may be disturbing to sensitive readers.… (meer)

Two things I wasn’t fully aware of when I was given this book to read; one, it was the second in a series and two, it is classified as being Christian literature.

Maybe my inability to connect with any of the characters in this book was due to the fact that I hadn’t read the first one in the series, and because of this I didn’t understand some of their personality traits and motivations behind the things they did and said throughout the book. Those I did connect with, and thoroughly enjoyed were characters, which obviously from the way they appeared in the novel, were making a debut on these particular pages. Maybe because I read this out of sequence, there were many times I just didn’t find the characters believable at all, and this really disappointed me to a point where I nearly consigned this book to the ‘to be finished later’ pile.

The saving grace in this novel, and the one that kept me reading through to the end was the vivid way in which the Author describes the small corner of Colorado the main protagonists call home. When the main character sees the scenery before her for the first time, and it takes her breath away it also takes the readers breath away too, such is the skill this Author shows when writing about the locations in which the novel is set. The Author has also obviously done a great deal of research into the local plants and herbs of the area, as well as the crafts of quilting and knitting and this shines through when she explains the use for the herbs and plants encountered. In many ways this book could have so easily become preachy as it is full of references to God, but it didn’t. While staying true to its genre it still managed to portray a harsh and gritty way of life for those who were trying to break ground and start new lives not only partway through a world war, but so close to the end of the depression era.

As much as this was an enjoyable read it didn’t make me want to backtrack and open the first, and I highly doubt I will read anymore in this series. I would recommend this to readers of Christian literature, but I would also advise they read Into the Free #1, before tackling this book.

Originally reviewed on: http://catesbooknuthut.com/2014/01/17/review-when-mountains-move-into-the-free-2...
… (meer)