Vicki Covington

I have mixed emotions about this book. It was fairly interesting to read, but none of the characters really "grabbed" me. What I liked best about it, I think, is that it was set near Birmingham, Alabama, where I lived for 34 years. I recognized many of the places, and the one trip into the city was particularly interesting for that reason.

Set in a coal mining community in Jefferson County, Alabama west of Birmingham, this is a story of the events before and during a mining disaster.

Keller is about the marry Laura, the daughter of the owners of a service station and general store, against her father's wishes. Her mother manages the store, and her father works occasionally at the nearby steel mill, but mostly just hangs around the store drinking, shooting clay pigeons, "skeets," and getting drunker and angrier by the hour. He threatens his future son-in-law with a shotgun, so they secretly delay the wedding by a day. As it turns out, the new wedding date is December 7, 1941. However, the Pearl Harbor attack and World War II are only mentioned in passing. The young man, Keller, is afraid he will have to go to war.

On Christmas Eve that year, a wall falls at the No. 3 mine, trapping Keller's father and his crew. Men work around the clock, trying to dig them out. Meanwhile, Keller's mother fulfills a singing engagement at the Catholic Church in Birmingham, and the pregnant camp prostitute goes into labor. (The identity of the baby's father is the topic of much gossip and speculation in the community.)

Vicki Covington and her husband Dennis Covington live and work in Birmingham, Alabama. Both are authors and have been newspaper columnists.… (meer)

A fictional account of the Civil Rights Freedom Rides as seen through the eyes of a pre-teen girl and her teen age brother. They lived in a hotel run by their parents, where many news reporters from all over stayed, as well as one Freedom Rider, and which was frequented by the infamous Bull Conner.

It was interesting for the most part, but ended abruptly with too many questions left hanging.

A hard copy former library book marked "discard," in good condition. I acquired it last fall but failed to register it then. I'm pretty sure I got it from a Little Free Library in Montgomery, Alabama.… (meer)

An enjoyable book for several reasons. First, it is set in my hometown of Birmingham, AL and it's always a neat thing to read a book set in a location with which you are intimately familiar. Particularly if, as is true in this case, the author uses the location well and accurately.

But the best part of Gathering Home for me was the central character, Whitney. A teenager whose adoptive father is a minister running for Congress, we get tantalizing glimpses into her thoughts and character without ever seeing it clearly. A parallel, in a way, to the type of person she is -- a "good" girl who does what is expected and gives all that is needed while holding back her core, even from the adoptive parents she loves dearly.

My next favorite character was Eva, Whitney's birth grandmother. I have met Eva personally in dozens of incarnations in my growing-up years -- a Southern lady with knee callouses from gardening, with a pitcher of sweet tea always on call, involved with her neighbor and her church, loving her grown son but not interfering in his life.

A very engaging book and one I hope will find more appreciative readers.… (meer)