Friday, May 30, 2008

Southern Reading Challenge: Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen

Gilmore, Susan Gregg. Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen. New York: Shaye Areheart Books, 2008.

Catherine Grace Cline lives in Ringgold, Georgia. She is reared by her father, a Baptist minister. Growing up without her mother, Catherine Grace seeks womanly advice from the next-door neighbor Gloria Jean who has been married five times. Catherine Grace has one dream--to leave Ringgold on her 18th birthday. With Gloria Jean's help and advice through the years, she is able to accomplish this. Secrets from the past threaten Catherine Grace's future. I'll stop here because I don't want to give away the rest of this excellent coming-of-age novel. It is sometimes funny and sometimes tear-jerking. I didn't want to put it down and stayed up way past bedtime on a work night to finish reading it.

I forgot to scan the cover before I returned the book to the library! Sorry about that!

This was read for Maggie's Southern Book Challenge.

6 comments:

Julie said...

I'm glad you loved the book! I so wish I hadn't read it yet so that I could be reading it for the first time now! The author, Susan Gregg Gilmore, is wonderful. A book trailer for Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen has just been posted on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/susangregggilmore

maggie moran said...

It sounds very interesting. What kind of advice can you get from a 5 time divorcee?!?

My boss is thinking of using this book as discussion for our Reading Round Table. Apparently, a lady at work checked it out and her hubby picked it up and read it. Her hubby being a preacher was said to have gotten all sorts of sermon ideas and quotes duringhis reading. This alone is spurring her decision.

Did you get any sense it was a discussable book?

Susan Gregg Gilmore said...

Thank you so much for the very nice compliment! I just finished Book #2 this morning and hopefully when it comes out sometime next year you will enjoy just as much as Dairy Queen.

Thanks again for the heartfelt support!

Susan

By the way, check out my YouTube video -- just type in Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen.

maggie moran said...

Oh my, Lori! An Authors Visit!!! 80

Lori Thornton said...

Yes - it's quite exciting!

I think there could be questions for discussion--just as there are with most coming-of-age novels. There will probably be a reader's guide with some of those questions in the paperback edition when it comes out.

Lori Thornton said...

The book trailer is very good! Thanks for the recommendation.