Between, Georgia

Overview

Nonny Frett understands the meaning of the phrase "in between a rock and a hard place" better than any woman alive. She's got two mothers, "one deaf-blind and the other four baby steps from flat crazy." She's got two men: a husband who's easing out the back door; and a best friend, who's laying siege to her heart in her front yard. And she has two families: the Fretts, who stole her and raised her right; and the Crabtrees, who won't forget how they were done wrong. Now, in Between, Georgia, a feud that began the night Nonny was born is escalating and threatening to expose family secrets.
Ironically, it might be just what the town needs...if only Nonny weren't stuck in between.

Editorial Reviews

Jackson's author biography reveals her to be a "former actor," but listeners will guess that for themselves from the first few tracks of this wonderfully realized audiobook. Her brand of Southern fiction was born to be read out loud, with its quirky characters and astute observations about human nature. And Jackson herself is the one to do it; it's clear throughout the narration that she's having a raucous time as raconteur. As she spills forth the story of Nonny, a young Georgia woman caught in the tumble of a feud between her adoptive and biological families, there is palpable energy and sustained warmth. What is especially surprising is how skillfully Jackson manages the large array of divergent character voices, from the calm, matter-of-fact tones of Nonny's adopted mother to the wild redneck sensibility of her biological grandmother. Particularly delicious is Jackson's nasal, braying inflection to portray Nonny's bossy and narrow-minded aunt Bernise. The one place Jackson's dexterity falls short is in the novel's male voices, which sometimes fall flat. Otherwise, this is a delight from start to finish.
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Author Information

Bio of Joshilyn Jackson

I'm a thirty-something mother of two who lives in semi-rural Georgia. I have two kids, my son Sam, and my daughter, Maisy. I think of myself as a stay-at-home-mom who writes. I've always written. My parents have books I wrote and self-published using the "crayola-and-stapler" method. I've always made time for it and I married a man who took my writing seriously enough to treat my time like it was valuable even though I was "just a housewife." That's a rare man, but it took me awhile to see it; we were best friends for seven years before I noticed what a catch he was. So writing, wifing, mothering, that's my real life and it feels very natural to me to be doing all these things. Publishing, however, is quite a different story. Going to New York, book tours, seeing my words in print with gorgeous covers in my local book store....all that seems as fictional to me as anything I make up in my novels. I always have this faint tinge of surprise when I realize my friend Caryn, who calls me to talk books and ask for my pages and gives me invaluable feedback for revisions, is actually my editor who holds an actual book contract with my name on it in actual New York City. Weird. I'm very involved with my church, Powder Springs First United Methodist, and I am on the school council my son's elementary school. I like to bake and a bread machine is the top of my Christmas list. I think these things might surprise people who have read my novels. My books are funny and have, I think, a very positive world view at the bottom of them, but the humor is often dark and I tend to have some violent undercurrents. After Gods in Alabama came out, I got a little bit of a "What's a nice girl like you doing with a book like this " reaction. I think that edge in my stories comes from the way I read ' I am hugely eclectic and so my influences are very scattered.

Customer Reviews

• Great southern story

  Posted May 02, 2009 by Erin, Midlothian, Virginia

  I actually laughed out loud on multiple occasions while reading the book. The passengers on the plane with me probably thought I was a lunatic, but I couldn't help myself. I've never made a spectacle of myself while reading, so I must say that this book is fantastic. Any book that can bring out that kind of emotion must be great!

Additional Info

Imprint

Grand Central Publishing

Filesize

509.96 KB

Number of Pages

320

eBook ISBN

9780446505758