Miss Julia series by Ann B. Ross

Reviewed by Doris

Miss Julia is one of those book characters who becomes a dear, old friend. From the beginning of the series with Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind to the newest entry Miss Julia to the Rescue, you grow more and more attached to this denizen of Abbotsville, North Carolina, and the cast of characters who surround her. Ann B. Ross has a sharp wit and sharp sense of comedy as she moves Miss Julia through adventures that tend to be one step from calamity and make readers laugh out loud. Perhaps because I have known a Miss Julia or two while growing up not far from Ross’s home in Asheville, I always look forward to Miss Julia and her housekeeper Lillian getting in to the car to go check on “something.”  

We first meet her in Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind. Miss Julia has recently buried her husband of 44 years, Wesley Lloyd Springer. Though Wesley was the town’s banker, largest real estate holder, and generally most obnoxious man, Miss Julia has been kept in the dark about the nature of his wealth—not to mention some of his other activities. Discovering that she is now a very, very wealthy widow and no longer under the glare of a mean-spirited miser, Miss Julia has been making slow adjustments to her new life. She’s feeling at loose ends and unsettled when a short-skirted, bleached blonde named Hazel Marie drags a nine year old boy into Miss Julia’s parlor and announces the child is Wesley Lloyd’s son. One look at the child’s eyes which are exactly like his unlamented father’s, and Miss Julia knows she is facing a scandal that could feed Abbotsville’s gossip mill for years to come. There is also her minister who wants to help Miss Julia spend a bunch of that new wealth adding to his church coffers, a kidnapping, and possibly a murder. “Ah, Lawd,” as Miss Julia would say,” It is more than a body should have to bear!” Miss Julia, in the finest tradition of the steel hand in the velvet glove, takes charge of young Lloyd, Hazel Marie, and numerous other characters while she solves a mystery or three and is helped along by Lillian and Mr. Sam, the charming and handsome lawyer who lives just down the street.

One of the best things about the Miss Julia series is the development of the characters. Ross writes with a sure hand as Miss Julia opens her heart to young Lloyd and you see a lovely relationship develop between this childless woman and bright, overly mature child. Her relationship with Lillian is based on their respective strengths, mutual respect, and years spent working together. Sweetest of all is Miss Julia’s developing romance with Mr. Sam. After years of neglect and disdain from Wesley Lloyd it is fun to follow Miss Julia’s first real romance with a man who is enchanted with her in every way.

Grab a glass of lemonade, settle back in the porch swing, and enjoy a little time with Miss Julia!

The series in order: (All are available at the main BPL)

Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind

Miss Julia Takes Over

Miss Julia Throws a Wedding

Miss Julia Hits the Road

Miss Julia Meets Her Match

Miss Julia’s School of Beauty

Miss Julia Stands Her Ground

Miss Julia Strikes Back

Miss Julia Paints the Town

Miss Julia Delivers the Goods

Miss Julia Renews Her Vows

Miss Julia Rocks the Cradle

Miss Julia to the Rescue

Nevermore: Hunger Games, Elizabeth & Hazel, Calico Joe, Miss Julia & more!

Every seat around the table was filled at the Nevermore Book Club last Tuesday and the discussion lively as the Club took on topics ranging from the Pulitzer Prize to DNA that provides a plot twist in the best seller Defending Jacob. (Yes, Gone with the Wind was mentioned again!)

This year the Pulitzer Prize Board refused to award a Pulitzer for fiction.  A couple of us thought the possibility of a tie in the vote from the Pulitzer jury may have given the Board which makes the final Pulitzer choices reluctance to award a prize to just one author. Others felt the three choices put forth by the Pulitzer jury did not appeal to a large audience. The three-person Pulitzer selection jury read more than 300 books from which they chose The Pale King by David Foster Wallace, Swamplandia by Karen Russell, and Train Dreams by Denis Johnson. Several club members had read one or more of the selected books. No one seemed overly enthusiastic with the choices. (The fiction selection committee has since revealed they were unanimous in their choices of the books nominated for the Prize in fiction which does away with our tie theory!)

Mr. Barry read from an article published by Meg Wolitzer that raises questions about women authors’ works being considered “woman’s fiction” and  being relegated to the second shelf while male authors who do “serious” fiction are top shelf. (See the link to the article http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/01/books/review/on-the-rules-of-literary-fiction-for-men-and-women.html?_r=1) The discussion that followed was pointed and clear: how important is the gender of the writer to most people? Most of us are interested a good story or a well-done book without regard to gender. When you look at the books that have truly become part of the public consciousness over the last few years, women authors such as J. K. Rowling, Stephenie Meyer, E. L. James, and a host of other women writers have dominated the field.

Books being read by Club members include:

Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock by David Margolick tells the story of the 1957 desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. The names Elizabeth Eckford and Hazel Bryan Massery may not be well known, but the image of them from September 1957 surely is: an African-American high school girl, dressed in white, walking stoically in front of Little Rock Central High School, and a white girl standing directly behind her, face twisted in hate, screaming racial epithets. This famous photograph captures the full anguish of desegregation—in Little Rock and throughout the South—and an epic moment in the civil rights movement. Our reader said the book tells a very painful story about the women and bond they share even today, but it also gives a look at what was really happening at the time. She said, “Everyone had a hand in this pie.” 

Miss Julia to the Rescue by Ann B. Ross is another adventure with the intrepid Miss Julia as she rescues her favorite private detective from a deadly situation in West Virginia. Ross’ Miss Julia is what we call in the South a “hoot.”  Ever so proper, determined to help her loved ones, and egged on by her own nosiness and need to meddle in other lives, Miss Julia jumps right in with hilarity and sweet resolve. Our reader says Miss Julia makes him laugh out loud.

Calico Joe by John Grisham is a baseball story and a story of fathers and sons. Our reader says it is beautifully written and totally different from Grisham’s legal novels, but it does show baseball as “brutality disguised as sport.”

Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins has another reader enthralled. One of the hottest book series in the world and a blockbuster movie, these books are highly popular with both young adult and adult readers. Several members of the group have read all three books and loved them!

Lois Lowry wrote an earlier dystopian YA series which began with the Newbery Award winning book The Giver.  The book is set in the year 2078, where everything is peaceful.  People are assigned their roles in life and young Jonas has been assigned the role of Receiver of Memories.  As he begins his training, he begins to find that his world may not be quite as he has been told.  Gathering Blue is the second book in the series, and our reader had progressed to the third and final book, Messenger.  This is a series that should be read in order.

Based on the recommendations of another member one reader is immersed in Defending Jacob by William Landay. His take is that the novel is not only an excellent mystery, but also a study in relationships between parents and children, and husbands and wives. He thinks the ending brings about a new definition of parenthood. Defending Jacob is highly recommended by three members of the Club!

The Shoemaker’s Wife by Adriana Trigiani is Mr. Barry’s book of the week. Spurred by Ms. Trigiani’s visit last week for National Library Week, he is finding the book a relaxing, easy, enjoyable read.

What's Hot for April!

 It's time to see what books top the reserve list at Bristol Public Library:

16. Miss Julia to the Rescue by Ann B. Ross is the thirteenth in the series and will be welcomed by fans of the feisty widow. 

15. Loving by Karen Kingsbury is the fourth and final book in the Bailey Flanigan series, about a young woman who leaves home to find a career and adventure.  The earlier titles are Leaving, Learning and Longing. 

14. The Lost Years by Mary Higgins Clark uses Biblical archaeology and lore in her newest mystery.  Biblical scholar Jonathan Lyons believes he’s found a letter written by Jesus, but before his discovery is confirmed Lyons is found murdered.  The police believe he was shot by his wife, an Alzheimer’s sufferer who knew he was having an affair.  It’s up to the couple’s daughter Mariah to uncover the truth.

13. The Innocent by David Baldacci is the Virginia author’s latest thriller.  Government hit man Will Robie has never refused an assignment—until now.  Soon he finds himself on the run with a young girl who may hold the key to a vast conspiracy.  The book will be published April 17.

12.  Home Front by Kristin Hannah is back on the list after dropping off for a month. This contemporary family story deals with a family’s struggle when the wife is deployed to Iraq. Hannah practiced law before becoming a full time writer and has won numerous romance writer awards.

11. Force of Nature by C.J. Box is the new mystery thriller with Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett.  This series is picking up fans very quickly! The first book in the series, Open Season, was a major award-winner, and Box has maintained a high standard.  He has also written several standalone novels.

10. Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James is the new digital phenomenon.  Originally available only as an ebook, it will be published as a traditional book in April with two sequels to follow.  The steamy plot concerns a young naïve college student who becomes attracted to an older, very wealthy and very worldly businessman.

9.What Doesn’t Kill You by Iris Johansen focuses on Catherine Ling, a character introduced in Chasing the Night, who embarks on a globe-trotting chase to find the creator of a very powerful and undetectable poison.

8. Unwritten Laws by Greg Iles has been delayed but should be published in 2012.  This is the long-awaited first part of his newest thriller, delayed when Iles was severely injured in a car wreck.

7. Rainshadow Road by Lisa Kleypas is the book in a trilogy by this increasingly popular contemporary romance writer.  Betrayed by her fiancé, glass artist Lucy finds herself being romanced by a new man—but is it love or a set-up?

6.  Unnatural Acts by Stuart Woods is the latest entry in his very popular and long running Stone Barrington series.   What appears at first to be an easy assignment— to show a billionaire’s son the error of his ways—becomes very complicated when an old case intervenes.

5.  The Shoemaker’s Wife by Adriana Trigiani is not only a love story of two people, but a love story for two countries as well.  It’s also a very personal story for Trigiani: she based part of the book on her grandparents’ courtship.

4. Eleventh Hour by James Patterson is the new entry in the Women’s Murder Club series.  It will be published May 7, 2012.

3. Stay Close by Harlan Coben begins seventeen years earlier, when a husband and father failed to return home and hasn’t been heard from since. Old cases never go away; and soon a detective, a soccer mom and a down on his luck photographer will find the past can sometimes destroy the present.

2.  Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult examines the question of end of life issues as a divided family tries to decide what to do after a terrible accident leaves the father in a coma.  Picoult is wonderful at humanizing difficult moral questions, leaving readers both thoughtful and haunted.

And the number one reserve book is:

1.  Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris, the penultimate “Southern Vampires” novel. Fans are eager to see what’s in store for our favorite psychic waitress, Sookie Stackhouse.  Harris has said that she intends to end the series with book 13, so there should be only one more after this one.  If you want to start at the beginning, read Dead Until Dark.

See a book you'd like?  You can add your name to reserve list by logging into your library account or by calling the library to do it for you.