I Do Have To Say It Got Better!

Source:  www.goodreads.com

Source:  www.stephaniegayle.com

My Summer of Southern Discomfort  by Stephanie Gayle is about Natalie, a young lawyer who is forced to flee her New York City home due to a scandalous love affair at her old law firm.  She moves to Macon, Georgia and becomes a prosecutor.  It's about her struggle to forget the past, her struggle to learn to work with her crotchety coworker, her struggle with prosecuting a man accused of murder who may get the death penalty (she is opposed to the death penalty), her struggle to help a co worker's abused sister, and her neighbor LaLa who has a great garden...are you getting the point?

I have mixed feelings about this book.  At first I really disliked it.  I hate to say negative things about books, but this one just bugged me.  First of all the cover is misleading because I feel like Natalie wouldn't be caught dead in that outfit, nor would she be relaxing while reading in the grass.  I felt like the attempts at showing southern culture were a bit patronizing and judgemental...like she was better because she was from a northern state.

I do have to say that it got better, and I didn't hate this book.   I just feel like I read the middle of the story, and I was yearning for the beginning and the end and the thing that would tie it all together.



This is the second book completed for the...

A Cherry Tree And Two Houses

As you know I'm reading My Summer of Southern Discomfort which is set in Macon, Georgia as part of the "Southern Belle Reading Challenge" I'm participating in.  I haven't finished the book yet, but I came across some landmarks in the first few chapters that I was interesting in looking up.  Here's what I found out...


Yoshino Cherry Tree

Cherry Blossom Festival in Macon, GA
Source:  www.cherryblossom.com

"Each March, Macon becomes a pink cotton-spun paradise of delight as over 300,000 Yoshino cherry trees bloom in all their glory. And for 10 days, festival-lovers are treated to one of the most extravagant displays of springtime color in the nation as they visit the town referred to by Congressional Records as the Cherry Blossom Capital of the World."
(Source:  www.cherryblossom.com)

Source:  www.arborday.org

The tree that made the Macon Cherry Blossom Festival famous. Fragrant, white-pink flowers; oriental branching pattern; glossy bark; dark-green leaves. Likes full sun, well-drained soil. Grows to 40' to 50'.
(Source:  www.arborday.org)

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Hay House

Source:  www.georgiatrust.org



One of Georgia’s most distinguished structures, the Johnston-Felton-Hay House in Macon was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1974. It was built from 1855 to 1859 in the Italian Renaissance Revival style, a marked contrast to the more restrained Greek Revival architecture of the antebellum period.
(Source:  www.georgiatrust.org)

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Woodruff House

Source:  http://www.50plusdc.com/html/body_macon.html



Adjacent to the School of Law is a Greek Revival mansion built in 1836 for a railroad financier and banker. It was designed and built by Elam Alexander, a  local building contractor, architect, business man and philanthropist. The house was once owned by Colonel Joseph Bond, one of the South's wealthiest cotton planters. In 1887 a 16th birthday ball was held in the house for Winnie Davis, daughter of former Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Originally known as Overlook Mansion, it was acquired by Mercer University in 1978 and renamed Woodruff House. The University uses the house for banquets,  receptions and alumni events. It is open to the public only during the Cherry Blossom Festival in March, the run up to Christmas and for special events.

(Source:  http://www.50plusdc.com/)