#FridayBookShare was created by Shelley Wilson for book lovers to share what they’re reading. The idea is to answer a few simple questions about the novel and post on Fridays.
Today, I’d like to share The Ladies’ Room’ by Carolyn Brown.
I can’t remember how I came across this book, but I was impressed when I saw it had over 8,000 reviews on amazon.com, and after reading it, I can understand why. It’s a fabulous novel.
First line of the book.
If I wiggled again, Great-aunt Gert was going to sit straight up in that pale pin coffin and give me an evil glare the way she used to when I was a child and couldn’t sit still in church.
Recruit fans by adding the book blurb.
Secrets told in the church ladies’ room are supposed to stay in the ladies’ room. But that doesn’t mean that what Trudy overhears there during her great-aunt Gertrude’s funeral won’t change the rest of her life.
Trudy has a daughter in the middle of a major rebellion, a two-timing husband who has been cheating for their entire married life, and a mother with Alzheimer’s residing in the local nursing home. She doesn’t really need a crumbling old house about to fall into nothing but a pile of memories and broken knickknacks.
Billy Lee Tucker, resident oddball in Tishomingo, Oklahoma, lived next door to Gert, and in her will she leaves him the funds to help Trudy remodel the old house. That’s fine with Billy Lee, because he’s been in love with Trudy since before they started school. And just spending time with her is something he’d never ever allowed himself to dream about.
A beautiful home rises up from the old house on Broadway, and right along with it rises up a relationship. But is Trudy too scarred from what she heard in the ladies’ room to see a lovely future with Billy Lee?
Introduce the main character using only three words.
I’m afraid I need six words today! Trudy starts off by being gullible, good natured, and submissive, but as the novel progresses, she becomes assertive, brutally honest, and courageous.
Delightful design (add the cover image of the book).
Audience appeal (who would enjoy reading this book?)
Anyone who likes a contemporary family drama with plenty of heartache, which is also humorous, romantic and uplifting.
Your favourite line/scene.
Everything happens as a result of Trudy accidentally overhearing a conversation by two of her spiteful cousins, while she’s in the ladies’ room. This is what happens after she leaves.
****
I walked out of the ladies’ room with my shoulders straight and a fake smile on my face. A lady kept up appearances and never lost her dignity—even when her world had just shattered around her in the stall of the women’s bathroom.
Marty, Betsy, and I were required to ride together in the limousine to the cemetery for the final bit of the service. They were whispering when I crawled inside. At least the fat escaping through the hole in my panty hose reminded me that I had a murder weapon at hand. I could strangle them and then shove half my Snickers bar into each of their mouths after they were dead and swear they’d both choked to death while weeping for Great-aunt Gert. No one would doubt frumpy old Trudy’s word.
“How you holdin’ up?” Marty asked.
“I’m just fine,” I told her.
“Well, you look like warmed-over sin,” Betsy said.
“And you look absolutely beautiful,” I said sarcastically.
****
See my full review here on amazon.
Rereading Jane Eyre 