Joshilyn Jackson: A Grown-up Kind of Pretty

If you got one of them fancy Kindle Fire thangamajigs or the Nook doohickey for Christmas, or Hannukah or Festivus or whatever, then you might just be looking for something to load onto it. Or whatever it is you people do. I suggest that you click here  if you have a kindle or click here if you have a nook and download every single book by Joshilyn Jackson.

That is all. I have spoken. So shall it be done.

Really? You need more information? Alrighty then. Jackson is sort of a round-the-way Atlantan (she’s really from the Redneck Riveria but let’s not go there) who writes southern novels. If you love Flannery O’Connor, and if you don’t there is something seriously wrong with you and you are probably a yankee, you will love her.  Her books are about southern families and all the crazy involved therein. Didn’t you just spend time with your family? It’s kind of like that but without actually having to deal with them in person.  The main characters are women that you may love or hate that you love. Mixed in with their southern charms are secrets and lies and guilt and shame and violent outbursts and murders and tearful remorse.  And all of this is somehow wrapped in a sort of humor that southerns use to embrace, and often  even deify, their own personal crazy. Or something. I am probably explaining this all wrong which is why I wanted to end this post a paragraph ago.

When I find a new author I know I am going to love I have to start with their first novel and work my way through. For Jackson, this is gods in Alabama.  It’s about this white southern Baptist girl who kills the star football player in high school and runs off to Chicago after making a deal with God to stop being a whore and telling lies if He just gives her a pass on this one transgression. Wait. That is not right. It’s about a white southern Baptist girl who falls in love with a black guy from Chicago and can’t tell her parents. No, actually that is but a teensy, tiny, to the point of almost being irrelevant, part of the storyline. I guess this is why those fancypants New York Times book reviews never tell you what the book is about. It’s just too hard. I reckon a fancypants NYT reviewer would say something like, “it’s a story of redemption” or something. Y’all are gonna have to just trust me that it is a damn good story about some chick’s desperate choices that will have you laughing and crying at the same time. Just get the book.

Or just get the new book that will be released January 25, 2012, A Grown-up Kind of Pretty. I’ll just let Jackson’s website tell you what that is about. It says, “When a long-hidden grave is unearthed in the backyard, headstrong young Mosey Slocumb is determined to investigate. What she learns could cost her family everything…” Oh did I mention her books are mysteries? No? Well they are.  You can buy the new book  AS AN ACTUAL BOOK  signed by the author by going HERE.  You can read the first chapter HERE.  I will be, if sanity is present in a large enough quantity on January 25, in a book store selecting the most pristine copy on the shelves to add to my library. However you choose to read it, whether on an electronic doohickey or thangamajig or the way the Almighty God intended, let me know what you think!