My confession:  I have never read Pat Conroy, John Grisham or James Patterson.  There are some authors who I don’t feel like I need to read before their books come out because there is going to be so much media on the books that I don’t have to “work” to hard to sell them.  The books basically sell themselves.  I can read the fly leaf, a few reviews and some articles in the newspaper and I basically have the “gist” of the book and go from there.  I’m not saying that the books aren’t worth my time but I have a whole store of books to read and want to give some other lesser known authors a good fighting chance…so to speak.

conroyThis month though I decided to read Pat Conroy’s new book, South of Broad.  I decided I WANTED  to know what all the excitement was about.  Everyday people would come in the store with this thrilled look in their eyes and tell me how fantastic Conroy is, which book is their favorite and why.  Then immediately chastise me for not ever reading him!!

I had an ARC of South of Broad at home that my nice, sweet and oh so lovely sales reps from Random House had sent me and said ok today is the day!  I got in my reading spot, turned on the light and started reading!!

Ok…I will be taking a trip to Charleston, SC as soon as I can!!!  Conroy is in love with the city of Charleston and does a wonderful job of describing the city for me.  I could totally imagine everything and I have never laid eyes on the city.

The story is about a group of friends who met during their senior year of high school in the late 60’s.  It is a very eclectic group of people. They all grow up and become journalists, movie stars, cops, lawyers, mothers, fathers, husbands and wives.  Some move away some stay in Charleston but they keep in touch and when they get back together it is like they never left.  I could relate to this type of relationship because I have a group of friends (and we live all over the place) but when we can get together it is just as fun as when we met each other so many years ago.  We have all gone our own way but we are all still the same.

It is 20 years after graduation for this group and they have some together again to search for their friend, Trevor.  His twin sister, the glamorous and wild movie star, Sheba, has asked for everyone’s help.  They travel to San Francisco to find Trevor who is dying of Aids.

As I was reading I began to realize that I liked the chapters that were set during the high school years better and at first couldn’t figure out why.  It dawned on me that I am 20 years out of high school this year!!  Even though the time period was different in the book and my own life the feelings and problems are the same.  It was fun remembering the carefree feelings of youth and maybe hit close to home with the problems (money, marriage, children and work, etc…) that the friends are dealing with as adults.

Overall,  I am glad that I read South of  Broad and want to thank all my customers that chastised me for not reading Pat Conroy before.  It is nice having a book “sold” to me for a change!!

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