A Place Called Sweet Shrub

See Larger Image	Manufacturer: Thorndike Pr Written By: Jane Roberts Wood Average Customer Rating:


Binding: Hardcover Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54 EAN: 9781560541561 Format: Large Print ISBN: 1560541563 Label: Thorndike Pr Manufacturer: Thorndike Pr Number Of Pages: 431 Publication Date: 1991-07 Publisher: Thorndike Pr Studio: Thorndike Pr
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Editorial Reviews: The Lucinda 'Lucy' Richards trilogy, spanning the years from 1911 to the 1930s, has everything good books should have: a variety of landscapes, characters of all ages and social classes, an overall tenderness that never lapses into sentimentality, and a sense of the comic amidst the tragic. Lucy is feisty, funny, and completely open-armed about life. Josh passionately confronts danger and greed and prejudice with courage and humor and, sometimes, with bare fists. Even the minor characters are so rife with color that you first turn the pages quickly to see what they will do next, and then you turn them slowly so as to savor each page of this remarkable trilogy. In 1915 it has been three years since Lucy Richards left her teaching post in West Texas and returned home where she is busy being indispensable to her eccentric mother, keeping her Aunt Catherine comfortable, and taking on many of the chores her very pregnant sister no longer feels up to. She decides to choose a husband from the local beaus, but none of them stand a chance when handsome, irreverent Josh Arnold comes to town. The newlyweds move to the sleepy hamlet of Sweet Shrub, Arkansas, where they are soon caught up in the lives of their neighbors and discover that the surface tranquility of the town hides simmering tensions and unrest that will inevitably result in tragedy.
Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: Fairly good for light reading Comment: This is one of those not bad, but not really good books. After meeting that most horrible of fates for a woman, being jilted by her fiance, Lucy Richards ( whom I thought was supposed to be strong) abandons her teaching career in west Texas and flees back to her hometown of Bonham, where she hopes to scare up an alternate husband. Once back home, Lucy frets incessantly about being "an old maid" and contemplates marriage to any one of three admirers, none of whom she loves. But Prince Charming, in the form of Josh Arnold, a west Texas friend, rides to the rescue. Lucy agrees to marry Josh, seemingly more out of a desire to marry somebody, anybody, than from genuine affection for Josh. Oddly enough, the rather unlikely couple enjoys a blissful marriage with lots of sex ( described in more detail than some readers may want). The unrelenting bliss ( but not the sex) lets up a little when the couple relocates to Arkansas, where the whites are bigoted and the blacks "uppity". The fates of some of the characters is left dangling, to be sort of resolved in the final book of the trilogy. This book makes for light, pleasant summer reading, but don't expect much depth. Customer Rating: Summary: Very good book. Comment: I found & read this book first. Later I found the first in the series, Train to Estaline. They are both very good. I enjoyed reading about Lucy & her family & all their quirks. Enjoy. Customer Rating: Summary: Sweet Shrub: retelling of a race riot Comment: I read the first book in the trilogy and picked up A Place Called Sweet Shrub just because the author had killed off so many characters in the first and left much unanswered that I naively thought resolution would come in the sequel. I was wrong. Lucinda had so much going for her in the West Texas hardened by encounters with Christobel and Mrs. Sully that I thought her character would continue to grow. Instead, the book was a grandiose setup for the time displaced rehash of a race riot. The ribald humor was misplaced and characters are killed off haphazardly. I knew not to expect plot resolution, but some motivation would have been appreciated. Customer Rating: Summary: Lucy Richard's story continues Comment: It has been three years since Lucy Richards returned from Estelline. Taking over the family hardware store and caring for family has taken her mind off her sister's betrayal and the man she had planned to marry, perhaps too well. Lucy feels that she may be too comfortable, and that life in Bonham may not hold much for her. When Josh Arnold visits Lucy on his way to Sweet Shrub, Arkansas(where he is to read law) he makes it clear in no uncertain terms that he is still interested in Lucy, and that he won't take no for an answer. Lucy discovery that her heart is once again willing to trust combined with Josh's insistance and the impending visit of Lucy's sister and former fiancee, propells Lucy to accept his proposal. Together they move to Sweet Shrub. Just as she had faced change and adversity when she left home to teach, Lucy is faced with a whole new life to claim. She is faced by the prejudices and fears of the townfolk, and must turn to Josh and an inner strength she did not realize she had to survive. This is the second in three books, and is told in a very different way than the first. The author is very skillful in including the events of the early 1900's, impending world war, friction between races and small town dynamics to weave a wonderful story of life in Texas. Customer Rating: Summary: Charming and Entertaining Comment: "Sweet Shrub" was such a surprise. This book looked like dripy ole' southern novel. BUT...how wrong I was. This book was deep, emotional and I loved the characters. DEEPLY. This is such a great book.....it's clear, enjoyable, and such a pleasant surprise. More Reviews