Dreaming Southern

Rating:
Summary: HATED this book!
Review: When I first started reading this story I felt that it was going to be a book full of cliche's. An air-headed, celebrity idolizing, woman from Kentucky, with her four children drives across country to California to meet up with her husband who had already moved there. Right from the start, the trip was anything but bland, in fact it seemed a little far-fetched to me that anyone would do the things that Lila Mae did, especially with her children in tow. But as the trip and the story progressed I began to see her as a real person who loved herself and her children and who lived life to the fullest. If I hadn't felt that I was becoming to know Lila Mae I could never have believed some of the things that she did on this trip. Underneath all of the humor that this book has you see that these people are real and are someone that you wish you knew. I was a little confused at times on who the main character of the story was, Lila Mae or her 16-year-old daughter Becky Jean, from reading this you come to love and understand both of them. Unlike the some other reviewers, I was very happy to see the "Lila Mae in Her Old Age" chapter at the end. For me it was the icing on the cake. It really showed me that she was real and had the same feelings that everyone else does and not just some person who never had a thought to the consequences of her actions. It also makes me think about any elderly neighbor I might have that seems just a little bit 'different', that it would be worth getting through the icing to see what kind of cake lies underneath.

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable read
Review: When I first started reading this story I felt that it was going to be a book full of cliche's. An air-headed, celebrity idolizing, woman from Kentucky, with her four children drives across country to California to meet up with her husband who had already moved there. Right from the start, the trip was anything but bland, in fact it seemed a little far-fetched to me that anyone would do the things that Lila Mae did, especially with her children in tow. But as the trip and the story progressed I began to see her as a real person who loved herself and her children and who lived life to the fullest. If I hadn't felt that I was becoming to know Lila Mae I could never have believed some of the things that she did on this trip. Underneath all of the humor that this book has you see that these people are real and are someone that you wish you knew. I was a little confused at times on who the main character of the story was, Lila Mae or her 16-year-old daughter Becky Jean, from reading this you come to love and understand both of them. Unlike the some other reviewers, I was very happy to see the "Lila Mae in Her Old Age" chapter at the end. For me it was the icing on the cake. It really showed me that she was real and had the same feelings that everyone else does and not just some person who never had a thought to the consequences of her actions. It also makes me think about any elderly neighbor I might have that seems just a little bit 'different', that it would be worth getting through the icing to see what kind of cake lies underneath.