The Florabama Ladies' Auxiliary & Sewing Circle

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful book !!
Review: Before writing this review, I read all of the reviews previously written, and was horrified by the arrant snobbery of SOME of the reviewers. These, in particular, were Southern readers whose opinions left me flabbergasted by their narrowness of mind in condemming the factory workers who were left jobless by the closure of the factory in which they worked. One reviewer even suggested that these women, uneducated as they were, would never be capable of belonging to a quilting bee. Happily I know that this attitude is completely false having spent time recently as a guest of a number of Southern ladies who would be totally horrified to learn of attitudes like this.The female workers of a recently closed lingerie factory band together with the help of a recently divorced counsellor who is suffering from the shock and disillusionment of finding out that she now has to make her own way in the world--in her late 40's--as her husband became bankrupt and took off with a younger woman.Over the course of a year, these women learn not only how to support themselves, but also how how to gain strength and courage from mutual encouragement. I truly believe that this is a wonderfully inspiring book and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Rating:
Summary: Brava, Florabama Ladies!
Review: Having never read Lois Battle, her newest tome is my first adventure into her writing. I will now go back and look for other titles she has written.

Do I recommend this story of middle-age women struggling to survive? Absolutely! The spirit of the displaced homemakers from Cherished Lady lingerie's now closed plant is led by an unlikely cultured and privileged lady, Bonnie Duke Cullman. Bonnie also finds herself in this displaced homemaker category, but for a much different reason: bankruptcy and divorce.

Rescued by her family connections, her daddy Duke is rich and influential, Bonnie finds work as a job counselor in tiny Florabama's junior college. It is there, with the help of her long time friend Cass that Bonnie also finds herself.

The Cherished Lady ex-employees comprise a mix of hard-working, down-on-their-luck seamstresses who have a new opportunity to go to college and learn the skills to get new jobs. Of course they must do this while drawing unemployment, raising their grandchildren, resisting their spouses attempts to keep them down, caring for disabled spouses and dysfunctional adult children. They are a colorful and realistic set of characters who grow on the reader.

Key to the plot are the women: Hilly, Ruth, Roxy, Albertine, Lyda Jane and Celia. Key to the women's lives are the emotional baggage they have accumulated by living and the individual tastes for life that both bring them together and separate them. Their small town plant has given them earning power and a sense of community. With its closing, as the plant owners seek cheaper labor in Mexico, they are at the mercy of a world that looks for education in its future employees. Their lives have to be upgraded and the local college has a government grant to provide that upgrade.

While one cannot help but laugh over the spirited and straight shooting expressions of Hilly, this novel also reflects the heartbreaks and disappointments that represent the dark side of the characters' lives. This is also a love story, the story of Bonnie with Riz, Cass with Mark, Hilly with Jess. Each partnership takes a different road, with the women coming out stronger and less dependent on romance or sex or men.

Bonnie is the protagonist: the divorced mom of grown, spoiled children, the daughter of wealth, the step-daughter of a restless, mouthy step-mom. First, she surprizes herself by learning to respect and love her displaced Florabama homemakers. Then she surprizes herself by realizing that independence is a good thing. Furthermore, she surprizes herself with her own entrepreneurial abilities. She lives through her time in Florabama and emerges realistically triumphant.

The love of friends is important in Battle's story: the love of Cass and Bonnie, and Hilly and Ruth. Author Battle understands that women do not have it easy in a man's world, but that they can survive and rise above life's challenges. This is a positive, can't-put-it-down read. Brava!

Rating:
Summary: Not the South Alabama I know
Review: I really wanted to like this book. When I started to read it, I was shocked to find that the setting was the community college my mother and I both attended. My mother, my grandmother and I were all born in this area. My aunt ran a sewing machine in the mill that moved to Mexico. In short, this book hardly rings true. It read like the impressions of an outsider looking in. This is not the book to teach someone about women in the South, especially not women in the new South. It sells short the fascinating and colorful women of the Alabama Gulf Coast.

Rating:
Summary: Just couldn't get into it
Review: I'm sure this book has something to offer--- but I had trouble with it from the first page. I like for the books I read to make sense in the details-- if they don't, I can't take the book seriously. Right off the bat, we are told that she leaves Birmingham, Ala. for the Alabama coast, and she leaves at sunset. Her father has to give her encouragement to send her on her way. Why does she leave so late-- no reason is given to account for her driving after dark. An hour later she drives into a hurricane. Why didn't she or someone in her family check the weather report. A hurricane doesn't just appear suddenly-- we know from the recent hurricanes that they are seen days, or weeks, in advance.
So she is driving down Interstate 65 in a hurricane, and decides to get a motel room. She stops at a fleabag motel with part of the slgn lights out. Where, on I-65, would anyone find a motel like that? I have been on I-65 dozens of times and from one end to the other, it's all chains motel, and nice ones. No homegrown motels. The real estate along an expressway is too expensive for dumps. It would have been more believabile if she had stopped at a Holiday Inn. Then, she calls her friend Cass, and tells her she will be leaving at dawn and will arrive at Florabama before noon.
Another 5 or 6 hour drive? Get a map. If she was headed to the Ala. shore it would be a much shorter drive than that. Details like this can make or break a book for me. I couldn't take it seriously, and I lost interest.

Rating:
Summary: Easy Fun Read
Review: On the back of the book, a reviewer wrote, "Lois Battle is one of those fearless novelists who can take on any subject and make it distinctly her own. The Florabama Ladies' Auxiliary & Sewing Circle is a magical and surprising tour of a Deep South I had no idea existed. It's the best novel she's ever written."

That high praise came from Pat Conroy, so I was prepared to have my world rocked, as his books have done before. Though, I won't say she showed me a south I did not know before (I LIVE in Alabama), I will say she gave me some new items to chew on. Her charcters come to life and a few of them become your best friends. I know, I wanted Hilly to get her man so bad, and I was rooting for Bonnie all the way. Not on a level with Mr. Conroy, but still a real page turner, to be cliche. I stayed up late reading, anxious to devour more of the story.

Rating:
Summary: Real and believable
Review: On the back of the book, a reviewer wrote, "Lois Battle is one of those fearless novelists who can take on any subject and make it distinctly her own. The Florabama Ladies' Auxiliary & Sewing Circle is a magical and surprising tour of a Deep South I had no idea existed. It's the best novel she's ever written."

That high praise came from Pat Conroy, so I was prepared to have my world rocked, as his books have done before. Though, I won't say she showed me a south I did not know before (I LIVE in Alabama), I will say she gave me some new items to chew on. Her charcters come to life and a few of them become your best friends. I know, I wanted Hilly to get her man so bad, and I was rooting for Bonnie all the way. Not on a level with Mr. Conroy, but still a real page turner, to be cliche. I stayed up late reading, anxious to devour more of the story.

Rating:
Summary: A satisfying slice of life
Review: The Florabama Ladies' Auxiliary and Sewing Circle by Lois Battle follows the lives of various women impacted by the closing of the Cherished Lady lingerie factory. Bonnie Duke Cullman arrives in Florabama, Alabama leaving behind a failed marriage, children in college. Her comfortable life of counrty clubs, stay at home mom, charity events, and being the daughter of "the Duke" all turned upside down, and she is off to her first real job, counseling "displaced" homemakers.She is going to be working out of Marion Hawkins Community College. The women who have been displaced (or made redundent)are struggling with their own problems. Hilly Pruitt has just bought a new car and she is also worried that her best friend Ruth Elkins is being taken advantage of by her wayward daughter, Roxie. Ruth has her hands full with helping out with Roxie's kids, and cannot see how her coworker Celia Lusk sees a divine hand in all the hardship. This is a tale of women coming together in times of hardship. The realization that they are all more alike than different, no matter social standing, background, education is the binding tie for these women. Battle is never patronizing and advoids the temptation to tie everything up in a neat happy package. Written with a fine tuned ear for Southern dialogue and an evenhanded tone, the ladies of the Florabama are friends you will come to cherish.

Rating:
Summary: Independent woman
Review: This is a story about a group of women in Florabama, Alabama who are laid off from the sewing plant when management decides to close up. It's a very scary time because most of the women have worked there for many years and have no other skills. Management arranges with the local college for a program to help them learn new skills so they can get new jobs. Bonnie, a newly-divorced mother of two grown children, is hired by the college to sort through the problems and help the women with their goals. Bonnie comes from a background of wealth, while the factory workers have lived in poverty. Brought together, they begin to learn from each other.
I really liked this book. The main characters are believable and loveable, even the grumpy ones. There's a lot to be gained as we travel along with the ladies, overcoming hardships and learning to love those who are different from ourselves. I like to underline passages and phrases that teach me things. Such as:
"What you can't cure, you must endure."
"It's remarkable how much you can accomplish when you don't care who gets the credit." (Harry Truman)
"Sometimes telling the truth was just an excuse for meanness."
There were a few minor problems with character development. I felt that there were some characters that were brought up for no apparent reason. For example, Bonnie's landlord was described in all his slimy, despicable glory, and I fully expected him to surface later on, being menacing and demanding, but you never hear from him again, except a brief mention at the end. Likewise, a man from Bonnie's past suddenly shows up and they become lovers, but nothing really becomes of it. I suppose his purpose was to show that Bonnie had grown and was no longer dependent on a man for her happiness and well-being.
I don't think that this book was anti-men, but I identified closely with the theme that the women helped each other through everything that they went through. I find this to be true in my own life, where my friends and I help each other through things, especially emotionally.

Rating:
Summary: Loved this book!
Review: This was a great summer read. I had a hard time putting it down! On my list of All-Time Favorites.

Rating:
Summary: Not the South Alabama I know
Review: VERY VERY GOOD read! You won't be disappointed with this book! Wish it didn't have to end! I don't type reviews telling the story line, just my opinions of the book. So order this book, you won't regret it!