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Summary: Warm memories of a time gone by.
Review: Cheryl Ann Marshall (Cherry for short) has an idyllic life. She lives in the small town of Sweet Valley, Arkansas, where everybody knows everybody and no one locks their doors. While attending the local university as an art major, Cherry still lives at home and works summers in the pickle factory with her best friend, Baby. It's the summer of 1969, and although Viet Nam has put some dings in her rose-colored glasses, Cherry is still an innocent. However, when a schoolmate is found floating in the lake and Cherry meets a seductive and mysterious stranger, her life is turned on end and nothing will ever be the same. At about the same time Carlene Moore's body is pulled from Sweet Valley Lake, Viet Nam veteran Tripp Barlowe breezes into Sweet Valley with no ties, with not much of a past, but with a lot of secrets. Cherry is immediately drawn into Tripp's wild world, with consequences she could never imagine. This debut by Norman Mailer's wife is a solid entry into the world of summer fiction. The story is a bit puffed up, 395 pages when about 250 would have gotten the job done. However, she does a great job describing the kind of protected world we lived in during the late 60's and early 70's. Anyone who lived through the days of Mick Jagger, mini-skirts, Volkswagen beetles and the first man on the moon will be quickly drawn into Cherry's world during that fateful summer. The story would have been better off without the murder plot, as it seemed to distract rather than add to the issues, but it's still a good story, set in rural America and peopled with colorful characters that are likeable, flaws and all. Hey...here's a book I liked....it will appeal to you over 40 crowd.... Windchill Summer, warm memories of a time gone by -- Enjoy!Terry Matthews, Reviewer
Rating: 
Summary: this book is definetly overrated
Review: i really didnt like this book. i found the characters to be dull, unengaging and cliched and the plot to be standard.
the whole thing reminded me of one of those preteen point horror books i used to read when i was younger; shallow, unoriginal and patronising.
suffice to say i will not be buying any more of this author's books.
Rating:
Summary: An engaging new voice
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this story, I loved the characters, the small-town setting, the era, everything about it. Norris Church Mailer has written a remarkable debut novel. The reader can't help but get caught up in the trials and tribulations of Cherry & her best friend, "Baby", as they come of age in the late 60's while the boys from town go off to war, Cherry experiences first love, the body of their friend is discovered and the murderer's identity remains a mystery. . . no wonder Cherry longs for the good old days when she and Baby's lives and friendship were uncomplicated and unthreatened. This is a very enjoyable read, and though summer in my part of the world has just ended I think this book would be the perfect choice to throw into that beach bag!
Rating:
Summary: An engaging new voice
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this story, I loved the characters, the small-town setting, the era, everything about it. Norris Church Mailer has written a remarkable debut novel. The reader can't help but get caught up in the trials and tribulations of Cherry & her best friend, "Baby", as they come of age in the late 60's while the boys from town go off to war, Cherry experiences first love, the body of their friend is discovered and the murderer's identity remains a mystery. . . no wonder Cherry longs for the good old days when she and Baby's lives and friendship were uncomplicated and unthreatened. This is a very enjoyable read, and though summer in my part of the world has just ended I think this book would be the perfect choice to throw into that beach bag!
Rating: 
Summary: A Summer to Remember
Review: In "Windchill Summer", Norris Church Mailer takes the seemingly opposite moralities of religion and war and places them in a small town in Arkansas in the awakening times of the 1960's. The story's narrator, Cherry, the twenty-one year old daughter of a fudamentalist deacon, learns that her idyllically safe if somewhat staid existence is threatened by the same world in which she once felt secure. With many chapters presented through the perspective of other characters, the reader soon finds along with Cherry that little is truly as it seems. Friends have secrets, parents are flawed, personal history shapes everyone's world. Parallels are even drawn between the biblical story of Jericho and the My Lai massacre in Vietnam. Mailer sympathetically and humanly documents her characters' developments in a way that manages to accomplish something that most stories about the 60's don't..."Windchill Summer" is funny and warm yet disturbing.
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Summary: Reading this is MUCH more fun than working in a pickle plant
Review: In the framework of a great story, Church Mailer pulls unforgettable characters from groups that, within the great USA melting pot, have had reason to feel disenfranchised: the young, the poor, Veterans, Vietnamese, Filipinos, Chinese, hippies, red-necks, and fundamentalist Christians. Then, to top it off, the heroine who is whiter than white, often feels at LEAST as alienated as the rest of characters. What an accomplishment to have none of this long list of characters look buffoonish or cast as the villain. Instead, what surfaces are the commonalities that affect these characters (and readers): the horror of war, the thrill of love, the human need for family, community and belonging, the subtleties of racism and the tragedy of poverty. Not only does this book have great characters, it also has murder (more than one), passion, and intrigue. Then, if all that wasn't enough, it is set in a town that exists under the shadow and smell of a pickle plant. The backdrop of the pickle factory suits this town perfectly, as it is sometimes sweet to the point of being cloying. It is sometimes so overpoweringly pungent (as when Cherry and Baby have to peel onions for the relish), that it takes days and lots of showers to get that out of one's skin and hair. And most of all, life there is always STICKY!
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Summary: Exceptionally Terrific Book!!!!
Review: It's hard to believe that this book is not a best seller. I have read most of Oprah's Book Club books and this one is as good as or maybe even better than most of them. There's the suppressed women jobs of working in a pickle factory for a terrible boss. There is the lecturous older men praying on the young girls tricking them to allow him to take porno pictures. There's the teens and young adults that are struggling with life and their religious upbringing. There's the headshops, smoking pot, drag racing, psychedelic art, mini skirts, guys beginning to wear their hair long, long straight hair on the girls, Volkswagens, the Vietnam war and alot of other "happenings" that tags the time of this story to the turbulent '60s. This author mentions places in Vietnam as well as situations and she is right on the money. I can't praise this book enough. If you like Oprah's Picks or relationship sagas, you will most assuredly devour this book. I graduated from high school in '69 and my husband served in the Army during the Vietnam war and served 1 1/2 years in the jungles in Vietnam and this book helped me to understand some of the things he witnessed and lived through. Believe it or not, this book is fun at times and fast paced. It's such an easy book to stay interested in and involved in because there are so many different things going on and tied together by a mystery, of sorts. The ending is out-a-sight, to use a '60s term. Pick this book up and read it. It's SO good. I just can't believe it's not promoted more by someone, if not Oprah. It's EXCELLENT.
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Summary: this book is definetly overrated
Review: This well written novel brings to mind a time my generation will not forget. Vietnam, Height Ashbury, flower power and the coming of age, such powerful memories that time can't erase. Cherry and Baby have been best friends since grade school. Secrets and dreams have been shared with both girls believing there is nothing they don't know about the other. How wrong they both are. When the body of an old classmate turns up in the river, the little town of Sweet Water Arkansas is no longer that quiet little place where nothing ever happens. The murder of Carlene Moore is the catalyst that raises suspicion among the towns people and brings back the killing memories of war to those who experienced Vietnam. Each chapter pulls together bits and pieces of the story of Windchill Summer, culminating in an ending that is hard to forget. This is not only a love story but one filled with mystery and suspense. Unforgettable characters that stayed with me long after the last page made this a 5 Star book and one I would highly recommend.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: This well written novel brings to mind a time my generation will not forget. Vietnam, Height Ashbury, flower power and the coming of age, such powerful memories that time can't erase. Cherry and Baby have been best friends since grade school. Secrets and dreams have been shared with both girls believing there is nothing they don't know about the other. How wrong they both are. When the body of an old classmate turns up in the river, the little town of Sweet Water Arkansas is no longer that quiet little place where nothing ever happens. The murder of Carlene Moore is the catalyst that raises suspicion among the towns people and brings back the killing memories of war to those who experienced Vietnam. Each chapter pulls together bits and pieces of the story of Windchill Summer, culminating in an ending that is hard to forget. This is not only a love story but one filled with mystery and suspense. Unforgettable characters that stayed with me long after the last page made this a 5 Star book and one I would highly recommend.
Rating:
Summary: Oprah are you listening???
Review: What an amazing first novel from Norris Church Mailer! I hope she has another book coming soon. This book was amazing in so many ways... It definitely had me on the edge of my seat. And I loved the way each chapter was spun by a different character. It really made the entire novel come together in the end. Normally, I would tire of all the details, but she told the story in such a refreshing manner that it had me hungry for more. I had a hard time putting it down! I'm almost sorry that I'm done with the book as I can't imagine my next read being that spell binding. The book has so many plot twists and interesting characters, I would recommend this book to men and women alike. Kudos to Church Mailer -- I hope to read more from you -- and soon!
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