Amy Hill Hearth

The year is 1962 and Jackie Hart, wife and mother of three, has been transplanted with her family from Boston to Collier County in Florida. She does her darndest to fit in but her new neighbours don't take too kindly to Yankee interlopers. After being frozen out of existing activities, she decides to start her own and so begins the Collier County Women's Literary Society (or Salon as Jackie likes to call it). The new group is to meet at the town library and soon attracts a bevy of very show more likeable misfits: Jackie, of course, the unhappy housewife, the librarian whose presence is required if the group is to be allowed to use the library; a single woman called Plain Jane who writes risque articles about sex in the boardroom for magazines like Cosmo; an elderly woman just released from prison after serving a long sentence for murdering her husband; a divorcee and rescuer of injured snapping turtles; a young black woman who dreams of going to college but doubts it will ever happen; and a gay man whose mother is an ex-stripper turned alligator wrangler.

In a time and town where the KKK is seen as a group of upstanding citizens and the literary society members definitely aren't, the society is bound to attract trouble including a run-in with said KKK. In fact, Miss Dreamsville manages to touch on just about every issue confronting the '60s, albeit superficially, including premarital sex, women's liberation, gay rights, environmental issues, Civil Rights, and even the Cuban Missile Crisis. Fortunately, this short novel never takes itself too seriously. Instead, this is a fun, fast read imbued with humour, heart, and more than a little southern charm. show less

This is the sequel to Miss Dreamsville and the Collier County Women's Literary Society which I haven't read (yet), but you need not read the first book to enjoy this one.

The book starts off with Dora Witherspoon getting a telegram from Dolores Simpson that Dora's ex-husband Darryl Norwood is back in the town and is planning a big development along the tidal river. She wants Dora to stop him and Dora and the rest of Collier County Women's Literary Society; Jackie Hart, Mrs. Bailey White, and show more Plain Jane getter their forces to find a way to stop the development.

Charming! Thar is the word I would use to describe this book. I'm just so bloody fond of books/movies that takes place in the 60s in America (especially in a little town where everyone knows everyone). I mean there is lot going on, it's not a perfect little sweet story, Amy Hill Hearth never lets you forget that that there is still very much racism against the black that the civil right moments have not really had a big effect in the little towns in the south. Hell, there is a lot of racism against the Yankees as well. Jackie Hart and her family are from Boston, and they talk different and do things different there and it's not easy coming from Boston to Collier County (I seriously need to read the first book where Jackie arrives in Collier County).

But I'm still charmed by the book and the story. Yes, it was not a big surprising story with many twists, but I still enjoyed the book very much. The part where Dolores Simpson revealing her real name and everything that comes with that is probably my favorite part, and, Dora telling the book club about what she learned in Jackson about her mother was a sweet part and led to the wonderful revelation at the ending (that I guessed, but never mind that).

I was charmed by the characters and by the stories. And, if you also find these kinds of books charming, then I think you should read it.

I received this copy from Atria Books through Edelweiss in return for an honest review! Thank you! show less

Some things just can't be believed and Southern literature in particular is chock full of such things. Characters are zany; events are outlandish. Or is it that characters are outlandish and events are zany? Either way, the hallmark of fun southern fiction is pure wacky. Amy Hill Hearth's novel Miss Dreamsville and the Collier County Women's Literary Society has over the top and wacky in spades.

When Dora Witherspoon, who rescues turtles and works at the Post Office is caught leafing through show more the only copy of Vogue magazine to ever come through the Naples, Florida post office by it's rightful owner, Jackie Hart, they strike up a conversation. Jackie is new to town, a Yankee in a very southern enclave. She's bored and doesn't fit into this town her husband has moved her to so she decides to start up a book club at the library. The oddly eclectic bunch who show up for the first meeting are all town outsiders of one sort or another. There's Dora, who is divorced; the librarian; a plain woman who secretly writes steamy romances and sexy articles for magazines; an elderly woman convicted of killing her husband and newly released from prison; a literate young, black maid with dreams of higher education, and the only homosexual man in town who also happens to live with his alligator hunting mother. The only thing any of these people have in common is their outsider status and their interest in the book club and yet they come together as friends and partners in crime on some truly crazy, sometimes scary adventures.

The novel is set in 1962 but it is told from the perspective of Dora fifty years on, now in her 80s. She recounts the group's formation and slow bonding plus the roiling tensions in town that particular summer through the lens of Jackie's non-native lack of understanding. There's the ongoing mystery of what really did happen to Bailey's husband and the not really a mystery of who Miss Dreamsville, the sultry sounding radio personality who keeps the town captivated, is. The group also has a scary run-in with the local KKK and Jackie's young son is arrested as a suspected Communist. The tone of the book is light as fits a goofy caper style novel but it actually has some weightier issues than it appears at first blush from prejudice and racial hatred to the expected role of women and the embracing of "othernesss." The characters aren't always fully fleshed out and the situations are definitely over the top but the breezy telling of the tale keeps the reader turning the pages even as she shakes her head at the crazy. show less

In Miss Dreamsville and the Collier County Women's Literary Society, eighty year old Dora 'Turtle Lady' Witherspoon relates the adventures of six unlikely friends in southern Florida during 1962. Jackie Hart maybe a 'yankee carpetbagger' but dowdy postal worker Dora can't help but admire the seemingly effortless glamour of Collier County's newest resident. Dora, recently divorced and lonely, is flattered when Jackie invites her to the inaugural meeting of the Collier County Women's Literary show more Society at the town's library. Seated on folding chairs in a little circle Dora is shocked to learn she is in the company of a convicted murderer, a coloured maid, a homosexual (whose mother catches gators) and a spinster, with the small group presided over by Jackie and the head librarian, Miss Lansbury. Yet as this bunch of misfits discuss the dangers of DDT (Silent Spring) and whether Holly Golighlty was a call girl or just a popular society companion (Breakfast at Tiffany's), they become friends who, in the face of the rampant bigotry, sexism and social conformity of the time, find the courage to become more than what is expected of them.

The characters of Miss Dreamsville and the Collier County Women's Literary Society are colourful and appealing. I loved all of the unintentionally subversive members of the group who so simply want little else than to be who they are. The development of their friendship, spearheaded by Jackie, is heartwarming and everyone has a secret or story to share.

With it's conversational tone, charming southern accent and clever wit, you might be fooled into thinking this novel is nothing more than light entertainment, but it includes a powerful message encouraging tolerance, respect and dignity. Beneath the veneer of southern civility in Collier County is a small town mired in the issues of the early 1960's, rich white men hold all the power, the Ku Klux Klan actively terrifies the local black population, women's liberation is a sinful idea and the Cuban Missile Crisis has everyone on edge. Hearth's characters confront these issues as they face the injustices of the narrow minded community.

Miss Dreamsville and the Collier County Women's Literary Society is a quick and enchanting read. Funny, charming and yet thoughtful I thought it was a delight and I would love to hear more of Dora's stories. show less