The Paragraph Ranch - Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56

     Reading The Paragraph Ranch felt like a trip back home to Texas! I loved all the Texas-isms used by the authors to add color and humor to the story -- fixin' to, which means I'm about to do something; and bob war, which is Texan for barbed wire, just to name two examples.
     I especially enjoyed getting to know Dee, the youngest of three siblings (divorced, with a college-age daughter) who has returned to rural West Texas to take charge of her mother's health care ... temporarily. The challenges she faces will resonate with so many women in the "sandwich" generation. Her mother Alice is a hoot!
     I'm looking forward to reading Book Two in the series: A Wedding at the Paragraph Ranch

Book Beginning (FYI: Alice is the mother)
PROLOGUE
Alice - Thursday, May 1, 2008
In fifty-five years on the home place we ain't never missed putting in a crop, and I don't intend to miss one now. No matter what them three say. Why, we planted cotton the week Wilton got back from Korea. And the year it snowed the first of May. And the time when Dee Anna was six months old and we carried her out here in a apple crate.

Friday 56 (from 56% on my Kindle):
The moon shone directly through the screened window, too bright for sleep. Far off a coyote called, and another answered. Dee stared at the water stain on the ceiling and dreaded how empty the farmhouse would seem with just her and Mama, even with Teresa's occasional presence. She wondered how Mama had borne those months of being all alone out here after Daddy passed away.

Genre: Contemporary Women's Fiction / Humor
Length: 268 Pages
Amazon Link: The Paragraph Ranch
Website: Kay Ellington & Barbara Brannon

Synopsis:
EVERY WRITER KNOWS YOU CAN’T GO HOME AGAIN. But that's just what is required of West Texas expatriate Dee Bennett-Kaufmann when her mother is badly injured in a mysterious car accident. Single-again “Dr. Dee” has never been on the “A-team” in her trendy East Coast MFA program. When a prestigious summer fellowship gives her the chance to finally finish her book, salvage her career, and spend some quality time with her college-age daughter—Dee's certain her luck is about to change. Returning to care for her irascible, widowed mother threatens all of that. With so much at stake, Dee engineers a series of unorthodox strategies and creative tradeoffs to keep her options in play—and despite herself finds friendship, love, and the power of words in the unlikeliest of places.

This is a new release of an edition originally published by Booktrope.

FYI: Although the books I feature on my blog are ones I've bought myself, checked out of the library, or have received from friends, I often contact authors to let them know I'm going to feature their book on the blog. That way, they can respond to comments and post the link on Facebook, etc., if they want. So don't be surprised if you occasionally see an author's name among the comments.

                 

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