March+2012

=__Girlchild:A Novel__= == Rory Hendrix is the least likely of Girl Scouts. She hasn’t got a troop or even a badge to call her own. But she’s checked the Handbook out from the elementary school library so many times that her name fills all the lines on the card, and she pores over its surreal advice (Disposal of Outgrown Uniforms; The Right Use of Your Body; Finding Your Way When Lost) for tips to get off the Calle: that is, Calle de los Flores, the Reno trailer park where she lives with her mother, Jo, the sweet-faced, hard-luck bartender at the Truck Stop. Rory’s been told she is “third generation in a line of apparent imbeciles, feeble-minded bastards surely on the road to whoredom.” But she’s determined to prove the County and her own family wrong. Brash, sassy, vulnerable, wise, and terrified, she struggles with her mother’s habit of trusting the wrong men, and the mixed blessing of being too smart for her own good. From diary entries, social worker’s reports, half-recalled memories, story problems, arrest records, family lore, Supreme Court opinions, and her grandmother’s letters, Rory crafts a devastating collage that shows us her world while she searches for the way out of it. //Girlchild// is a heart-stopping and original debut.

Hosted by Raisse Ward Address: 303 East Church Street Creedmoor, NC 27522 Food: Raisse: I want to make some sort of Cowboy themed food...Liking the west coast theme of the book:) Crockpot Barbeque chicken and rolls Kristina: Dessert! Don't know what yet though! Shawn: sun dried tomato-red pepper dip LVL: (Going with the cowboy theme here...) "Cowboy Caviar".... it's kinda like a bean/corn salad deal Kristen: Funfetti Chex Mix Colleen: Chickpea and cucumber salad w/ dried cherris and cheese Mary- Taboule and pita, not Cowboy themed, but, yummy!