Additional books with a similar theme: http://product.half.ebay.com/The-Secret-Life-of-Bees_W0QQtgZdetailsQQprZ66641749 Peonie and Posey Lady.... You can purchase a used paperback copy of your book on half.com http://product.half.ebay.com/The-Queen-of-Palmyra_W0QQprZ74198854QQtgZinfo Summary of "The Queen of Palmyra" follows: "In the turbulent southern summer of 1963, Millwood's white population steers clear of "Shake Rag," the black section of town. Young Florence Forrest is one of the few who crosses the line. The daughter of a burial insurance salesman with dark secrets and the town's "cake lady," whose backcountry bootleg runs lead further and further away from a brutal marriage, Florence attaches herself to her grandparents' longtime maid, Zenie Johnson. Named for Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra, Zenie treats the unwanted girl as just another chore, while telling her stories of the legendary queen's courage and cunning. The more time Florence spends in Shake Rag, the more she recognizes how completely race divides her town, and her story, far from ordinary, bears witness to the truth and brutality of her timesÂa truth brought to a shattering conclusion when Zenie's vibrant college-student niece, Eva Greene, arrives that fateful Mississippi summer. Minrose Gwin's The Queen of Palmyra is an unforgettable evocation of a time and a place in AmericaÂa nuanced, gripping story of race and identity."

Thanks, ladies, what lovely compliments from you all. I'm having a lot of fun making things. Connie, when I'm lying in bed trying to fall sleep, I ponder new projects. It lulls me to sleep and when I wake up, I have new ideas or solutions to problems. :)

I'm leaving for Ireland very soon now and can't tell you how excited I am. I also can't believe that both the Queen and the President decided to visit when I'm there. They must have been reading this thread....:) There have been so many good books suggested here. What I'd really like now is a suggestion for a good mystery to keep me busy while flying steerage on the plane. I found an American author, Erin Hart, who has written three good mysteries based in different parts of Ireland. Unfortunately, I read all three already but can recommend them to you. Read them in order. I checked out the website stopyourekillingme.com but don't see anything that grabs me. Don't like blood and gore or hardboiled detectives. So my last plea for some good mysteries set in Ireland!

Another Sort of Learning (James V. Schall) 1988 In this book with the unorthodox subtitle, "Selected Contrary Essays on the Completion of Our Knowing or How to Finally Acquire an Education While Still in College, or Anywhere Else: Containing Some Belated Advice about How to Employ Your Leisure Time When Ultimate Questions Remain Perplexing in Spite of Your Highest Earned Academic Degree, Together with Sundry Book Lists Nowhere Else in Captivity to Be Found", Father Schall has written a delightful collection of essays for people like me who made it all the way through college without managing to get a truly liberal education. The book talks about gathering books on diverse subjects for a personal library. There are essays on reading, education, teaching, philosophy, sports, politics, history, and prayer. After each essay there is a short list of the books such as, "SchallÂs Unlikely List of Books to Keep Sane By", "Books You Will Never Be Assigned", "Eight Collections of Essays and Letters Not To Be Missed", "Ten Books on Grace and Thought", and "Five Books Addressed to the Heart of Things". True bibliophiles will love the lists. Schall states in the book: "Education, philosophy, science, politics, history, revelation - these are the themes that I have considered here in various ways. I have often talked of Plato and Aristotle, of Augustine and Aquinas, of Chesterton, Pieper, and C.S. Lewis. I have done this to underscore their importance. And I have repeated favorite book titles worth emphasizing in different contexts. I wanted to suggest that anyone with some diligence and some good fortune can find his way to the highest things even if such higher level concerns are not formally or systematically treated in the schools, even if they are in fact denied there or by our own friends or culture. Indeed, I would suspect that there is a certain basic loneliness in our relationships to the highest things. I am not a skeptic here, but we should not expect too much from our formal educational institutions in this regard. "Throughout these pages, I have talked of 'another sort of learning.' I have talked about why we should read, what we should read, books we should keep. In a sense, we can tell a lot about anyone by looking at what books, if any, he reads, at what books are on his shelvesÂ."