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Diary of a Wildflower
Ruth White bases her first book for adults on her mother’s early years in the Virginia mountains. Emerging from a heartbreaking childhood, Lorelei leaves Starr Mountain. As a teenager in the roaring twenties, she is dazzled by the carefree world of flappers and bobbed hair, the Charleston and the IT girl, Prohibition, and the notorious speakeasies. Most important she finds men who are handsome, well-bred, well-educated, and reek of old money. As a mere wildflower, she doubts she can ever compete with the exotic orchids in this new world. But after a sad visit back home she comes to realize her own power, which will help her break the cycle of hopelessness among the women of her family.
As a kid you loved Belle Prater's Boy. As a teen you loved Weeping Willow. Now, as an adult, you will love Diary of a Wildflower.
As a kid you loved Belle Prater's Boy. As a teen you loved Weeping Willow. Now, as an adult, you will love Diary of a Wildflower.
260 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 23, 2013
21 people are currently reading
171 people want to read
About the author
Ruth White
80 books115 followersI was born in the Appalachian hills of Virginia, which is the setting for Belle Prater's Boy and The Search for Belle Prater. I lived there until I graduated from high school and went away to college. Though I left the hills, they never left me. My memories of those years are quite vivid. I have always referred to that time as both traumatic and wonderful. I get most of my ideas for my stories from those memories of my childhood home, the small coal-mining town of Grundy, Virginia.
I started writing at a very young age. I remember trying to write stories before I was even able to put long sentences together. It was just something I felt compelled to do, probably because I loved stories so much. We had no television because my family was very poor; my mother was raising my three sisters and me with very little money. So we read aloud and enjoyed each other’s company.
Eventually I became a teacher and then a school librarian. Working in the public schools among adolescents fueled my desire to write, and I suppose the age group I worked with helped me determine that I wanted to write for them instead of for adults or smaller children. I wrote my first book, The City Rose, based on an experience that happened when I taught seventh and eighth grade in Mt. Pleasant, North Carolina. The schools had recently been integrated, and I had two black girls in one of my classes. I noticed that whenever we went to the library, they didn’t check out any books. Finally, they told me that it was because they couldn’t find any books about black children. So I decided to write one.
For Belle Prater's Boy, my inspiration came from Grundy, like it has so many times. When I was small I used to ride through the nicest residential area there and look at the pretty houses and manicured lawns. I thought these were wealthy people who had ideal lives. Only in later years did I realize that the people living in those houses were quite average, living the way most Americans live. They had their own particular problems, which I could not even imagine. So I decided to set a novel there. First, I created Gypsy, the city mouse, who lived in one of those pretty houses, and Woodrow, the country mouse, who was from the sticks. Then I asked them to tell me their story.
I didn’t plan to write a sequel to Belle Prater's Boy. I thought Woodrow's theory about what happened to his mother would be enough for the reader, but it obviously was not. I had many letters from readers wanting to know what happened to Belle, and asking me to write a sequel. Actually, I did the first draft of the sequel in the late nineties. After many revisions, I created The Search for Belle Prater.
When I'm not writing, I like to walk in the park with my golden retriever, listen to books on tape, and watch movies. Away from home, I like to visit schools and talk to young people about books and writing. My daughter usually travels with me, and we have a great time together.
I started writing at a very young age. I remember trying to write stories before I was even able to put long sentences together. It was just something I felt compelled to do, probably because I loved stories so much. We had no television because my family was very poor; my mother was raising my three sisters and me with very little money. So we read aloud and enjoyed each other’s company.
Eventually I became a teacher and then a school librarian. Working in the public schools among adolescents fueled my desire to write, and I suppose the age group I worked with helped me determine that I wanted to write for them instead of for adults or smaller children. I wrote my first book, The City Rose, based on an experience that happened when I taught seventh and eighth grade in Mt. Pleasant, North Carolina. The schools had recently been integrated, and I had two black girls in one of my classes. I noticed that whenever we went to the library, they didn’t check out any books. Finally, they told me that it was because they couldn’t find any books about black children. So I decided to write one.
For Belle Prater's Boy, my inspiration came from Grundy, like it has so many times. When I was small I used to ride through the nicest residential area there and look at the pretty houses and manicured lawns. I thought these were wealthy people who had ideal lives. Only in later years did I realize that the people living in those houses were quite average, living the way most Americans live. They had their own particular problems, which I could not even imagine. So I decided to set a novel there. First, I created Gypsy, the city mouse, who lived in one of those pretty houses, and Woodrow, the country mouse, who was from the sticks. Then I asked them to tell me their story.
I didn’t plan to write a sequel to Belle Prater's Boy. I thought Woodrow's theory about what happened to his mother would be enough for the reader, but it obviously was not. I had many letters from readers wanting to know what happened to Belle, and asking me to write a sequel. Actually, I did the first draft of the sequel in the late nineties. After many revisions, I created The Search for Belle Prater.
When I'm not writing, I like to walk in the park with my golden retriever, listen to books on tape, and watch movies. Away from home, I like to visit schools and talk to young people about books and writing. My daughter usually travels with me, and we have a great time together.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
September 26, 2013
Set in the Appalachian mountains of Virginia, "Diary of a Wildflower" spotlights the childhood and teenage years of a young girl named Lorelei Starr. Narrated in Lorelei's first person voice, we are blessed with her innermost thoughts, feelings, and dreams.
Life in the mountains is tough, for women and for men, but especially for the women. Childbearing saps them of their strength, while leading to an early grave. Lorelei loses her own overtired mother when she is only ten, leaving her and her siblings to bring up the younger children.
Education is almost out of their grasp, too, as the local school in Deep Bottom only offers studies through the eighth grade. And then, like a miracle, a teacher appears who offers high school classes on Saturdays. Lorelei finishes high school this way.
Our story also reveals the harsh, punitive father that Lorelei dreams of escaping. And when she finally does, after graduating, she ends up in Charlottesville, working as a maid in a luxurious home.
How does Lorelei finally discover that her dreams are right within her grasp? What obstacles will she find along the way, and how will she ultimately realize her fantasies of love, while still managing to "save" her younger sister from their father?
Lorelei's story was so vivid and real to me that I felt I was there with her, even though the era of the 1920s was a time period I had only ever read about or seen in movies. I liked how Lorelei aspired for independence, and did not try to find a "prince on a white horse" to save her. She knew that she must save herself. But she also did not rule out the possibility of love and the happiness of a home. A delightful read that I was sorry to set down at the end. Five stars.
Life in the mountains is tough, for women and for men, but especially for the women. Childbearing saps them of their strength, while leading to an early grave. Lorelei loses her own overtired mother when she is only ten, leaving her and her siblings to bring up the younger children.
Education is almost out of their grasp, too, as the local school in Deep Bottom only offers studies through the eighth grade. And then, like a miracle, a teacher appears who offers high school classes on Saturdays. Lorelei finishes high school this way.
Our story also reveals the harsh, punitive father that Lorelei dreams of escaping. And when she finally does, after graduating, she ends up in Charlottesville, working as a maid in a luxurious home.
How does Lorelei finally discover that her dreams are right within her grasp? What obstacles will she find along the way, and how will she ultimately realize her fantasies of love, while still managing to "save" her younger sister from their father?
Lorelei's story was so vivid and real to me that I felt I was there with her, even though the era of the 1920s was a time period I had only ever read about or seen in movies. I liked how Lorelei aspired for independence, and did not try to find a "prince on a white horse" to save her. She knew that she must save herself. But she also did not rule out the possibility of love and the happiness of a home. A delightful read that I was sorry to set down at the end. Five stars.
June 2, 2018
This book was more charming and entertaining that I anticipated. When a book is free on Bookbub, it is touch and go. However, this book was a good choice. It tells the story of Lorelei Starr. It begins with her childhood and continues until she is a teenager in the roaring twenties. The story is full of tragedy and romance. I was entertained throughly and bummed when it was over. I recommend this book as a beach read.
January 27, 2016
This was a pretty good book - until the ending destroyed it completely. It is the story of Lorelie Starr, raised in poverty in the mountains of western Virginia. She has dreams of getting educated and leaving the hardship and bad memories of her childhood.
She is part of the first graduating high school class in the area and heads to Charlottesville for a job as a maid. It turns out to be a good job, and along the way she falls in love with one of the rich sons.
I liked the character and her struggles, her desires to better herself, her refusal to fall victim to what other women have had to endure. However, she falls in love, then returns home for a funeral for her beloved brother, and the young man follows her. At that point, things went bad.
He confesses that he loves her and that he is going to make his own way in defiance of his parents. As soon as they realize that they love each other, his first response is to try to have sex with her. In my opinion, she should have kicked him down the mountain! How could she ever know if he really loved her or if he just wanted to conquer her. A deep kiss, some tight clinging, even some back rubbing, but no letting him put his hands up her skirt and pulling his own pants down. Sorry - destroyed the whole point of the story.
And then they ride off into the sunset, with her younger sister accompanying them, to live happily ever after. I really hated the ending.
This is supposed to be a memoir about the author's mother. It had such potential that I felt a terrible letdown with such a nothing ending. I don't think the story is over until together they face his parents and make their own way. If there are plans to write a second book, I will not be reading it. I am too disappointed in this one.
She is part of the first graduating high school class in the area and heads to Charlottesville for a job as a maid. It turns out to be a good job, and along the way she falls in love with one of the rich sons.
I liked the character and her struggles, her desires to better herself, her refusal to fall victim to what other women have had to endure. However, she falls in love, then returns home for a funeral for her beloved brother, and the young man follows her. At that point, things went bad.
He confesses that he loves her and that he is going to make his own way in defiance of his parents. As soon as they realize that they love each other, his first response is to try to have sex with her. In my opinion, she should have kicked him down the mountain! How could she ever know if he really loved her or if he just wanted to conquer her. A deep kiss, some tight clinging, even some back rubbing, but no letting him put his hands up her skirt and pulling his own pants down. Sorry - destroyed the whole point of the story.
And then they ride off into the sunset, with her younger sister accompanying them, to live happily ever after. I really hated the ending.
This is supposed to be a memoir about the author's mother. It had such potential that I felt a terrible letdown with such a nothing ending. I don't think the story is over until together they face his parents and make their own way. If there are plans to write a second book, I will not be reading it. I am too disappointed in this one.
September 9, 2013
Over my vacation, I read Diary of a Wildflower by Ruth White.
Lorelei is one of many children in the Starr family, growing up in an isolated mountain area in Virginia in the early 1900s. Diary details her childhood - very reminiscent of the Waltons, but a bit darker - and her eventual horizon-broadening introduction to city life and upper class society. Inevitably Lorelei crosses paths with a handsome and kind upper class gentleman and together they bring her Cinderella tale to its happy conclusion. I am a sucker for happy endings and so White has found a fan in me.
White is an accomplished children's book author and this is her first foray into adult literature and the adventure that is Kindle self-publishing. She's done very well here and other than a few typos inherent in self-publishing and an abrupt and stark change in accent & writing style for Lorelei's character (our narrator) late in the novel, I find Diary to be a great read.
Recommended; 3 out of 5 stars.
Diary of a Wildflower
Lorelei is one of many children in the Starr family, growing up in an isolated mountain area in Virginia in the early 1900s. Diary details her childhood - very reminiscent of the Waltons, but a bit darker - and her eventual horizon-broadening introduction to city life and upper class society. Inevitably Lorelei crosses paths with a handsome and kind upper class gentleman and together they bring her Cinderella tale to its happy conclusion. I am a sucker for happy endings and so White has found a fan in me.
White is an accomplished children's book author and this is her first foray into adult literature and the adventure that is Kindle self-publishing. She's done very well here and other than a few typos inherent in self-publishing and an abrupt and stark change in accent & writing style for Lorelei's character (our narrator) late in the novel, I find Diary to be a great read.
Recommended; 3 out of 5 stars.
Diary of a Wildflower
October 23, 2013
Great Appalachian fiction is hard to find these days, but this novel does not disappoint. The story follows Lorelei Starr from her hard scrabble life in the Virginia mountains through years of growing up in abject poverty. With no real love from her parents, Lorelei and her siblings must depend on one another. Lorelei dreams of someday escaping this hopeless world and finds her chance as a maid to a wealthy family. This story stays true to the Appalachia of the time. It realistically portrays the people and their way of life in the early twentieth century.
I don't want to give any spoilers, but I will say that I hated the ending to this story. It was so hard to put down and then it ended abruptly.It left me hanging, which I hate. Still, I am giving this one five stars. It is a great story. I just think the author owes us a sequel...
Read this story if...
*you love Appalachian fiction
*you love southern fiction
*you love historical fiction
I don't want to give any spoilers, but I will say that I hated the ending to this story. It was so hard to put down and then it ended abruptly.It left me hanging, which I hate. Still, I am giving this one five stars. It is a great story. I just think the author owes us a sequel...
Read this story if...
*you love Appalachian fiction
*you love southern fiction
*you love historical fiction
November 8, 2016
Lorie grows up in abject poverty. She thinks there's the possibility of a new life. Does she have the courage to find it? Can she get the Old Thing, with its crushing hopelessness, off her chest once and for all?
Based on the author's mother's life, the story is realistic and poignant.
I loved the reference to posing as a postal inspector.
Based on the author's mother's life, the story is realistic and poignant.
I loved the reference to posing as a postal inspector.
September 16, 2013
I liked it. I'm a big fan of Appalachian-set literature. I think it ended rather abruptly and I have a suspicion we haven't heard the last of these characters. There's a lot of unanswered questions. I enjoyed it very much and hope there is more in store as I felt the story was unfinished.
August 29, 2015
I really, really liked this book. It's over a year later and I find myself searching for another read of the same quality and lasting impressions that is set in this time period. Sadly, these are few and afar between.
December 23, 2013
The book took me into a time and place where I could feel see and smell the area and its characters. I couldn't put it down. great read...highly recommended.
March 9, 2015
quick read
stunning descriptions of rural virginia set in early 20th century
uplifting and hopeful despite the tragedy
stunning descriptions of rural virginia set in early 20th century
uplifting and hopeful despite the tragedy
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews