Every one's Choice discussion

Hey guys! I see that many of you read or plan to read The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom. It is a very good book so I recommend to read it or come chat about it here!

The Author is more than willing t chat with us but I just need more people to get involved before I call her over.

If you have already read it please make your comments here!

I am going to see if it is at my library today and then give it a quick once over to see what my interest level would be. Are you thinking of something right away or next month?

I would say next month or so. I guess we will see how many people read it or are willing to join in on the discussion and then go from there.

I am reading it right now so I will let you know what I think when I finish it.

I just checked, and they have plenty of copies at my library. I'm in!

Wahoo!! Thanks guys! You will love the book. I promise ;-)

I am reading it now, and I would love to have the author lead a discussion. I am out of town (without internet access!) from March 22-April 1, so it would be great if it could be after that.

Oh it would def be after that. I would say mid to end of April.

I finishe last night and really enjoyed it!

Go glad ya did Katie!

Donna wrote: "Oh it would def be after that. I would say mid to end of April."

Perfect for me then.

Donna did you know that the author has a question and answer session on goodreads going on right now?

Katie, I did not know, I am going to look for it.

She did one with TNBBC and I contacted her about doing one with us and she agreed so long as she had the time. I just want to let her know if I had enough people to do it and then I would have to give her an estimated time of when we could do it.

I'll wait for her to talk with this group instead of looking for the GR Q&A.

This was one of my favorite books ever!! Loved it! Loved it!

Looks like the Q&A will start on April 4th so those who have not yet read it can go ahead and start reading it and join in on the fun!

That's great, Donna, that's right after I get back from my trip. Glad I won't miss it, I am loving this book.

Kathleen Grissom will be by to chat with us but in the meantime please feel free to add some questions for her here.

Ms. Grissom, I loved The Kitchen House. I was interested to know how a white woman was able to portray this story so perfectly, and then I read your author's note which I found so interesting. The characters and the story have stayed with me long after finishing the book.

I read this last month and absolutely loved it! We did it as a group read in the group I moderate....would love a Q&A!

Hi Shelli. Good to see you here.

Hi everyone! Thank you, Donna, for inviting me. I am open for any and all questions and I will check in throughout the day and evening.

Thank you, Diane, for your comment. As you read in the author's notes, the characters came to me and spoke their lines. They became my beloved family. That is the best way I can describe it.

Nice to meet you, Ms. Grissom. Looking forward to discussing with you. I think everyone who read this looks at the characters as their family :)

Kathleen...first I want to say how much I loved your book! I passed my book on to 3 others who read and loved it too! I so loved the characters too! At times I found the book hard to read, knowing the inevitable hardship and terror that was to come, but my feelings for these characters kept me attached to the book. I also listened to a lot of it on audio and the narrators of Lavinia and Belle did a wonderful job!

And that, Diane, was my only hope.

I am a moderator in another group Kathleen and this was our group read for March!

Hi, Shelli. That's wonderful! I hope that you had a good discussion?

We had a great discussion and I just went back and read some comments and I do have a question...
Why wouldn't the Captain tell Martha that Belle was his daughter? Or Marshall? It just seems like this one thing would have saved so much heartache and devastation.

AND the biggie! Will there be a sequel? Please!

Shelli, that was a part that I tried to change. However, when I did that, the story stopped. Finally, after alot of research, I came to understand why the characters told the story that way. In that time period, a blind eye was always turned to the biracial children on the plantation who looked like the master. It was never spoken of and denial was the order of the day.

Yes, I am working on a sequel! Jamie and Sukey are speaking loud and clear. I believe it will be their story, but who else shows up is anybody's guess. :)

Jamie and Sukey(yay..I missed her!) that sounds great.

I understand about the biracial children on the plantation...I just felt sad in this book, because I believe the Captain was a decent man...he seemed to care a great deal for Belle's mother and for Belle!

Shelli, so glad you posed the sequel question, and love hearing back from Kathleen that you are working on a sequel!

Kathleen, this is funny because a few of us who read and discussed thought maybe you would do a pre-quel, in the voices of the Captain and Mama Mae! So maybe after the sequel :) We your fans obviously want so much more!

Kathleen,
Thank you for your courage to write such a powerful novel.
The story through Lavinia's eyes, often brought tears to mine, and I found that after reading the final page I really wanted to know what happens in this 'next generation' at Tall Oaks.
I also noticed how all of your characters could come to life on their own. For me, just when you thought you were done with Rankin, he was back, and probably my most feared character as an instigator. And to my horror he still ends up, just missing at the end.

Diane, I don't know about a pre-quel, but then I don't know what to expect. For my next book I had every intention of writing about Crow Mary, a Crow Native woman from 1870, who has a fascinating story. However, all the while I was doing research, Jamie's voice kept interfering until I finally had to pay attention.

Stacy, thank you for your kind words. The only courage that I needed was to write about some of the horrific deeds. I loved these people and I so much didn't want them to have to suffer.

If you didn't like the idea that Rankin was still around at the end of TKH, imagine my horror when I discovered in the new story that not only is Rankin still alive, he has a son who is every bit as evil as his father!

First, thank y ou again Kathleen for joining us! I told everyone about this book and we are now going to read it as our May read for my work book club. One of my employees (who is not in the book club) would come up to me everyday and discuss where she was in the book and everyday her face was bigger and brighter just to have someone talk about it with. It is truly one of my all time faves!

I was just thinking about Rankin and of how much I dispised him and now there may be more of them running around?? Yuck but I am sure it would make a great story!

Sorry I was a little MIA yesterday but my cmputer at home is horrible! I can never get anything done! But I am glad you all made some comments and had some questions for Kathleen. And for those who did not join in please use this as encouragement to read the book!!!! It was and still is such a woinderful read and it will be the quickest read ever since you qill not want to put it down!

My work book club just finished up on a phone conference/interview with Kathleen and she is delightful! She is simply wonderful to talk to and really got our group involved. She is truly a master and an artist!

Donna, that's terrific. What a great perk for your bookclub. Mine did that a few years ago with Lisa See when we read Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and she was delightful.

Ih that's great! We had a few authors come a visit as well as the phone interview. It is such a wonderful thing when authors get involved!

In-person too? Wish I belonged to you bookclub! I see you are in New York, so I imagine you have access to many wonderful book-related/author events.