Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen is my 2008 pick for a great read

Susan Gregg Gilmore/a>'s Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen is the must-read book as far as this bibliophile is concerned! It doesn't hit stores until Feb. 12 (but you can pre-order on about any website that sells books). I got to read the galley in advance and all I can say is that Lee Smith is right -- Smith's 7th grade student at Harpeth Hall grew up to be a terrific writer and her first attempt at fiction is a winner!

Lee says:

This is a tightly-plotted, well-structured novel – I really zipped through it! If I had to make a comparison, I would compare Susan Gregg Gilmore to Fannie Flagg, but Gilmore more than holds her own. This is an unusually engaging novel by a very fine writer who knows exactly what she is doing.

Chances are, no matter where you live, Gilmore will be making an appearance near you. GO! You'll love meeting the author as much as reading her book. For book tour dates and more information, visit her website: www.susangregggilmore.com

Here's the skinny on the book:

Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen
Susan Gregg Gilmore
Shaye Areheart Books | Hardcover | February, 2008 | $23.00 | 978-0-307-39501-6

CATALOG HANDLE

For readers of Fannie Flagg and Sheri Reynolds, here is a witty and unforgettable debut novel about a young Southern girl caught between two worlds, and coming of age in the space therein.

DESCRIPTION

It’s the early 1970's. The town of Ringgold, Georgia has a population of 1,923, one traffic light, one Dairy Queen, and one Catherine Grace Cline. Daughter of Ringgold’s Baptist preacher, Catherine Grace is quick-witted, more than a little stubborn, and dying to escape her small-town life.

Every Saturday afternoon, she sits at the Dairy Queen, eating Dilly Bars and plotting her getaway to Atlanta. And when, with the help of a family friend, the dream becomes a reality, she immediately packs her bags, leaving behind her family and the boy she loves to claim the life she’s always imagined. But before long, tragedy brings Catherine Grace back home and, as personal events alter her perspective—and change grips Ringgold—she begins to wonder if her place in the world may actually be, against all odds, right where she began.

Intelligent, charming, and utterly readable, Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen is an inspirational debut from a talented new literary voice.

AUTHOR BIO

A resident of Nashville, Tennessee. SUSAN GREGG GILMORE has written for the Chattanooga Free Press, the Los Angeles Times, and the Christian Science Monitor. This is her first novel.

Happy reading!