'Charms for the Easy Life' by Kaye Gibbons is a heartwarming story that follows three generations of strong, loving women living in North Carolina from the early 1900s through World War II. The book revolves around the lives of Charlie Kate Birch, a tough-minded grandmother known for her healing skills, her headstrong daughter Sophia, and her shy granddaughter Margaret. The story is narrated by Margaret, who admires her grandmother's unconventional approach to medicine and learns valuable life lessons from both Charlie Kate and Sophia. The bond between the three women deepens as they navigate through love, loss, and the challenges of the time period, showcasing their strengths as individuals and as a family.
The novel beautifully captures the essence of the characters and their relationships, offering a poignant portrayal of three women who defy societal norms and depend on each other for support and strength. The writing style is described as smart, funny, and poignant, with well-developed characters that are strong, loving, sensitive, flawed, and believable. The story unfolds against the backdrop of North Carolina in the 1930s and 1940s, showcasing the resilience and determination of the women as they face various trials and tribulations, ultimately finding solace and joy in their unconventional way of life.
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From The Publisher:
A family without men, the Birches live gloriously offbeat lives in the lush, green backwoods of North Carolina. In a sad and singular era, they are unique among women of their time. For radiant, headstrong Sophia and her shy and brilliant daughter Margaret possess powerful charms to ward off loneliness, despair, and the human misery that all too often beats a path to their door. And they are protected through the years by the eccentric wisdom and muscular love of the most stalwart Birch of all-a solid, unbending, and uncompromising self-taught healer who can cure everything from boils to broken hones to broken hearts…a remarkable matriarch who calls herself Charlie Kate.
Charms for the Easy Life is the passionate, luminous, and exhilarating New York Times bestseller by Kaye Gibbons, the acclaimed author of Ellen Foster and Sights Unseen.
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About the Author:
Kaye Gibbons was born in 1960 in Nash County, North Carolina, on Bend of the River Road. She attended North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, studying American and English literature. At twenty-six years old, she wrote her first novel, Ellen Foster. She is also the author of A Virtuous Woman, Charms for the Easy Life, On the Occasion of My Last Afternoon, A Cure for Dreams, Sights Unseen, and Divining Women.
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