Kathy Wilson Florence

Josie Flint os about to turn 50 and she is having difficulty dealing with the future as well as the past. Her beloved Grandmother, Annie Jo, passes away. Josie reflects on her childhood in Atlanta and the events that helped shape her into the person she has become. The book alternates between the 1960s and the early 2000s. We see Josie’s love for her father who calls her Jaybird. She is truly a daddy’s girl. Devastated by her father’s death and the circumstances she struggles to find her footing and depends even more on her grandmother. She faces desegregation and racial issues in the south as a teen. After the death of her grandmother, she faces yet another heartache as secrets from the past are uncovered.

I loved this book. I remembered so many things and places from the 1960s Atlanta. It brought back many memories of my childhood.… (mehr)

Josie Flint, known to her family as Jaybird, is the oldest of three daughters in what appears to be a happy loving family. The story is told by Josie in two time periods - one when she was a child and teenager in the 60s in Atlanta and present day. During her growing up years, we learn all about her friends and her first boyfriends and the beginning of the integration of the schools in Atlanta. She has secrets from her family and goes through all of the things that teenagers got involved with back then. Through all of her early years, the main person she relied on was her grandmother Annie Jo. When the story is told in present time, her beloved grandmother has just died and the family is trying to accept the loss. During this grown up part of the novel, several secrets from the sisters childhoods come to light and they have to learn how to deal with the new information.

This was an interesting book to read. I enjoyed the early years part of the story the best. Life was so innocent and friendship was so important in those years. I thought that the author did a fantastic time of presenting life in the 60s seen through the eyes of a young girl. This is Southern fiction at its best.… (mehr)

Josie Flint, affectionately know as Jaybird to her family, is nearing her 50th birthday when tragedy strikes. The family matriarch and her namesake, Annie Jo has died. This change in family structure causes Josie to look back at her childhood and stir up some memories, some which are better forgotten. With the absence of her grandmother, Josie looks back on coming-of-age, the death of her father, friendships and desegregation in 1960's Atlanta.

Jaybird's Song is an ode to southern women, their strength and their place within the family. Josie is an amazing woman to follow as the writing ping-pong's back and forth between her memories from growing up in the 1960's with her amazing grandmother, Annie Jo, to present day where Annie Jo is gone and Josie finally comes to deal with some of her issues. I was surprised when what seemed to be a series of memories from Josie's childhood turned into something much more, not only does Josie unleash the truth of her father's death, but a memory of a bathrobe and an African-American student who joined Josie's high school class combined with a package found at Annie Jo's house turns into a murder mystery. Overall, a passionate story that takes place throughout turbulent years in America's south that examines the tenacity of women.

This book was received for free in return for an honest review.… (mehr)