Heaven Is a Beautiful Place: A Memoir of the South Carolina Coast

Rating:
Summary: A WONDERFUL WONDERFUL BOOK!
Review: I have just finished "Heaven Is A Beautiful Place", by Genevieve Chandler Peterkin...it is a wonderful, wonderful story of South Carolina history at its best...you are 'right there' with tales Mrs Peterkin tells of Lillie Knox, Zacky Knox, her mother-in-law Julia and Mama...cringe at the ghost tales of Alice Flagg and others...the romance and marriage to Bill, then the birth of their only son, Jim...grieve at the lost of that young son...her faith in God that grew stronger and stronger as troubles came.

It was hard at times to lay the book down, while at other times you could not wait to see what happened.

I am now going to pass my copy of "Heaven Is A Beautiful Place" on to my 89 year old mother, who likes to read, as she says, 'something real'...

Rating:
Summary: Better Than Fiction; A Fabulous, Page-Turning Read
Review: I was not going to read this book, figuring it was yet another trivial book by a local person with famous connections (Julia Peterkin, a novelist who won a Pulitzer, was the author's mother-in-law). Was I wrong! This is one of the most riveting books I have ever read. Peterkin is a gifted storyteller with amazing stories to tell, stories that are right up there with the best fiction. I want to compare her to Flannery O'Connor, to Nabokov, to Kipling, to Dickens, to any fiction writer whose stories linger with us for the rest of our lives. Yet these powerful stories are true and open a window into recent times. Some of her stories prove that truth is stranger than fiction. They are in turns hilarious, outrageous, tragic, moving and illuminating.

Please, get this book. I don't know Peterkin but I wish I did. I picked up the book by accident and never put it down till I finished. Beg, borrow or steal it, whatever it takes to get it in your hands.

Rating:
Summary: Heaven is a Beautiful Place
Review: This book is phenomenal. I was absolutley enthralled with how many interesting stories I could repeat from this book...and then I was surprised to find I was only on page 10! This book is a joy to read-- the most amazing thing I noticed is what happened as I was reading this book--I felt just like I was sitting on the floor in the living room enraptured by the storyteller and I never wanted her to stop.