#31: Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman

I went shopping several weeks ago with a good friend and ended up buying 5 books that day.  Two were from the clearance table at Barnes and Noble.  Saving CeeCee Honeycutt was one of them.  The other (Dandelion Summer) I am reading now and am loving as much as I loved CeeCee.  I guess it goes to show that sometimes you can find real treasures for very little money in the bargain bin!  It also proves that some of the best books are NOT the ones that everyone is currently reading and that we should all take a chance on authors whose names we might not recognize immediately.

Saving CeeCee Honeycutt is a glorious book that I hope everyone will read.  It's truly a feel good book that will have you laughing out loud, smiling as you turn the pages, and wanting to be a better person.  The characters are created in such as way that you wish you were their neighbors.  For those of you who loved the characters in The Help, but may not have liked the racial issues that dominated the book because it was often heavy, Saving CeeCee Honeycutt is the book for you! 

CeeCee is a twelve year old girl who suddenly finds herself leaving her home and moving to Savannah, Georgia.  The book details one year in her life and is truly an inspirational book in so many ways.  I did notice, it was hard not to, that there are only 2 men in the entire book, and they are not created in a favorable light.  This book is clearly about the complicated relationships that exist amongst women, but these relationships are explored in a such a fun, playful way that it's hard to not admit that, as a woman, you just might be guilty of some of the crazy behavior, too! 

I almost wish that I had saved this book for my trip to the beach in two weeks, because it is the sort of book that you could easily read and completely enjoy while you sunbathed on the beach.  But, I just got an email a couple of days ago that Emily Giffin (who wrote Something Borrowed, Something Blue, and Babyproof, just to name three) has a new book coming out just a few days before we leave for the beach.  I can't wait to sit back in my beach chair and read that one, so I am glad CeeCee is done and hopefully Dandelion Summer will be finished by then, too.  Besides, I still have those other 4 books that I bought with my friend to read!  I'm sure they will all end up in my beach bag! 

Happy reading, everyone!
:) Dodie

P.S. Saving CeeCee Honeycutt will be on my top 10 list this year.  I truly loved it and know that you will, too.  I dare you not to laugh out loud and for those of you who read it...enjoy the flying slugs and the little fight at the end!  Hysterical!