The Mermaid Chair
By Sue Monk Kidd
ISBN: 0143036696
Penguin Books ©2005

Have you ever opened a book and started reading and you weren't able to put it down? This is how I felt with "The Mermaid Chair." It draws you in from the first chapter in the life of Jessie, a housewife, mother, and artist living in a beautiful old Victorian house with her husband of twenty years in Atlanta.

One phone call regarding her eccentric mother leads to a life changing event in Jessie's life. The phone call leads her to the tiny barrier island off the coast of South Carolina, Egret Island, the place she grew up, the one place she never wanted to return. While on the island tending to her mother, Jessie finds something she didn't know was missing in her life. Was it the magical Mermaid Chair at the monastery that held so much history for the island that lit this fire in Jessie or the handsome monk? It isn't just the hot Southern afternoons that make this book steam as you read this woman's coming-of-middle-age novel!

There are several colorful characters in this book that will paint a very vivid picture of Egret Island for you. As I read this book I wanted to catch a ferry to visit this island for myself. I was greatly disappointed to find out it is a fictional island. This is how well Ms. Kidd writes, you become absorbed in her words. If you enjoy a good love story with the added dash of southern charm, you will love "The Mermaid Chair."

This is a story of self discovery, finding love, and rediscovering one's soul.

Read a book excerpt here!


Written by: YellowRose 2006­ ­