Charms for the Easy Life

This book has more substance to it than some of the readers have recognized. If midwives and stories about medicine in the early to mid 1900's interest you, try this story. Or, if exploring mother-daughter relationships that are positive and make you feel good, try this story. If you love learning how people who love each other interact and take care of each other, read this. If you have ever longed for someone that could have the insight to tell you what is best for you and have a riotous sense of humor, read this. If you enjoy a read that takes a difficult time (WWII) and weaves it through the lives of some incredible women, try this story. You can make it very complex, if you must, or simply take the story as it is, and as it was meant to be. You will find yourself thinking back to these characters often, and wishing for that charming life that made living with each other easy. When you have that, you just may have what it takes for an "easy" life. This book can help in the meantime.

The ending was very different.

One of the best stories about Southern family life I have had the immense pleasure to read and add to my personal library. I’ve gifted to this book well over a dozen times. Personally, I’ve enjoyed it more than any of Gibbons’ other works.

Everything went as planned.

...but I really liked it anyway. In Charms for an Easy Life, talented Kaye Gibbons sticks to what she does best: write about several generations of Southern women. Written as a fictional memoir, it chronicles the lives of a trio of strong willed women within one family, led by Charlie Kate, a turn-of-the-century unlicensed midwife in North Carolina. None of the women in this book have much use for any of the men, remaining together (if conflicted) in their cynical self-sufficiency...until...Read it and find out. A good read.

I bought the first copy of this book many years ago and enjoyed the characters and the writing of Kaye Gibbons so much. I have lent my copy out a couple of times and everyone who read it enjoyed the read. A good friend of mine moved away and I wanted to buy her a "remembrance" and thought of this book. Ordered it and was so pleased when it came in the mail-it was like brand new-I immediately mailed it to my friend and she was thrilled with the gift. Nothing like a good book and appreciate the bookstore that mailed it to me so promptly.AnnieG

Enjoyable story of three generations of women, grandmother, her daughter and her granddaughter all living under the same roof and their struggles to find themselves. Grandma is Charlie Kate, a self-educated healer in much demand in her community. Her daughter is a beauty who married the wrong man is now alone, and the granddaughter is a shy, brilliant girl looking for the courage to live her life.

I thought the dynamics among the three generations was interesting; characters were realistic and the grandmother was especiallybrought to life with all her remarkable and very unusual activities throughout the story. I enjoyed the extreme differences in the personalities of the grandmother, mom, and daughter although they interacted Easy read. I don't particularly pass this book out on loan to friends because it didn't keep my attention that well. One asset olf this book is that it educated me on some customs of these people, such as covering mirrors following a death, purging of a person immediately following death, etc.