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Summary
Author Notes
Joshilyn Jackson graduated with honors from Georgia State with a degree in English literature. After earning her Master's in English at the University of Illinois in Chicago, she taught university-level English.
Jackson's short fiction has been published in many literary magazines and anthologies, and plays that she has written have been produced in Chicago and Atlanta.
Gods in Alabama, Jackson's first book, won SIBA's Novel of the Year award in 2005 and was a #1 BookSense pick. Between, Georgia was also a #1 BookSense pick, which gave Jackson the distinction of being the first author to receive that status in two consecutive years. Jackson also won the Listen Up award from Publisher's Weekly for her audio book reading. Her newest book is entitled, Backseat Saints.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
After a great debut with Gods in Alabama, Jackson's follow-up poses the same dilemma for readers: you can't wait to finish it but don't want it to end. Between, GA, is a real place--it lies between Athens and Atlanta--but Jackson's little town is fictional. Thirty-year-old Nonny exemplifies between: she works as an interpreter for the deaf in Athens, yet the folks she loves are in Between; her erstwhile husband is in Athens, but a little girl in Between owns her heart. Plus, two local feuding clans make Nonny a Frett by name but a Crabtree by birth. Jackson gives us Southern chick lit with a twist while she explores, mostly through spunky female characters, the themes of family obligations, nature vs. nurture, the mysteries of love, and the gods at work. While the subplot with Nonny's husband stretches credulity at times, the characters, especially Nonny's deaf-blind mother and her two polar opposite aunts, are spot on. Jackson's got a winner, and public libraries will definitely need multiple copies.--Rebecca Kelm, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Publisher's Weekly Review
but listeners will guess that for themselves from the first few tracks of this wonderfully realized audiobook. Her brand of Southern fiction was born to be read out loud, with its quirky characters and astute observations about human nature. And Jackson herself is the one to do it; it's clear throughout the narration that she's having a raucous time as raconteur. As she spills forth the story of Nonny, a young Georgia woman caught in the tumble of a feud between her adoptive and biological families, there is palpable energy and sustained warmth. What is especially surprising is how skillfully Jackson manages the large array of divergent character voices, from the calm, matter-of-fact tones of Nonny's adopted mother to the wild redneck sensibility of her biological grandmother. Particularly delicious is Jackson's nasal, braying inflection to portray Nonny's bossy and narrow-minded aunt Bernise. The one place Jackson's dexterity falls short is in the novel's male voices, which sometimes fall flat. Otherwise, this is a delight from start to finish. Simultaneous release with the Warner hardcover (Reviews, May 3). (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
A long-standing family feud threatens to destroy a southern town. In her accomplished second novel, Jackson (Gods in Alabama, 2005) sweeps the reader away to a place where gravel crunches underfoot and the smell of corn bread wafts in the air. Between, a tiny dot on the Georgia state map, is oversized when it comes to personalities. When Ona Crabtree's vicious Doberman attacks Genny Frett, it shatters the town's harmony and reignites the embers of a bitter quarrel that began 30 years earlier with the birth of Nonny Jane. A Crabtree by blood, she was adopted by a Frett, forever placing her in limbo between the warring families. They seem to be polar opposites: The Crabtrees perch on the edge of society, taking lawlessness as their guiding principle; the Fretts, whose prosperous business has turned Between into an offbeat tourist destination, are ruled by propriety. At heart, however, the two clans are more similar than they may care to admit. Both have members with fiery tempers and capable of holding on tight to a grudge. During her childhood, Nonny became accustomed to being the prize in their bitter tug of war. Now an adult living an hour's drive away, she must come to terms with her own culpability in this horrid feud. Upon learning about the Doberman attack, she races back to Between. Her sick Aunt Genny and her aging mother aren't the only people pulling her home; the town also holds a potential sweetheart (if Nonny can make a final break with her soon-to-be-ex-husband) and a neglected niece. With her short fuse and history of bungled relationships, Nonny won't be able to broker a peace agreement and spare future generations of Between's children from this bitter fight until she claims ownership of her life. The plot is precise and sweet, and Jackson includes the perfect ingredients: quirky characters, a picturesque setting and ample surprises. Evocative and lovingly crafted. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Jackson returns with a second quirky and touching novel abut the South. The story of a feud between two families from opposite sides of the tracks, it narrowly avoids the worst cliches and appropriately exploits the more interesting ones. Jackson has been compared to Fannie Flagg, and rightfully so; her characters are vivid and lovable, put in situations that are so hard to explain that it's just easier to pass the book lovingly along to a friend. In Between, Georgia, protagonist Nonny is the adopted child of the Frett family, a strong-willed, well-off, and women-run clan, but she is the biological child of the criminal and downtrodden Crabtree family. Her adoptive mother, Stacia, is blind and deaf, and Nonny falls into a career in ASL interpretation. To escape her hometown of only 91 residents, where everyone knows the story of her lineage, Nonny runs to nearby Athens and lives out a half marriage with a rock guitarist. Predictably, the strange and dramatic goings-on in Between draw her home over and over again, especially when her cousin leaves a baby daughter there for the family to raise without her. Nonny falls in love with young Fisher, and the cycle of untraditional mother-daughter pairings continues. A climactic ending with perfect story resolution makes this book tidy and uplifting, and even the most cynical reader will surely smile as the back cover closes. --Debi Lewis Copyright 2006 Booklist
Library Journal Review
After a great debut with Gods in Alabama, Jackson's follow-up poses the same dilemma for readers: you can't wait to finish it but don't want it to end. Between, GA, is a real place-it lies between Athens and Atlanta-but Jackson's little town is fictional. Thirty-year-old Nonny exemplifies "between": she works as an interpreter for the deaf in Athens, yet the folks she loves are in Between; her erstwhile husband is in Athens, but a little girl in Between owns her heart. Plus, two local feuding clans make Nonny a Frett by name but a Crabtree by birth. Jackson gives us Southern chick lit with a twist while she explores, mostly through spunky female characters, the themes of family obligations, nature vs. nurture, the mysteries of love, and the gods at work. While the subplot with Nonny's husband stretches credulity at times, the characters, especially Nonny's deaf-blind mother and her two polar opposite aunts, are spot on. Jackson's got a winner, and public libraries will definitely need multiple copies.-Rebecca Kelm, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
