Book Review: "Gone to Green" by Judy Christie

Lois goes from being a corporate journalist at a large paper in the Midwest to the owner of The Green News-Item, a small twice-weekly newspaper in rural North Louisiana. The paper was an unexpected inheritance from a close colleague, and Lois must keep it for at least a year, bringing a host of challenges, lessons, and blessings into her life.

When Lois pulls into Green on New Year's Day, she expects a charming little town full of smiling people. She quickly realizes her mistake. After settling into a loaned house out on Route 2, she finds herself battling town prejudices and inner doubts and making friends with the most surprising people.

Having both worked on my school paper and being a high school correspondent for my local paper, I always enjoy reading books about newspapers. There's something about having to meet deadlines, getting all the facts and discovering stories that could have major impact that always make for a good read for me. Therefore reading this book had great appeal for me, as I read about the adventures Lois had to face with going from big city newspaper to twice weekly small town Green.

I was really glad that even though there are prejudices and Lois having to deal with the "good ol' boys club", the book did not go into the way of stereotypes of both the south or small towns. There was nothing horribly cliched in the book which I was very grateful for. The town had a bunch of quirky and genuine characters that helped Lois get settled into a new life in Green. Even though some of the people took a while for both Lois and them to get warmed up to each other, after a while they began to accept her in their town and she began to feel like one of them. The main attraction of the story for me was seeing how the newspaper was run. I was glad to see that even though it was a small paper, the people took pride in running in. There were staff members who took their job seriously and had potential to move away to bigger things in the future.

If there was any qualms I had about the book, I would say that the resolution of the book happened really fast and I felt like I had missed it somehow. I found myself flipping back to make sure I had read what happened to everyone. Other than this, I thought this was a great read. It's not preachy at all, faith is mentioned but it is not a main focus point. The story introduced me to how a small newspaper has to survive and also to the local flavor of the town of Green. I know that I am going to be excited to read the next book in the series and more adventures from the townsfolk!

Gone to Green by Judy Christie is published by Abingdon Press (2009)

This review copy was provided by the author