ABOUT THE BOOK
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: troubled teenager Katy, good-looking catfish farmer Chris, wise and feisty Aunt Helen, and a female African-American physician named Kevin.
Whether fighting a greedy, deceitful politician or rescuing a dog she fears, Lois notices the headlines in her life have definitely improved. She learns how to provide small-town news in a big-hearted way and realizes that life is full of newsworthy moments. When she encounters racial prejudice and financial corruption, Lois also discovers more about the goodness of real people and the importance of being part of a community.
While secretly preparing the paper for a sale, Lois begins to realize that God might indeed have a plan for her life and that perhaps the allure of city life and career ambition are not what she wants after all.
If you would like to read the first chapter of Gone To Green, go HERE.
MY THOUGHTS
I was initially drawn to this book because it was about a person working at a small town newspaper. Having lived the city life, moved to the country, and landed a job at a weekly paper myself, I was curious to see if the author did the newspaper life justice.
Small town weekly papers are a rare breed and nothing like the city newsrooms we see on television or portrayed in movies. The staff is typically small and the newspaper building itself often feels like a second home even though it might be horribly outdated and decorated in styles from decades or, um, seemingly centuries, before. To say that Author Judy Christie hit the mark when describing the newsroom and staff interactions would be an understatement. I thoroughly enjoyed her descriptions and characters.
Author Judy also hit the mark with small town politics and how everyone knows everyone and their business. Small towns can be great places to live as long as you can manage the politics and sometimes go against the flow. Lois definitely met her match in Green and figured out a way to overcome the prejudices and “well, we’ve always done it that way” mentalities. I cheered for her quite a bit throughout the book.
Seeing Lois develop spiritually was another favorite part of the book for me. I was delighted that she found a friend in the female pastor that lived down the road. I also loved how she kept returning to the same verses and figuring out how to apply those to her life.
Gone to Green is definitely a thumbs up book in my opinion. It’s not a complicated book, and would be an enjoyable read to sit down with on a cool evening. The content in the book is appropriate for teenage girls as well.
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