Thursday, March 07, 2013

What is Kim Boykin reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Kim Boykin, author of The Wisdom of Hair.

Her entry begins:
I usually have a couple of books going. Right now, for fun, I’m reading Julie Kibler’s debut Calling Me Home. One of her main characters is a hair stylist like Zora in The Wisdom of Hair; it’s a great read. Oh, and I’m also reading Blank Slate by Tiffany Snow. The book is annoyingly good and is doled out to my Kindle a couple of chapters at a time, and it’s a thriller. I keep saying I’m not...[read on]
About the book, from the publisher:
Life can be beautiful, but it takes a little work...

“The problem with cutting your own hair is that once you start, you just keep cutting, trying to fix it, and the truth is, some things can never be fixed. The day of my daddy’s funeral, I cut my bangs until they were the length of those little paintbrushes that come with dime-store watercolor sets. I was nine years old. People asked me why I did it, but I was too young then to know I was changing my hair because I wanted to change my life.”

In 1983, on her nineteenth birthday, Zora Adams finally says goodbye to her alcoholic mother and their tiny town in the mountains of South Carolina. Living with a woman who dresses like Judy Garland and brings home a different man each night is not a pretty existence, and Zora is ready for life to be beautiful.

With the help of a beloved teacher, she moves to a coastal town and enrolls in the Davenport School of Beauty. Under the tutelage of Mrs. Cathcart, she learns the art of fixing hair, and becomes fast friends with the lively Sara Jane Farquhar, a natural hair stylist. She also falls hard for handsome young widower Winston Sawyer, who is drowning his grief in bourbon. She couldn’t save Mama, but maybe she can save him.

As Zora practices finger waves, updos, and spit curls, she also comes to learn that few things are permanent in this life—except real love, lasting friendship, and, ultimately… forgiveness.
Learn more about the book and author at Kim Boykin's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Wisdom of Hair.

My Book, The Movie: The Wisdom of Hair.

Writers Read: Kim Boykin.

--Marshal Zeringue