jim browning

Thomas Wolfe may have said that you cant go home again, but nobody told Jewell Mattingly Garrett, who, once more, takes us back to rural Buck Creek, Kentucky, circa 1977, to re-visit the goings-on in her own hectic life (through new personal diary entries), in the lives of her growing family (via more letters to her younger, more sophisticated sister, Ruby JaNelle Mattingly Clarkson, in Falstaff, Arizona), and in the lives of her friends and neighbors and the world at large (in her weekly newspaper column in the local Beattyville Weekly Word).

Catch up with Jewell and the cast of eccentric characters from 2008s Family Gems in this hilarious and heartwarming sequel, Family Jewell, to learn whats new with her tight-knit Kentucky clan--both "in-laws" and "out-laws"--and her close circle of companions and confidants at the Kurl Up and Dye Beauty Salon, including fighting fraternal twin sister beauticians Teensie and Weensie Bottoms and their comical, cross-dressing co-worker and co-hort in crime, "Mr. Jerry" Combs--not to mention a host of memorable new characters introduced in this latest slice of down-home Southern life.

Prepare yourself for the wedding of the social season; a funeral (or two) you wont soon forget; unexpected branches sprouting from the already-tangled family tree; more oddball antics from drug-and-alcohol-addicted eldest sister Opal Ovada Mattingly Skaggs (who refuses to let her idol Elvis go gentle into his own good night); and, last but not least, another treasure trove of time-tested and tasty recipes courtesy of the hands of the good Christian women of the Buck Creek Community Homemakers Club.

So, pour yourself and big cup of coffee, cut yourself a hearty piece of pie, and settle into your easiest chair for a second helping of "authentic . . . Southern rural family ways and foodways" (Bowling Green Daily News) first cooked up in Family Gems and now being served again in Family Jewell.