{ Remember Whose Little Girl You Are by Ellen Nichols - TLC Book Tour }

 

About Remember Whose Little Girl You Are

• Koehler Books: May 3, 2022
• Paperback: 128 pages

Remember Whose Little Girl You Are captures the flavor of the Deep South like no author since Eudora Welty or Flannery O’Connor. Ellen Nichols captures the tenor of small-town Southern life in the fifties and sixties, with its vicissitudes and hilarity. One is captured with her openness and drawn deeply into the dialogue-so much as to, according to one reader, sometimes feel guilty of spying.

Read it and see if you want those times back-or are just relieved they’re gone.

Purchase Links

IndieBound | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

 

About Ellen Nichols

Ellen grew up in the American Deep South, but with a spirit of adventure, she went up to Toronto, Canada, to go to graduate school, and stayed 50 years.

No, she wasn’t a slow student, she just ended up getting married, raising a family, and building a successful career in charitable fundraising. She has been writing for a living for years, but was always writing for someone else. Her grant proposals, direct marketing letters, and especially her thank you letters, are legend. Her persuasive writing skills raised millions of dollars.

Those Canadians loved her tales about her southern life so much, she decided to write them down and they became Remember Whose Little Girl You Are.

Recently, she moved back down south where she lives on Santa Rosa Sound near Pensacola. And yes, she is now writing about all her Canadian adventures.

You can learn more about Ellen on her website.

 

REVIEW:

"I was born in 1944, the second of four daughters.  Our father was a Methodist preacher and our mother was a preacher's daughter.  My three sisters were each the epitome of what a preacher's daughter ought to be:  modest, caring, chaste, full of good deeds, discerning, and cautious.  It fell to me to uphold the popular image of a daughter of the parsonage:  wild, willful, religiously disrespectful, incautious, and a trampler of tradition.  and oh, I fell to this role with relish and abandon."

 

 

Remember  Whose Little Girl You are is a phenomenal memoir.  Oh my word, it's been years since I've read a book that not only kept me glued, turning every page as quick as I could, but laughing out loud at some of the quirky funny moments.

 

First and foremost, can we just talk about the fact that the author actually sent us all a pair of sock that match the socks worn on the cover of the book?  I absolutely love when authors do these kind of things.

 

Ellen Nichols did such a brilliant job of taking us back into the fifties and sixties while retelling the story of her childhood and being the wild non traditional daughter of a Methodist preacher.  She takes us step by step from city to city, as the family moved, and shares sweet and sometimes hilarious stories of the new town, the people she encounters. 

All of this is done and is happening, during one of the most important and known time of American history, which is the Civil Rights movement.  She mentions how her Methodist preacher father would often times incorporate talk about the movement, into his sermons.  Ellen talks about an encounter her family had, while driving down the street, with the Ku Klux  Klan.  How they were handing out pamphlets, and her dad pulled up, rolled down his window and basically yelled at them, before driving off.

 

As I read through the numerous stories the author shared, I kept wondering about the title.  

 

Remember Whose Little Girl You Are!!!! 

Why, why that title and what did it mean?  I was so happy to see that halfway through the book, she hones in on this phrase and explains where it came from.

It was something her mom would always say to her and her three sisters, anytime they left the house.  Whether they were going to a church function or even just downtown to have a coke with friends, that phrase meant, behave yourselves because you're representing your preacher father and mother as well.

Ellen talks about how that phrase plagued her sometimes because she felt the burden of carrying that within her.  But she also talks about, how she started seeing that others were doing things, that were against what her parents expected of her and her siblings, and yet they seemed to be having a great time.

She then says, which I thought was quite funny, "Maybe my mom and dad weren't as enlightened as they appeared to be."  Hahahahahah

That struck me as funny because it's such a child reaction and thought to have.  We've all been children, we've all been at those moments where we are out with the family, and trying to behave and wondering at times, why can the other kids do certain things, but we're not allowed to.  It was just funny to see that written in the book.

The book itself is quite short, very short chapters, each focused on a city or a specific event in her life.  Very quick to read through but packed with so much fun, information and sweet storytelling.  It is wonderful seeing how she shifts her thinking from childhood to an adult, and even sharing some pretty funny stories about the beaus she encountered along the way.

She ends the book saying "And yes, I did manage to find attractive, interesting, and unsuitable Canadian men, and even married a few of them-but that's for another book."

Well if she writes that book, I am for sure, reading it.  I fell in love with Ellen's style of writing, she makes you feel like you're sitting on a front porch, in the Deep South, enjoying a glass of sweet tea, and listening to a friend recount childhood memories and stories, that leave you in stitches.

Thank you TLC Book Tours and Koehler Books, for providing me with a review copy.