Calling Me Home by Julie Kibler 325 pages

This was a beautiful novel.  It was recommended to me by a patron, and I owe her big for it!  The story is told in present time and flashback.  Initially we meet Dorrie, a black woman in her 30's, and Isabelle, a white woman in her late 80's.  Dorrie is Isabelle's hair stylist, but over the years they have become very good friends.  Isabelle actually feels like Dorrie is a daughter to her.  One day Isabelle asks Dorrie if she'll drive her from Texas to Ohio.  Dorrie, being a single mother and business owner, realizes that it must be very important for Isabelle to ask her to do this, so she works it out.  Along the long drive, the two women discover that they really didn't know as much about one another as they had taken for granted.  Isabelle fills Dorrie in on her youth in a very segregated town.  This book has a lot of heartache in it, but it is absolutely beautiful.  I think the only thing I didn't like about it was when the author was trying to write in Dorrie's voice. That felt a little forced at times.  I definitely recommend this book to just about anyone.  I don't usually go for this genre...whatever it may be, but I loved this book!