Ever since Shelby Eatenton told her mother M'Lynn her colors were blush and bashful in Truvy's Beauty Salon, southern belles have been all the rage. It may be true that the North won the war, but the South definitely won the right to tell the story.

In her follow up to Little Altars Everywhere, Rebecca Wells of YaYa Sisterhood fame brings us another steely flower in The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder. With a naturally elegant southern accent, Judith Ivey shows us the world of La Luna, Louisiana, through the eyes and ears of Calla Lily.

Crowning Glory is a story of all the different kinds of love you can hold in your heart for family, girlfriends, a boy named Tuck and what to do when it all falls apart. In her narration, Ivey imperceptibly shifts the tone of her voice to match the rise and fall of Calla's innocent wonder, puppy love excitement, deep grief, heartbreak, and hope.

There is also an edge in Ivey's voice that gives sound to the earthiness and humidity of La Luna by day and the moonlight which bathes it each night. Ivey also provides the voice of the "Moon Lady", the feminine force which guides Calla through her idyllic childhood, the sudden loss of her exuberant and passionate mother, and her discovery of the healing power of her own hands to do hair.

Ivey carries us from the tiny hamlet of La Luna to the big, bustling city of New Orleans, where Calla finds her professional calling as a hair stylist and rediscovers her lost love Tuck. If you want to know how it ends you will just have to put in your earbuds and grab a fan for a trip with Judith Ivey and Rebecca Wells to Louisiana. Sarah Evans Hogeboom