So my husband and I were in the car engaging in my favorite activity (no, not that one, lol). We were headed to Bruster’s for an ice cream treat after dinner. We were also having the dumbest fight we’ve had in a while. We don’t argue often, but sometimes, he gets this look on his face that makes me just want to rip it off, you know what I mean? That’s not just me, is it? Anyway, I can’t even remember what the fight was about, but I do remember saying “that’s why they have pouches in the first place!” so I’m guessing, marsupials? The point is, I told him I didn’t even want the ice cream any more, and neither did I want to be in the car with him anymore, and that he should just take us home…AND THEN HE DID! Horrified, I watched him turn his blinker on and start to take the next exit, to which I started shouting, I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU’RE TAKING US HOME! To which he, perhaps understandably, shouted back, YOU SAID YOU WANTED TO GO HOME! Thankfully the evening ended with the two of us snuggled in the car, enjoying ice creamy deliciousness, and laughing about how we’d promised each other we’d never fight again—haha! But we did learn something about each other that night. I learned that he is not at ALL afraid to call my bluff. And he learned that I ALWAYS mean what I say…unless there’s ice cream involved.
Unfortunately, the sisters in Sisters with a Side of Greens also learn something about each other on the day $40 disappears between them—they are both stubborn. And I mean 40 YEARS kind of stubborn. Sadly, these sisters, Rose and Marvina, who had been so close early in life, let $40 (and a lot of unresolved trauma) keep them apart for decades. It’s only when Rose retires and, instead of shuffling away to live out her days in bitterness and regret, decides to pick up the fight with her sister and insist they go to Bruster’s, I mean start a restaurant. It’s a rocky road (see what I did there?), but their relationship does begin to heal, well, until the arrival of an unexpected, but thoroughly enjoyable character. But I’ll leave that for your reading of the book. And ok, maybe there’s no ice cream in the novel, but there is FOOD. And wow, does Stimpson know how to write about food so that you have the urge to start licking pages.
Read Sisters with a Side of Greens to inspire you to DO THAT THING you’ve been wanting to do. Rose worries that now that she’s in her late 50s, she’s too old to go after what she wanted in life, but then she convinces herself (and the reader) that these years are coming one way or the other; why not use them doing what you love? Read the book if you’re a middle-aged white woman like me who has no idea about southern cooking—you will learn so much! And read the book to reconsider the animosity you might feel toward a loved one. This book reminded me that life is short. And ice cream melts.
(Ok, so this is a Wawa run, but you get the idea 🙂
