"My mama got the name Chablis off a wine bottle"

Readalong season is almost over, with Villette at an end and War and Peace with only 1 week of epilogues to go!  I'm currently reading for my monthly Minneapolis Bars and Books meetup tonight, but I don't think I'll finish in time. :(

However, that's not going to stop me from going anyway, because 1) there aren't really any spoilers since it's a non-fiction book and I already know what happens and 2) the meetup is in Hell's Kitchen, and the food is supposedly amazing. Is it bad form to go to a book club when you haven't finished the book?  At least I'm more than halfway through!

This month's book: Midnight In the Garden of Good and Evil, by John Berendt

My favorite character so far is Chablis.  She's sassy, brilliant, fierce, and larger than life!  Here's an excerpt:

     She was beautiful, seductively beautiful in a streetwise way. Her big eyes sparkled. Her skin glowed. A broken incisor tooth punctuated her smile and gave her a naughty look.
     "I dance, I do lip sync, and I emcee," she said. "Shit like that. My mama got the name Chablis off a wine bottle. She didn't think it up for me though. It was supposed to be for my sister. Mama got pregnant when I was sixteen, and she wanted a little girl. She was gonna name her La Quinta Chablis, but then she had a miscarriage, and I said, 'Ooooo, Chablis. That's nice. I like that name.' And Mama said, 'Then take it, baby. Just call yourself Chablis from now on.' So ever since then, I've been Chablis."
     "A cool white wine for a cool black girl," I said.
     "Y-e-e-e-s, child!"
     "What was your name before that?" I asked.
     "Frank," she said.


The best part is that Chablis actually exists, this being non-fiction literature and all.  This book is turning out GREAT so far.

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