Cathecarte Puryear blinked. "You are a natural philosopher?"

The boy dismissed that possibility. "No, sir. I'm a renegade."

The characters from Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind are some of my all time favorites. With the upcoming release of Donald McCaig's book focusing on Mammy I decided to finally read the authorized sequels/companion books of GWTW, which I had previously been wary to read. I wasn't a big fan of Scarlett by Alexandra Ripley but I did end up enjoying this book much more than Scarlett.

This book shows vastly different sides to some of the characters of GWTW. While I didn't quite agree with McCaig's portrayals of certain characters (mostly Melanie) I did understand why he portrayed them as he did and didn't think that they were too outlandish. I loved the mix between old and new characters and found the plot lines regarding both as equally interesting.

If you loved the hard and strong Rhett Butler of GWTW then you might be a bit taken aback by the Rhett Butler of this book. Personally, I enjoyed getting to see a different and softer side to Rhett. I liked getting to read McCaig's version of Rhett's childhood and seeing how McCaig thought Rhett was driven to become the man he was.

Overall I thought that this book did a good job at staying true to the characters and spirit of GWTW, with a few exceptions. McCaig did a great job at not making anything be too over-the-top. I look forward to reading McCaig's book on Mammy.

I have decided to combine my reading updates for the two books that I am reading and to put them in one post.

Bad Grrlz' Guide to Reality by Pat Murphy: 4% read

Right now I am reading the first book in this omnibus, Wild Angel. This is about a girl (in 1850) who sees her parents murdered and then finds a pack of wolves and is then raised by a she-wolf. The book description describes it much better than I did. I was a bit wary about this book because it didn't sound like anything that I had read before and I wasn't sure how I'd react to it. So far I have really enjoyed it. I like that it takes place during the gold rush and also the relationship that is developing between Sarah and the she-wolf Wauna is really interesting. I can't wait to read more of this.

Rhett Butler's People by Donald McCaig: On page 137 out of 690

I was a bit wary to read this after I read Scarlett by Alexandra Ripley and didn't enjoy it. I have liked everything that McCaig has written about Rhett's childhood. Getting to actually see events from Rhett's point-of-view has really opened up different sides to him that you don't really see in Gone With the Wind. I can't say that I really like his sister Rosemary, or really how she is portrayed. I have just read the chapter that covers the barbeque at Twelve Oaks and I did enjoy getting into Rhett's head during all that happened at the barbeque. Rhett has always been one of my favorite characters of all time so I am enjoying this so far and am finding it to be quite interesting.