Looking for Me (Hoffman)

Looking for Me
Beth Hoffman, 2013
Pamela Dorman Books
368 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780670025831


Summary
Beth Hoffman’s bestselling debut, Saving CeeCee Honeycutt, won admirers and acclaim with its heartwarming story and cast of unforgettable characters. Now her unique flair for evocative settings and richly drawn Southern personalities shines in her compelling new novel, Looking for Me.

Teddi Overman found her life’s passion for furniture in a broken-down chair left on the side of the road in rural Kentucky. She learns to turn other people’s castoffs into beautifully restored antiques, and eventually finds a way to open her own shop in Charleston. There, Teddi builds a life for herself as unexpected and quirky as the customers who visit her shop.  Though Teddi is surrounded by remarkable friends and finds love in the most surprising way, nothing can alleviate the haunting uncertainty she’s felt in the years since her brother Josh’s mysterious disappearance. When signs emerge that Josh might still be alive, Teddi is drawn home to Kentucky.  It’s a journey that could help her come to terms with her shattered family—and to find herself at last. But first she must decide what to let go of and what to keep.

Looking for Me brilliantly melds together themes of family, hope, loss, and a mature once-in-a-lifetime kind of love. The result is a tremendously moving story that is destined to make bestselling author Beth Hoffman a novelist to whom readers will return again and again as they have with Adriana Trigiani, Fannie Flagg, and Joshilyn Jackson. (From the publisher.)

Author Bio 
• Birth—N/A
• Where—Ohio, USA
• Currently—lives in Newport, Kentucky

Beth Hoffman was president and co-owner of a major interior design studio in Cincinnati, Ohio, before selling her business to write full time. (From the publisher.)

More
In her own words:

I was born on an elevator during a snowstorm, a story my father often enjoyed telling whenever the opportunity arose. For the first five years of my life, I lived (along with my mom, dad, and older brother) on my grandparents’ farm in northern Ohio. It was a rural area, and other than a few tolerant garden toads, a highly social chicken, and Midnight, our family dog, there wasn’t anyone to play with. So I created imaginary friends. I’d draw pictures of them and build them homes out of shoeboxes—replete with interiors furnished by pictures I’d cut from a Sears & Roebuck catalog. Eventually I wrote stories about my friends, giving them interesting names and complex lives.

From earliest memory, there were two things I loved above all else: writing and painting. I wrote my first short story when I was eleven and sold my first painting at the age of fourteen. I believed the sale of the painting was a sign of what direction I should take in life. So I chose a career in art that eventually segued into interior design, but I still kept writing and dreaming of becoming a novelist. Life sent me on many creative journeys and I ultimately landed in Cincinnati, Ohio, becoming the president and co-owner of an interior design studio.

Years went by, long hours and hard work brought success, and with it came the inevitable stresses of business ownership. During the busiest year of my professional life, I nearly died from the same infection that took puppeteer Jim Henson’s life—group A streptococcal infection that resulted in septic shock. After finally being discharged from the hospital, I returned home to convalesce. I spent weeks reevaluating my life—the good, the bad, and the downright painful. As I struggled to regain my health and find spiritual ballast, my dream of writing a novel resurfaced. But no matter how I looked at it, there simply weren’t enough hours in the day to fulfill the demands of my career and write a novel. So I let the dream go.

Then, on a snowy morning in January of 2004, a complete stranger said something to me. And like an unexpected gust of fresh air, his words blew the door wide open. In an eye-blink I knew if I were to write a novel, it had to be now or never. I chose now. I sold my portion of the design business, and after a month of sleeping and meditating and realigning my energies, I plunked down at my computer. Day after day my fingers blazed over the keyboard, and I didn’t come up for air until I typed “The End” nearly four years later.

If there’s a moral to my story, it’s this: take a chance, embrace your dreams, forgive, let go, move on. And if life gives you a big smackdown, there’s a reason—and it just might lead toward your own little piece of the rainbow.

Oh, and there’s one more thing: be mindful of the words of strangers. (From the author's website.)

Book Reviews
Upon graduating from high school, Theodora “Teddi” Overman leaves her childhood home in rural Kentucky to pursue her passion for restoring old furniture.... One item from her past, however, continues to haunt her: the still-unexplained disappearance of her brother, Josh.... Though readers may question certain plot turns, these less plausible moments won’t detract too much from the enjoyment to be found in Teddi’s story.
Publishers Weekly


Hoffman has a good ear for dialogue, and Teddie and her friends are realistic, appealing characters. Perfect for fans of family-centered women’s fiction, this book will have special appeal to readers interested in antiques and 'shabby chic' style.
Booklist


Self-taught furniture restorer and successful business owner Teddi Overman has built a good life. Yet a mystery from her past lingers.... Just as love begins to nudge at the edges of Teddi's life, she is forced to reckon with [her brother] Josh's disappearance and her mother's dashed expectations. Hoffman's...novel confusingly mingles a charming Southern-girl romance with a weighty mystery. The romance resolves predictably, yet the mystery leaves far too many loose threads.
Kirkus Reviews

Discussion Questions
1. Teddi follows her dream to work with furniture despite her mother's lack of support, and she works hard to make her vision a reality. Do you have a similar passion or drive?

2. Why did Hoffman choose birds as the animals that mean the most to Josh? What does a bird represent?

3. On page 197, Teddi's grandmother says, "Sometimes it's not what we hold onto that shapes our lives but what we let go of." How does this apply to Teddi? To your own life?

4. Teddi finds a beautiful silk nightgown in her mother's dresser. Why do you think her mother kept it for so many years?

5. The novel is filled with colorful characters. Besides Teddi, who was your favorite and why?

6. Hoffman writes that the difficulty of returning home is that "a piece of us stays behind when we leave-a piece we can never reclaim, one that awaits our next visit and demands that we remember" (page12). Do you agree?

7. Teddi struggles to get her mother to see her for what she really is. Did she succeed? Did you have a similar situation with your own parents? With your own children?

8. Do you think that Josh killed the poacher?

9. Looking beyond the events of the novel, do you imagine that Teddi and Josh will be reunited?

10. In the hospital, Teddi nearly tells her mother that she loves her but decides against it. Why? If she had, how do you think her mother would have reacted?

11Why does Hoffman end the novel with the word "Menewa"?
(Questions issued by publisher.)

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