Through the Groves is an intimate childhood memoir from a different time and place. Anne Hull grew up in the 1960s in the citrus groves of Florida and from the first paragraph she transports us to her father's old truck, the dirt roads, and the smells of citrus all around her. 

While the time and setting was beautiful and outside the experience of most readers, I found this memoir honest and relatable. Anne grows up with an alcoholic father and the tenuous marriage of her parents around her. When things reach a tipping point for her mother and father, Anne is thrust into a new set of challenges. She recalls these times and specific stories with grace, humor, and sincerity around the horrors of it as well. 

Hull mostly focuses on her childhood, but towards the end we do get a glimpse into her years as a young adult. Fighting to make a way to and through college and then coming out to her family at a time when it was very scary to do so, Anne explains vividly what that time was like and ends the book with a sense of hope. 

I'm so glad I read this memoir, the only thing I can say is I wanted more time with Anne and her stories, more about her transition to healing and adulthood. Read by the author, I highly recommend this as an audiobook.