Otherwise Phyllis

The story of Phil Kirkwood, an eighteen-year-old who refuses to be tamed. Living in the small town of Montgomery, Indiana with her father Tom and her pair of formidable aunts, Phil navigates a world that wants her to be still, be proper, be quiet. She is none of these things. The novel opens at Turkey Run, where Phil and her father are breaking camp after a wilderness adventure. Their bond is immediate and tender, he calls her Phil instead of Phyllis, and she matches his quiet humor with her own irrepressible spirit. But back in town, the aunts wait with their expectations and their plans for a proper young lady. Phil has other ideas entirely. What follows is the story of a young woman claiming her own name, her own adventures, and her own future in an era when young women were expected to simply wait. Meredith Nicholson writes with warmth and wit about a heroine whose independent spirit feels startlingly modern, even a century later.