I felt such a sense of nostalgia when I read this book, for a place and time I never experienced. It's the same feeling I get when I watch A Christmas Story or It's a Wonderful Life. When you're little and you get sick, you always know there's a place for you on Mom's lap - there is a comfort in knowing that you will be taken care of. I never experienced the 40s and 50s, but I sense from that time that the same secure feeling existed - a confidence in the greatness of America, and its ability t

This is my first Fannie Flagg book, but it won't be my last. I really enjoyed this book. Reading it was like talking to my 86 year old Nanie on a Sunday afternoon. You could be talking about the neighbor's dogs with her one minute and the tone never changes when you switch and talk about a relative with a serious illness. Then you are back discussing the high price of tomatoes, all in a five minute conversation. I got caught up on the comings and goings of the novel's small community, just like

This book was wonderful and would have earned five stars except that at one point it stopped being so wonderful and slid to just good. Note to Self: If you ever manage to begin writing stories like you have threatened to do for years, never allow a somewhat minor character to take over the story and change its tone. Especially if said character is in politics and might remind your audience of too many things in real life that they are trying to escape from for a few hours.So like I said, this bo...

This was kind of a strange book. It didn't really have a plot but was more a series of anecdotes about a bunch of people. I also didn't realize until I had finished it that it was a prequel (though written after) another of her books.The characters were all appropriately quirky and most of the stories about them were interesting but as the book progressed I felt like I was lacking any real connection to any of them. So, while I enjoyed it, I can't say I loved it (and I generally like Flagg's boo...

You know, sometimes I just need a book that is not going to scare me, get my hackles raised, or make me sad and depressed. This is the perfect book to cleanse the soul after reading some heavy books. I had been reading "The Alienist" and "Wicked", but I found myself feeling so heavy and sad. So I put the books down and went to find something light and airy. I love this book. It's sweet. It's a throwback to times when neighbors actually knew each other and liked each other. It's a feel good book

Fannie Flagg, the queen of fried green tomatoes and small town farce, comes on like a thunder storm of sentimental humor. You can run for cover under the awning of Great Literature, you can put up an umbrella of sophisticated disdain, but it's no use: Once you're caught in this warm downpour of kitschy comedy, you quickly give in and start singing in the rain.Her latest novel, "Standing in the Rainbow," opens with a statement "To the Public at Large" from old Mrs. Tot Whooten, the ridiculously u...

This is what they'd call a homespun yarn. Following this yarn was like being led through a very long, very pointless labyrinth. And not an interesting labyrinth, but a plain beige labyrinth in which you go snow blind from the featurelessness of it all. And in the monotony of the labyrinth, somewhere, the hair prickling up your neck, you realise with mounting dread, there are REPUBLICANS!The whole book is the most chronic piece of self-idyll-mythologising bullshit you ever read. The twee white br...

It is nice to imagine a town such as the one depicted in this book. This is a fun positive read where you meet an interesting collection of characters and see them develop over the years.

Love Fannie Flagg! And listening to her books? Even better.

Oh my, the question: "What did you think?" I feel like I'm cheating this one only giving it 3 stars, but there were parts in the middle why I was wondering why I was reading it at all. It definitely got better.This is not the type of story I normally read. I would not have picked this one up, and I guess I really didn't. My sister Jackie handed it to me as I was leaving after a recent visit to "the condo." And I'm guessing the reason behind the reason she did is a character in the story with our...

I enjoyed the first third or so of this book, even though it was an obvious reboot of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe. Dot Weems and her paper have become Dot Smith and her radio show, and Stump's daughter Norma and hubby Mackey have become a different Norma and Mackey in this book. There's a diner and a hairdresser, but this time they are minor scenarios, and a big "mystery disappearance" (the explanation of which was eyerollingly bad). However, when she got into all the politics

I couldn't find the plot that was supposed to capture my interest. There were at least 10 main characters who all had stories going on. Sometimes those stories intermingled and sometimes they didn't. If someone asked me who the main character was, I wouldn't be able to say. There were big chunks devoted key people like Hamm and Betty Raye, Dorothy, Bobby and Norma, but there wasn't a single plot line that followed through the entire novel. It was really about the passage of time. The book walks

So have you ever read that book that was entertaining but...you were sure it was NEVER going to end? Well, that was this book.I love Fannie Flagg, but she has a strange and somehow wonderful quality to write about what can only be described as "every day life" and still make it interesting...to a point.I liked this book, don't get me wrong, it's just...a book about nothing really. There's no one main character, there's no one protagonist or antagonist, it's just...a really long drawn out story o...

An absolutely adorable book! I never wanted it to end. I wish I grew up in Elmwood Springs, surrounded by all these wonderful characters and listening to Neighbor Dorothy on the radio. I didn't realize this was part of a series. I had already read "Welcome to the Word Baby Girl." Now I need to go and find the third one.

Fannie Flagg understands how small towns in the Midwest used to be, how they changed and how they got flattened by malls built on the outskirts of town. She writes of Neighbor Dorothy, who broadcasts her daily show from her living room. Dorothy reminded me so much of a friend's mother, "Gert," who was known by everyone in their small town on the Wisconsin-Illinois border. The characters were believable - I knew those people - they just had different names. That the young people grew up and left