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Suck Your Stomach In & Put Some Color On! - What Southern Mamas Tell Their Daughters That the Rest of Y'all Should Know Too by Shellie Rushing Tomlinson Books in Review
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Suck Your Stomach In & Put Some Color On! - What Southern Mamas Tell Their Daughters That the Rest of Y'all Should Know Too
by Shellie Rushing Tomlinson
Berkley Books
ISBN 978-0-425-22134-1
Published May 2008 - Paperback - 290 pages - $14.00

We all get "advice" from our mothers (and others) as we grow up, but I think Southern mamas take the cake.  There seems to be an endless supply of "wisdom" and some hysterical sayings in the South.  How about "You better give your heart to Jesus, girl, because your butt is mine", or "Dancing feet don't belong on praying knees"?  Reading this book, you'll come across so many other sayings, some so odd that they could only come from the South, I think.  Take this one for instance: "...his ability to wart the horns of a billy goat" or "If a man treated his wife like a thoroughbred, she wouldn't turn out to be an old nag".  This is an autobiographical look at a Southern woman's upbringing, along with her three sisters, in Louisana, the comings and goings of friends and family, church stories, school stories, fashion recollections, and the like.  Shellie Rushing Tomlinson relates stories about her mother's advice on Faith, Sex and Dating ("not to advertise things that aren't on sale"), Love and Marriage, Children, Cooking, Keeping House, Beauty and Fashion, Growing Old, Social Graces, and Other Pearls of Wisdom from Our Southern Mamas.  But that's not all.  There are Southern recipes too!  Look at the Louisana Caviar, Fried Dill Pickles (I kid you not), Clean the Pantry Swamp Soup, Tasty Tomato Appetizer (I love this idea!), and Mrs. Wanda's Chocolate Chip Pie.  This is a fun look at a way of life in the extreme.  Not only does Ms. Shellie's self-deprecating turn of phrases make you laugh, they'll make you think about how you live your life, Southern or not.  There is the added bonus of quotes from others scattered about, like: "Mama said he couldn't pour pee out of a boot with directions on the heel"!
Visit Shellie's website at www.allthingssouthern.com.
Conclusion - Very funny and a humorous look at how the other half live.

"I enjoyed reading your kind review of Suck Your Stomach In and Put Some Color On.  I'm glad you were entertained!  No doubt, many of our ways probably struck you as quite odd but, and you have my word here, most of us are quite harmless. Take care."   Shellie Rushing Tomlinson

book cover

Review copy not supplied by publisher - library copy reviewed.

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