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Title	:	Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living
Author	:	Bailey White
Book Format	:	Trade Paperback
Book Edition	:	Special Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 229 pages
Published	:	April 12th 1994 by Vintage (first published 1993)
Categories	:	Humor. Nonfiction. Autobiography. Memoir. Short Stories. American. Southern. Writing. Essays

Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living

Bailey White

Trade Paperback | Pages: 229 pages

Rating: 3.95 | 4185 Users | 372 Reviews

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Whether written (in books such as this) or spoken (in her oral essays on NPR), I love Bailey White's voice. It is honest, original, entertaining and yet carries insight that can be quite biting at times. Better still, it is oh so southern. She is a master storyteller who manages to fit whole stories into the space of a short essay. Aspiring writers should study her opening lines and paragraphs to see how a great writer draws a reader in. How about these for opening sentences? "We should have known things were not going well when Mama found a tick doing isometrics under her panty hose." Or "Something about my mother attracts ornithologists." Or "My mother eats things she finds dead on the road." Or "I remember as a little child watching my aunt Belle's wide rump disappear into the cattails and marsh grass at the edge of a pond as she crawled on her hands and knees to meet a giant alligator face to face." Or, perhaps my favorite, "My Uncle Jimbuddy, the cabinet maker, has been cutting off pieces of his fingers for ten years now." With openings like these, how can a reader not be drawn in to find out what in the world she is talking about and how is she going to make a story of it?

Ms. White's stories are so evocative that, by the time you finish reading this slim volume, you feel you're a member of her family, whether you want to be or not, not unlike Kevin, the yankee nephew of Ms. White's aunt Eleanor -- the young man aunt Eleanor wants Ms. White to marry despite the fact that "Kevin has to lie down with with a cold rag on his head after an hour in my company, and . . .I can't seem to breathe normally when I am in the same room with Kevin, and have to go out on the porch and gulp air every ten minutes. . ." You know the dirty laundry, you know the eccentricities, and you know the hurts that are long past but not forgotten, and yet, through all of it you never lose sight of the irony and humor of it all. Moreover, you come to realize that dirty laundry, eccentricities and old hurts are very real parts of all our lives and deserve to be honored and celebrated every bit as much as the things we more typically choose to focus our attentions on.

In short, Ms. White's writing not only entertains, it also informs and uplifts, and I for one am eagerly looking forward to the next time I have the good fortune to pick up one of her books.

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Original Title:	Mama Makes Up Her Mind: And Other Dangers of Southern Living
ISBN:	0679751602 (ISBN13: 9780679751601)
Edition Language:	English
Setting:	Georgia(United States)

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Ratings: 3.95 From 4185 Users | 372 Reviews

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OMG! A friend of mine gave this book to me and said that the 'Mama' in the book reminded her of my mother so I should read it. I read it, then gave it to my mother to read without telling her what my friend had said. My mother read it, called me up and said, "That Bailey White, she reminds me of YOU!" Lordy, it was like looking in the mirror! Bailey White is a delight. I later got the audio version and it is even better to listen to the author's raspy southern accent. Read it!

I loved every piece in this short collection. Each one was like picking a piece of chocolate from a box, rationing them out so they would last longer. Then, Oh No! The box is empty! I'm done. Fortunately there's another collection to be read.These essays about her life in Georgia were written 20 years ago, and don't feel dated at all. I can read them in another 20 years and I bet they will still retain their freshness. You can't say that about a box of chocolates.

Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living brings many laughs but with some introspection, too. The book is a collection of vignettes from Bailey White's life, most of which center around "Mama". Mama knows what she wants and how to get it. Mama can be hilarious, charming or set in her ways (but not in a cantankerous way.) The book reads fast and makes for a nice segue between heavier reads or long books.4 stars

This might be OK as an audio book if you just want to hear a voice other than the DJ's on a long lonely drive, but as a book-book it was terribly boring. It's a random collection of short vignettes that are neither interesting nor funny. I couldn't finish it and I don't give up on books that often.

7/21/08.. I started reading this the other day... not exactly what I had expected from a memoir. It's basically a series of short (SHORT!) stories.. maybe 2 or 3 pages each. It's pretty much mindless chatter that is only bits and pieces of her life. I think if she had written it in the true sense of a "memoir" it would be very fascinating. 8/12/08... I just can't finish this book. I hate to get half way through a book and put it down, but I can't waste another minute on this book. Very

Re-reading at the laundromat, while recovering from the dishwasher disaster. I was actually inspired to re-read by a passage from another of her books, Sleeping at the Starlite Motel. My disaster story pales compared to hers: MY AUNT ELEANOR WAS TAKING A SHOWER THE other day when the whole bathroom fell right through the floor and landed in the dust under the house. Dripping wet and all lathered up, picking soap and tile grout out of her ears, Aunt Eleanor crawled out of the debris and through

Just as good the second time around. This time I read it aloud for a senior citizen literature class. It is easy to read aloud and everyone found it just as amusing as I did. Life with her mother is funny and inspiring. Her essays about teaching first grade are wonderful. I read "Maritime Disasters" at every teacher workshop I teach and it never fails to give me the big inspirational ending I'm looking for.