Whenever I (re)read stories from this book, I can hear Bailey White telling them as she used to on NPR. Quirky, yes, but she and her mama and their various cousins, siblings, aunts, uncles, ancestors, and neighbors are genuinely southern, from their never-ending tales that wander around among peoples' various marriages, children, inlaws, deaths, and relationships--sometimes getting to the point--to their calm acceptance of the eccentric and even the nearly unbelievable. My own mother came from a different part of the South (Mississippi), but there is something in that voice, be it Georgia-, North Carolina-, or Mississipi-accented (and they are all different) that sets it apart from other American storytellers and that rings true to those of us who grew up in the South or with southern parents.

The Book `Mama Makes up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living' is a collection of memoirs of meaningful or funny times in the author, Bailey White's, life. Each mini-story inside this book is approximately 2-7 pages long. There are about 55 mini-stories in this book.
This story tells you about the adventures of Bailey White's exciting childhood. By the end of the book, I ended up wondering how that many interesting things can happen to one person in one lifetime. It is amazing how she describes her surroundings of the past so well.
What I disliked about this book is that as soon as you start to get into one of the stories, it ends. The stories are so short and they seem to be scattered rather randomly in the book. They also don't have much of a point to them, being true stories.
What I liked about this book is how well she tells the stories as if they happened just yesterday. In some of the stories, she can just take you to the place where the story is happening. In others, she cannot. Compared to many others, Bailey White had a very interesting life growing up.
Overall, I wouldn't rate his book very high on the scale. Unless you like short stories more than novels, when you go to the bookstore looking for books, I wouldn't even waste a second looking at this book.

The Book `Mama Makes up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living' is a collection of memoirs of meaningful or funny times in the author, Bailey White's, life. Each mini-story inside this book is approximately 2-7 pages long. There are about 55 mini-stories in this book.
This story tells you about the adventures of Bailey White's exciting childhood. By the end of the book, I ended up wondering how that many interesting things can happen to one person in one lifetime. It is amazing how she describes her surroundings of the past so well.
What I disliked about this book is that as soon as you start to get into one of the stories, it ends. The stories are so short and they seem to be scattered rather randomly in the book. They also don't have much of a point to them, being true stories.
What I liked about this book is how well she tells the stories as if they happened just yesterday. In some of the stories, she can just take you to the place where the story is happening. In others, she cannot. Compared to many others, Bailey White had a very interesting life growing up.
Overall, I wouldn't rate his book very high on the scale. Unless you like short stories more than novels, when you go to the bookstore looking for books, I wouldn't even waste a second looking at this book.