I Still Dream About You by Fannie Flagg

The premise of the book seems depressing. A former Miss Alabama has decided she’s done and it’s time for her to go away…forever. She’s putting her life and her home in order and has a very detailed plan for her exit that will not inconvenience anyone. On her way to start her final journey she receives a phone call that delays her departure and starts a serious of events that makes her realize that life is good and worth sticking around for. I’m not ruining anything because you know going in that this is a comedy. I was a little doubtful that a book where the main character is meticulously planning her own suicide could be laugh-out-loud funny, but Flagg manages and manages with style.

There are a number of zany, quirky characters in this book that you wish were your friends too. And the chapters are very short (no more than five pages) and tend to bop between updates on the three main characters lives, and events of the past. Birmingham comes to life as this bustling and lively very southern town.

Business savvy midgets, purple-haired octogenarians, skeletons in the attic and cheaters of Overeaters Anonymous fill these pages and will make you laugh. By the author of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle-Stop Café, this is a romp to keep your spirits up on a cold icy day.