I just finished The Sweet Potato Queens, by Jill Connor Browne. I got the audio book last week at the library because I needed something for the road. I didn’t have anything on my hold list, so I had to browse. Browsing is something I no longer do at the library. Someone tells me about something they adored and I put it on the list. I see something that catches my eye at the book store, I write down the title, and then put it on my list. I get a Wowbrary newsletter of all the new exciting things they have, something catches my eye on this list, and then I add it to my list. All in all, the library is the best system there ever was. When it is my turn for a list item, I swing on my branch (which I adore) and pick it up and get started. If you don’t have a library card, you are missing out.

But I digress, I had to browse for a book. I was reading the backs of audio books (because I had a car ride ahead of me) and this little old lady told me The Sweet Potato Queens was a hoot and a half. So I was sold.

Although I’m not really from anywhere, I do believe I have a big streak of Southern Woman in me, so I adored this book from the start. Then when I was telling my momma about the book on the phone and I glanced at the box, I realized that the main character was the author. I had thought it was a hilarious tale of a woman from Jackson, Mississippi. Apparently Jill Connor Browne is the woman and her tales were absolutely hilarious that I had just assumed fiction. Although there is fiction in it, it is based on her and her fellow Queens. The book starts that she just knew when she was in the womb, that SHE WAS A QUEEN. Every year the Queens march in the Jackson St. Patrick’s Day parade and there are now 6,000 chapters around the world. I am enamored with the Queens and am sad to be done with their story. Jill reads the book herself, the library has a few copies, please read it and then call me to discuss your love.

“Do not ever give a Queen a home appliance as a gift. Period. The end. Now, an exception can be made in the event she just happens to mention in passing that she wishes she had, say, a full Viking kitchen, and then she goes out of town for a few days; and when she comes back, her entire kitchen is renovated with fabulous Viking appliances. She will be touched. On the other hand, if it is her birthday and you, all on your own, select, purchase, and present her with a Crock Pot, well, you are over.”

– Jill Conner Browne, The Sweet Potato Queen’s Book of Love