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Book Reviews of Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living

Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living
Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living
Author: Bailey White
ISBN-13: 9780201632958
ISBN-10: 0201632950
Publication Date: 4/1993
Pages: 230
Rating:
  • Currently 3.7/5 Stars.
 49

3.7 stars, based on 49 ratings
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company
Book Type: Hardcover
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

56 Book Reviews submitted by our Members...sorted by voted most helpful

reviewed Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living on + 337 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 5
A wonderful series of short essays on life in south Georgia, written by a maiden schoolteacher who lives with her aged but lively mother. A quick read but an enjoyable one, full of the characters that make the South so unique.
reviewed Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living on + 59 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
Kind of like a southern Erma Bombeck...light reading, very amusing!
reviewed Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living on + 32 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
These are wonderful short stories that mostly take place in south Georgia and northern Florida. And Bailey White is a supreme story teller. Her mother is a wonderful source of these tales. Each story will have you chuckling.
reviewed Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living on + 293 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
Learn how cousin May's irrational fear of cows is cured by memorizing Trollope. Read how Earl Castleberry driven to madness by a swan. Hear about the UFO Mama say early one fine spring morning and about southern politics. Hear about Uncle Jimbuddy and his lack of digits.

This is a fast read, laid out in small chapters, so you can read a few at a time.
reviewed Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living on + 117 more book reviews
Hilarious stories about Southern living.
galnsearch avatar reviewed Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living on + 143 more book reviews
If you've ever lived in the south you can relate to the car and tub on the porch! Funny book!

Donna V.
murder101 avatar reviewed Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living on
This is a really funny book .I luved it.
reviewed Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living on + 86 more book reviews
Cute book. Short stories. A fast read.
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A humourous and heartwarming tale of a Southern schoolteacher and her elderly mother, and their lives. Very humourous and a deligtful read. You will laugh and enjoy, and feel you know them.
reviewed Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living on + 50 more book reviews
A fun, easy read.
reviewed Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living on + 63 more book reviews
Short, pleasant vignettes from a Southern point of view. Enjoyable before-you-go-to-bed reading.
reviewed Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living on + 112 more book reviews
Wow! What an amazing storyteller! I will be reading everything from this author. Anyone and everyone will enjoy this.
reviewed Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living on + 13 more book reviews
An enjoyable series of vignettes of the author's (unusual) life with her mother.
shelskel67 avatar reviewed Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living on + 2 more book reviews
This was a funny, lighthearted book I loved it
LeahG avatar reviewed Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living on + 320 more book reviews
Bailey Whtie writes a very entertaining acount of living with her mama and life in Georgia. Great characters, with a capital "C". There was never a boring moment and I can't wait to read her next book.
reviewed Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living on + 367 more book reviews
In this national bestseller, Bailey White--whose accounts of Southern eccentricity have enchanted millions of listeners to National Public Radio--offers a humorous, touching, story-filled memoir of her home in south Georgia.
reviewed Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living on + 4 more book reviews
Great book fun to read. A national Bestseller
reviewed Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living on
Bailey White's indelible vignettes of Southern eccentricity have entranced millions who have heard them on National Public Radio. This book is just like them.
reviewed Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living on + 20 more book reviews
I love this author. Womderful book!
moondance120 avatar reviewed Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living on + 422 more book reviews
Interesting vignettes of life in a south Georgia town. Entertaining, quick easy read.
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Fun book poking at southern ideals and a very likeable character or two. Turns its mood towards the end, so it feels unbalanced.
reviewed Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living on + 2 more book reviews
This is, without a doubt, the best book ever written on life in the small town south with an aging, eccentric mother. It written with humor, love and wisdom and will have you laughing until your sides hurt. I will not be reposting my copy; it's a keeper. Although, I may buy other copies to give away.
reviewed Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living on + 51 more book reviews
A book of great short stories. I have given this book to several teacher friends just for her story on teaching children to read using naval disasters. A book that will stay in my library and not be traded. Hopefully some one else will share.
reviewed Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living on + 29 more book reviews
Loved it!
DsuzieC avatar reviewed Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living on + 159 more book reviews
I absolutely loved this book!!!
reviewed Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living on + 42 more book reviews
A humorous overview of life in the South.
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Bailey White is as delightful on paper as she is on National Public Radio,and this particular collection shares some of her delights in teaching first grade as well as living with her very Southern mother.
reviewed Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living on
Eccentric, touching, unique and universal stories of southern life and southern characters.
SanJoseCa avatar reviewed Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living on + 328 more book reviews
This group of short stories, rich in humor and folksy charm, was written by a young teacher. The stories are about her life in rural South Georgia. You'll laugh out loud!
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Wonderful, funny book about living in the South. I couldn't put it down.
reviewed Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living on
Charming & hilarious.
reviewed Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living on + 3 more book reviews
Light, cute and very entertaining. A quick read!
reviewed Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living on + 9 more book reviews
Bailey White writes about her tiny home town, a Georgia hamlet full of fascinating neighbors, overstuffed homes, and an unusual number of swans. In the tradition of such authors as Garrison Keillor and Fannie Flagg, she tells warm and funny stories about what happens when her Mama decides to train a taxidermist to cook, about teaching school with the help of the Titanic and a one-eared intellectual, about the challenge of gardening in Georgia, where "vegetation does not know its place".
reviewed Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living on + 57 more book reviews
Bailey White is a jewel of the South. Enjoy!
reviewed Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living on + 3 more book reviews
This is a great book! I love that the stories are a few pages long each gives me a sense of accomplishment reading each one. The humorous characters are priceless and some of the events very southern. This is a relaxed book great for savoring.
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Vignettes of this book have been read on National Public Radio, which prompted me to buy the book. It's an amusing and well-written memoir of the author, Bailey White.
reviewed Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living on + 48 more book reviews
Nice and funny read.
reviewed Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living on + 10 more book reviews
This book was hillarious!
bookgoddessme avatar reviewed Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living on + 106 more book reviews
Again, lots of anticipation because Bailey is an NPR contributer, and I am a HUGE fan of public radio. Quick read, but not as great as I hoped. I just didn't find the characters likable, they were more irritating at times. Again, doesn't mean it's not a great book that you will love, I just did not.
rolltide1al avatar reviewed Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living on + 223 more book reviews
**** A great southern read! Can't wait to read more by B. White.
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Loved Bailey White on NPR, love stories of her and her quirky Mama in this book. EAsy, light reading.
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Short stories of southern life. Enjoyable snippets of Bailey White's life.
Doughgirl avatar reviewed Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living on + 138 more book reviews
Bailey White is a regular commentator for the NPR show "All Things Considered". She grew up in the latter part of the 20th century in rural southern Georgia with her eccentric mother (her father having taken off to live his life elsewhere), and continued to live at home with her Mama as an adult while she was a schoolteacher.

The picture on the front cover of the book gives us a peek as to what might be coming in the essays that are included in the book. It's a picture of a typical small rural house painted white with a big front porch. What's not typical is that there is a classic car parked on that front porch. And a big clawfoot bathtub. And a swan wandering through the yard. It makes the reader curious to find out WHY they are in the picture. And Ms White's very entertaining essays tell us that and more.

Some of my favorite essays ... "Porsche", in which we find out why that car is parked on the porch, "The Bed", about a Murphy bed that refused to behave and would sometimes trap its occupants in the wall, and "Gardening" in which the author details her efforts to create the wildflower garden of her dreams.
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Great collection of short essays on Bailey White's anything but dull childhood on into her adult years. Really makes you want to drop on by Mama's for a sit down. Really a fun book!
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Short, delightful essays about Southern life.
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The author must be as wonderfully eccentric as her family. Both bold and delicate, the humor, wisdom, and pathos blend well.
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I couldn't get into it
Hellraiser avatar reviewed Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living on + 110 more book reviews
Delightfully charming read!
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Welcome to the unique world of Bailey WhiteHer aunt Belle may take you to see the alligators that she has taught to bellow on command. Her uncle Jimbuddy may appall you with his knack for losing pieces of himself. Most of all, you may succumb utterly to the charms of Bailey's Mama- who might take you to Rosey's a North Florida juke loint so raunchy it scared Ernest Hemingway, and then tuck you into an antique bed that has the disconcerning habit of folding up on people while they're asleep. On her front porch is a car, a bathtub, and a rocking chair. Bailey's indeligible vignettes of Southern eccentricities have entranced millions of people who heard her read them on National Public Radio. (Southern Lake Wobegon). 229 pages
reviewed Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living on
My favorite book ever!
reviewed Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living on + 224 more book reviews
Bailey White's indelible vignettes of Southern eccentricity have entranced millions who have heard her read them on National Public Radio. And now she has written "Mama Makes Up Her Mind," a book that is as sweetly intoxication as a mint julep and as invigorating as a walk in Bailey's overgrown garden.
AmiLu avatar reviewed Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living on + 32 more book reviews
Wonderfully funny and insightful. Mama is a great character!
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A quick read. Stories are funny and amusing.
reviewed Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living on + 711 more book reviews
Welcome to the unique world of Bailey Whhite. Her aunt Belle may take you to see the alligator she's taught to bellow on command. Her uncle Jimbuddy may appall you with his knack for losing pieces of himself. Most of all, you may succumb utterly to the charms of Bailey's mama---who may take you to Rosey's a North Florida juke joint so raunchy it scared Ernest Hemingway.
redhatter avatar reviewed Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living on + 577 more book reviews
Welcome to the unique world of Bailey White. Her Aunt Belle may take you see the alligator she has taught to bellow, Uncle Jimbuddy may appal you with his knack of losing his body parts, Most of all, you may succumb utterly to the charms of Bailey's Mama - who may take you to Rosey's a North Florida Juke Joint so raunchy it scared Ernest Hemingway, and then tuck you into an antique bed that has a habit of folding up on itself, to say nothing of a snake that plays hide and seek .... in the house!
reviewed Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living on + 6 more book reviews
Welcome to the unique world of Bailey White. Her aunt Belle may take you to see the alligator she's taught to bellow on command. Her uncle Jimbuddy may appall you with his knack for losing pieces of himself. Most of all, you may succumb utterly to the charms of Bailey's mama - who may take you to Rosey's, a North Florida juke joint so raunchy it scared Ernest Hemingway, and then tuck you into an antique bed that has the disconcerting habit of folding up on people while they're asleep.