The Mile-High Hair Club

This is an funny, sweet story. The author's Southern heritage and love of the region is on display here, in the pages and in all of the characters. The heroine and her potential beau are appealing, but the real fun to be had is with the colorful supporting characters - the eccentric aunts and the must-read-to-be-believed character of Shirley Jones. (And I don't mean Mrs. Partridge, y'all.) The book also manages to, in the midst of all of the fun, make a few insightful comments about the beauty pageant world. It comes together at the end in a fizzy blur, just as a nice glass of champagne should.

Bailey Roberts left Crestonville, Virginia for New York City several years ago to make her mark in the theater. Though she nearly succeeded as an actress, she has fine job as the talent producer at Expedition Network and has a boyfriend for four years who fails to get the message of what an empty drawer in her apartment means. With her mother recovering rather oddly from a stroke, Bailey goes home to help her younger sister Jeanne with their mother, but her sis is missing in action. As usual home is chaos, assisted by her Aunts Bits and Bubbles competing against Shirley "not the Partridge" Jones to sponsor the winner of the Miss Butter Bean Competition and by her sibling who has come home pregnant and man less. However, this time beleaguered Bailey finds herself attracted to the agronomist next door Taylor Montgomery, which makes her stay more than palpable; it makes it lovingly divine. The Roberts extended family is the Steel Magnolia version of You Can't Take It with You. Bailey is the "normal" one in a sea of likable nutcases, but the "runaway" soon gets caught up in the zaniness and becomes a born again convert to the world of the southern small town eccentric. Though the acerbic satirical scrutiny is somewhat abated by the amusing situations, readers will enjoy this slice of Southern lifestyle. Harriet Klausner