The Sweet Potato Queens' Book of Love

I found this book at work, and it was intriguing. Especially because the Sweet Potato Queens have a whole bunch of books out, and this is the very first. It's written by Jill Conner Browne, the creator of the Sweet Potato Queens.

Did I mention this is nonfiction?

Okay, here's where it get fun. The Sweet Potato Queens are a group of women who live in Mississippi. They are true Southern Women. One day, Jill decided she wanted to be a queen. It didn't matter of what, she just wanted to be one. She knew a guy who owned a sweet potato farm, so she offered to be the Queen every year. He never got back to her, but she (and some friends) decided to declare themselves Sweet Potato Queens. They also decided to throw their town's very first Saint Patrick's Day Parade. The entire parade consisted of the Queens riding around in the back of a truck, wear green ball gowns and waving. Well, it somehow caught on.

And now, in Jackson, Mississippi, they do this every year. It's actually turned into a pretty big thing, I guess (maybe I'll do that next year...).

But in the book, Jill talks about all the things you need to know to be a Sweet Potato Queen (though you can't actually become one...you have to be a Wannabe first, and then a Queen has to die or move away).

Things like The Promise (which I can't talk about, because this is a family-friendly blog, but if you want to know, let me know and I'll totally tell you... lindy [at] anovelbeat [dot] com), the Best Advice Ever Given ("Be particular"), the 5 kinds of men you need in your life (and 4 of them can be gay), recipes for the most fattening food on the planet, and why trashy lingere is actually a good thing.

No kidding, I laughed out loud reading this. And now I pine to be a Sweet Potato Queen (though, I'm probably too young, and have no desire to move to Jackson, Mississippi anytime soon, even if I can spell Mississippi without have to look it up).

4 snowflakes for rocking my world.