I STILL DREAM ABOUT YOU: REVIEW AND GIVEAWAY

GIVEAWAY ENDED
I STILL DREAM ABOUT YOU

BY FANNIE FLAGG 

ABOUT THE BOOK:

The beloved Fannie Flagg is back and at her irresistible and hilarious best in I Still Dream About You, a comic mystery romp through the streets of Birmingham, Alabama, past, present, and future.

Meet Maggie Fortenberry, a still beautiful former Miss Alabama. To others, Maggie’s life seems practically perfect—she’s lovely, charming, and a successful real estate agent at Red Mountain Realty. Still, Maggie can’t help but wonder how she wound up in her present condition. She had been on her hopeful way to becoming Miss America and realizing her childhood dream of someday living in one of the elegant old homes on top of Red Mountain, with the adoring husband and the 2.5 children, but then something unexpected happened and changed everything.

Maggie graduated at the top of her class at charm school, can fold a napkin in more than forty-eight different ways, and can enter and exit a car gracefully, but all the finesse in the world cannot help her now. Since the legendary real estate dynamo Hazel Whisenknott, beloved founder of Red Mountain Realty, died five years ago, business has gone from bad to worse—and the future isn’t looking much better. But just when things seem completely hopeless, Maggie suddenly comes up with the perfect plan to solve it all.

As Maggie prepares to put her plan into action, we meet the cast of high-spirited characters around her. To Brenda Peoples, Maggie’s best friend and real estate partner, Maggie’s life seems easy as pie. Slender Maggie doesn’t have to worry about her figure, or about her Weight Watchers sponsor catching her at the Krispy Kreme doughnut shop. And Ethel Clipp, Red Mountain’s ancient and grumpy office manager with the bright purple hair, thinks the world of Maggie but has absolutely nothing nice to say about their rival Babs “The Beast of Birmingham” Bingington, the unscrupulous estate agent who hates Maggie and is determined to put her out of business.

Maggie has heartbreaking secrets in her past, but through a strange turn of events, she soon discovers, quite by accident, that everybody, it seems—dead or alive—has at least one little secret.

I Still Dream About You is a wonderful novel that is equal parts Southern charm, murder mystery, and that perfect combination of comedy and old-fashioned wisdom that can be served up only by America’s own remarkable Fannie Flagg.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Fannie Flagg’s career started in the fifth grade when she wrote, directed, and starred in her first play entitled The Whoopee Girls, and she has not stopped since. At age nineteen she began writing and producing television specials, and later wrote and appeared on Candid Camera. She then went on to distinguish herself as an actress and a writer in television, films, and the theater. She is the New York Times bestselling author of Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man; Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe; Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!; Standing in the Rainbow; A Redbird Christmas; and Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven. Flagg’s script for the movie Fried Green Tomatoes was nominated for an Academy Award, and the Writers Guild of America Award and won the highly regarded Scripter Award for best screenplay of the year. Flagg lives happily in California and Alabama.

MY REVIEW:
I STILL DREAM ABOUT YOU is Fannie Flagg at her best, and considering how much I love all her books, that is saying a lot. I think one thing that added to my enjoyment of this Flagg book so much was that it is a mystery which isn’t common in her books. The mystery centers around Maggie Fortenberry, the main character and a former Miss Alabama who is now a  real estate agent, and how she discovers a body in the attic of a house she has just sold and decides to investigate this on her own.

Maggie, has found it hard to be the same vivacious gal she was now that she has hit 60 and has seen that life isn’t always perfect and filled with yummy “fried green tomatoes”. In a neighborhood that Maggie always dreamed about living in, the mystery house sits among the lovely mansion of Red Mountain, where yuppies of Birmingham now like to call home. Instead of Maggie living here, she is selling homes for her Red Mountain Realty Company where most see her as a successful business woman when really, Maggie is falling apart inside. She has written a suicide note and even gone so far as to have cancelled her credit cards. She thinks she is ready to abandon a life she finds unfair and lonely with no husband or children. Her appearance of success has been hit by hard economic times just like everyone else. BUT, the mystery in this one house may be enough to keep Maggie interested as she begins to look into the history of this home and finds some extremely interesting facts.

I STILL DREAM ABOUT YOU has all the signature Fannie Flagg lovable, well fleshed out characters that you really care about, and set in Birmingham with such on-spot descriptions that the city itself becomes a character as often settings do in a Flagg book. The main theme of the story works around Maggie’s emotional condition and thoughts of suicide but don’t let that fool you because Flagg’s wonderful humor still makes this book sing. As Maggie keeps on delaying the suicide, and the story is one that ultimately turns out about hope, I STILL DREAM ABOUT YOU won’t disappoint. I think it is a definite recommendation for book clubs as I know mine would love to read this story of loyalty, friendship, and even mystery all wrapped up with the right amount of southern humor and appeal as well as twists and turns to keep you turning the pages. A great gift for anyone this holiday season…or anytime else! 

GIVEAWAY

THANKS TO ERIKA AND THE GOOD
FOLKS AT RANDOM HOUSE PUBLISHING,
I HAVE 5 COPIES OF FANNIE FLAGG'S
WONDERFUL NEW BOOK TO GIVE AWAY 

 

--U.S. RESIDENTS ONLY
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COUNT AS MORE THAN ONE!

HOW TO ENTER:

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GOOD LUCK!