The Same Sweet Girls' Guide to Life: Advice from a Failed Southern Belle

by Cassandra King, Rick Bragg (Introduction)

Overview

Written with a blend of humor and practical wisdom, The Same Sweet Girl’s Guide to Life by Cassandra King offers inspiration and solid advice to new graduates that can sustain them through life’s inevitable ups and downs.  In this small book you will find advice that will only grow in meaning throughout the years. It can - and should - be read again and again, by thoughtful people of all ages.
 
King’s true gift is in her ability to present readers with the sort of hard-earned wisdom that will help both young and old find sustenance and renewed meaning in their lives.
 
Her first pearl of wisdom: sincerity is an important virtue, and once you learn to fake it, you are well on your way to success! Dare to laugh at yourself.  Find kindred spirits and keep them close to you; expand your circle of friends. Know the true value of time. She also advises that we try to find words to express love and gratitude but to keep in mind that it is our actions that reveal our feelings more than our words.
 
And as an addition to this lecture, which was delivered to a graduating class at her alma mater, Montevallo College, King adds a new afterword on the value of becoming a lifelong reader.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781940210032
Publisher:	Maiden Lane Press
Publication date:	05/01/2014
Pages:	97
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.10(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

CASSANDRA KING, who has been called “the Queen of Southern storytelling,” is the author of five novels: Making Waves, The Sunday Wife, The Same Sweet Girls, Queen of Broken Hearts, and most recently the highly praised Moonrise, which was an Okra Pick and SIBA bestseller. A native of Alabama, Cassandra resides in Beaufort, South Carolina, with her husband, writer Pat Conroy.

Read an Excerpt

“My mother spent the formative years of my life trying to shape me into a proper lady, a Southern belle. I cannot tell you how miserably she failed.....
Unknowingly, I had been surrounded in college by irreverent soul mates, disguised as belles-in-training. They were as unfit for the role as I was, and every bit as eager to burst free. From that day to this one, those of us who got in trouble with the Dean for laughing during convocation united, and we became and remain the Same Sweet Girls. We aren’t really sweet and never have been, but we made a pact while in college that we would always stay connected, and we have been doing so for four decades now.” —From The Same Sweet Girl’s Guide to Life

Table of Contents

Same Sweet Girls Guide to Life by Cassandra King 

 

Contents:

The book offers readers sound advice, a sample of which can be found in King’s abbreviated list of seven essential things to keep in mind.
 

1. Be sweet. Be nice to people whether you mean it or not. When a clerk or someone who’s supposed to be helping you is irritable or sullen, ask if he or she is having a bad day. Responding to them in a like manner won’t get you anywhere, but being nice and sweet might.
 

2. Be open to love. It can be found in the most unlikely places, when we’re open and willing, the unexpected can happen, because that’s the nature of love. But be cautious as well: don’t forget that human nature has a dark side, too.
 

3. Be as strong as you can be. Life is going to break your heart. That I can promise you. I wish it weren’t true; how I wish it weren’t true. The only way to bear it is to understand that suffering comes with the package. If you cannot accept that, life will not only break your heart, it will break you as well.
 

4. Be grateful. The legendary Alabama coach Bear Bryant did a TV commercial for BellSouth. It was supposed to be short and sweet, with the tough coach growling, “Have you called your Mama today?” However, Coach Bryant looked into the camera and ad-libbed, “Have you called your Mama today? I sure wish I could call mine.” If you’re lucky enough to still have your mother, tell her you’re grateful to her.
 

5. Be a spendthrift with everything but time. Don’t be miserly with kindness, generosity, or love. It’s okay to spend money, to save it, to give it away, to worry over it. It’s just money. Your only enemy in life is time. Don’t squander it. Fate always bats last, and always bats a thousand.
 

6. Be a little bit crazy. One day a whistle will blow, and all the folks in asylums will exchange places with everyone else, and they’ll run the world for a while. Will any of us know the difference? Maybe the whistle has already blown. If so, we might as well laugh about it. Laughter helps us keep life in perspective.
 

7. Become a lifelong reader. Books let us know that we’re not alone in this world. Others have taken the path we find ourselves on, have stumbled, fallen, and pulled themselves up to journey on. Some might say that we lose ourselves in a good book. In truth, we find ourselves.

Editorial Reviews

"I simply love The Same Sweet Girl’s Guide to Life, a little book that packs big wisdom. If there is a better gift for anyone passing through one of life’s transitions, I don’t know what it would be..."
— Dorthea Benton Frank, New York Times bestselling  author of Porch Lights

From the Publisher