Nothing with Strings: NPR's Beloved Holiday Stories
by Bailey White
Published by Scribner
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at Amazon.com
Reviewed by Andrea Sisco
Bailey White’s world is quirky. Her writing is concise and cuts to the chase. White “tells it like it is.” I think that’s why I enjoy her writing. If you haven’t read her novels, you’ll want to pick up Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Sleeping at the Starlite Motel. I must admit I haven’t read Quite a Year for Plums yet, but I will.
Each year White entertains NPR audiences with her stories on All Things Considered. Scribner has taken those stories and packaged them for the holidays in a book titled Nothing with Strings. The stories are fun, sad, quirky and charming and are about small-town Southern life. But make no mistake, this collection is not what anyone would call a holiday collection. It is that merely because it is packaged as such. But don’t let that dissuade you from picking up White’s book. It’s a laugh-out-loud, shake your head in disbelief, wipe a tear or two away and then rejoice collection.
My favorite story is the first, “Meals-On-Wheels.” It’s a look at life through the eyes of Ida, an aging woman who fears she’ll be carted off to the “home” just as her friend was. So when a new Meals-On-Wheels girl arrives, she’s relieved that she can have a small bit of enjoyment in her waning years.
You’ll wipe a tear from your eye as you read “The Telephone Man. Sometimes mistakes are made and you don’t know it until it’s too late.
But you’ll enjoy “Miss Wigglesworth’s Bull” and then there’s “The Garden.” It begins in the present and ends in the future.
Nothing with Strings is perfect for those odd moments we all have and would like to fill with something worthwhile. However, grab a beverage and sit back; you won’t want to put down White’s delightful book once you begin.
Armchair Interviews says: Wonderful!
Author’s Web site: http://www.BaileyWhite.com