What we thought Sweet Potato Queens

What We Thought: The Sweet Potato Queen’s first big ass novel, stuff we didn’t actually do, but could have, and may yet by Jill Connor Browne with Karen Gillespie

Afternoon Readers Book Club October 2015

  

  “In trying times, such as the ones we currently find ourselves mired in the middle of, one wants a distraction from one’s troubles and I find it most helpful to plan and engage in a pleasant outing or two with close and like-minded friends. Or you could go gator huntin’. Jill Connor Browne, Fat is the new 30: The Sweet Potato Queens’ guide to coping with (the crappy parts of) life.

Jill Conner Browne, Boss Sweet Potato Queen (SPQ), has written five non-fiction bestsellers. Now she has moved to fiction. The Sweet Potato Queens’ first big ass novel is a humorous story about the lives of childhood friends who remain devoted to each other thorough out their adult lives weathering good and bad times. Jackson, Mississippi provides the back drop of southern flavor for the feisty group of women and one guy. Readers enjoyed the book and appreciated the attachment the characters had for each other. The bonds they formed were as strong as blood as they created their own family to help them deal with situations of class, career and romance locally and in the wider world.

 Members enjoyed reading the book and readily connected with the characters’ stories. They loved the descriptions of their individuality and quirks. Readers smiled when they talked about Jill, Patsy, Mary Bennett, Tammy and Gerald. They readily identified characteristics of their own in the behavior of all of them. The satisfaction of dealing with a long time bully, pulling together to rescue friends from romance lost or gone bad and encouraging development of self-esteem resonated with the book group.

Comfort food was liberally consumed throughout the book and miraculously the recipes were included after the last chapter. Everyone read them and some were inspired to create their own. Some of the recipes from Rest in Peace, a restaurant the Sweet Potato Queens would open serving only Southern funeral food; Promised land pasta salad, boys’r’ us beans, blessed bacon biscuits, maketh me to lie down in mac’n’ cheese, Beulah land boo-boo pie, Hershey bar pie, and delicious death dump cake are just a sample of the yummy treats highlighted.

“As Queens, we make no bones about it, we KNOW HOW TO EAT. We love to eat, and whenever we can get away with it, we eat the most fattening crap we can get our paws on. We are not too proud to eat stuff made with Cool Whip and cream of mushroom soup—if somebody’s mama made it and it’s really yummy. If it tastes good, we’ll eat it. We offer no excuses for our plebian selves.” Jill Connor Browne

Have you read The Sweet Potato Queens? What did you think? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

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