The Sweet Potato Queens' Book of Love (Book Review) by Joy Cagil

The Sweet Potato Queens' Book of Love is an amusing book to read if you do not mind its risqué, even though inoffensive, phrases. The book is really about making choices when it comes to love, life, men, relationships, and marriage.

The queens, as the reader will know them, came into being during a 1982 St. Patrick's Parade in Jackson, Mississippi, when they threw sweet potatoes to their fans. Later the queens held a meeting and decided to adapt stage names for themselves for the sake of anonymity.

The queens feel that "in any area of life, it is highly desirable to get other people--men--to do things for you whenever possible." The queens have deciphered a lot about this world, in addition to what makes it go round, plus what a queen's promise to a man is.

Some of their advice or ad-vices are: "Be particular," that is, choose well. "Be prepared, on account of you-just-never-know." "Educate your young, making sure you have the upper hand."

The queens have quite a few guiding suggestions, some old, some new, like "the guy who said the best defense is a good offense was no dumbass," and a queen must try to have five men in her life at all times in order to have the equivalent of one completely satisfactory man.

Fiancés and boyfriends, getting them or getting over them is another full chapter. Probably more than three quarters of the book is about men: men who love them; the man they are all looking for; men who signal danger; men who may need killing. Here the question is: "Is that a wedding ring in your pocket--or are you glad to see me?"

With all its kidding, naughtiness, and hilarity, "The Sweet Potato Queens' Book of Love" is a serious book, giving serious advice from the pulpit of southern womanhood, concerning relationships and life in general. "Life is too short--and too long--to spend it being miserable. Life may indeed be short, but it is, for a fact, wide. It is high time we started settling for more."

"The Sweet Potato Queens' Book of Love" is in paperback with 240 pages and an ISBN of 0609804138.

The author, Jill Conner Browne, exercises and runs constantly and is a weightlifting instructor at the YMCA in Jackson, Mississippi. In addition, she writes for the Mississippi Business Journal using the pen name, Betty Fulton. She has several books in publication such as "The Sweet Potato Queens’ Book of Love," "Sweet Potato Queens' Field Guide to Men: Every Man I love is Either Married, Gay, or Dead," "God Save the Sweet Potato Queens," The Sweet Potato Queens' Big-Ass Cookbook (and Financial Planner), and "Sweet Potato Queens Wedding Planner and Divorce Guide."

Hence, if you are a woman, before you venture into printing your wedding invitations and before the groom says I do, this book will give you an upper hand in making a better selection. Even if it doesn't, it will at least make you giggle and forget about any frustration you might be experiencing.