The Swag Life

by Melinda Rainey Thompson

Following the success of Melinda Rainey Thompson's first book, Southern Women Aging Gracefully, her newest collection of humorous and touching essays and lists addresses such problems as aging, becoming your mother, raising children who love sports, dealing with the unexpected, and the fate of manners.
Much more than just funny (reason enough to read this, by the way), the collection captures those "exalted moments of heaven sandwiched right in the minutia of the daily grind." Thompson shares plenty of SWAG life lessons that she has learned the hard way through
bumbling experience. Included are many of her most embarrassing moments, not only for the belly laughs, but to warn you away from making the same humiliating mistakes. She also has plenty of suggestions for improving society, starting with ten things better left in the

·Your pre-baby weight
·Sordid details of your previous marriages
·Your natural hair color
·Your prescription-medication history
·Labor and delivery stories
·Your high-school sports career
·Your overcoming-addiction stories
·Your vacation photographs
·Your college fraternity and sorority sportswear
·Family feuds

219 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2007

About the author

Melinda Rainey Thompson is the bestselling author of 5 books: SWAG: Southern Women Aging Gracefully (2006), The SWAG Life (2007), I’ve Had It Up To Here With Teenagers (2010), I Love You—Now Hush (2012), which was a ForeWord Reviews book of the year and a finalist for the Benjamin Franklin Award for humor, and If I Were the Boss of You (2020). Her work has been reviewed by the New York Journal of Books and many others. This Southern writer, humorist, and mother of three has been a staple on the ladies-who-lunch speaking circuit for the past decade. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Tulane University and an Master of Arts degree in English from The University of Alabama at Birmingham. When she’s not teaching other people’s children how to write as a Lecturer in English at Birmingham-Southern College, Melinda freelances for magazines and speaks to all manner of gala, conference, fundraiser, luncheon, and dinner attendees all around the country. This allows her children, known to her followers as “The Ungrateful Wretches," to indulge in the lavish lifestyle they’ve become accustomed to. The author is married to Judge Bill Thompson, the presiding judge for the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals. Melinda became an author by accident. When her children were young, she no longer had time for scholarly work, so she found a niche writing humorous essays. She sees herself as a spokesperson for her people: women, mothers, Southerners, and writers of every genre from grocery lists to Great American Novels.

Reviews

[Marita · Rating 5 out of 5]

This should be required reading for all born and bred southerners! Hilarious!

[Mackenzie Dw]

#ihavenoneonetheki