Miss Julia's Marvelous Makeover

February 3, 2014
At the start of bestseller Ross’s comforting, leisurely paced 15th Miss Julia novel set in Abbotsville, N.C. (after 2013’s Miss Julia Stirs Up Trouble), husband Sam announces that he plans to run for the state Senate. Miss Julia has no sooner adjusted to that idea when a distant relation in Vidalia, Ga., writes that she’s sending her granddaughter, Trixie, to Miss Julia for the summer to get “spruced up and polished.” A model of decorum, Miss Julia is dismayed to find herself making speeches when Sam is hospitalized in the early days of the political campaign, and even more so when the sullen and disagreeable Trixie, “a not-so-young woman,” starts dating unsuitable men. Ross’s great achievement is the creation of Abbotsville, a small town so ideal that the most violent occurrence is an exhibition of poor manners, like dropping in for a visit without phoning first. Five-city author tour. Agent: Deborah Schneider, Gelfman Schneider Literary Agents.

March 15, 2014
Miss Julia, that lady of age with years of correct deportment behind her, is back for her fourteenth (!) adventure. This time around, husband Sam decides to run for the North Carolina state senate and then is sidelined by emergency gallbladder surgery. Miss Julia reluctantly agrees to campaign on his behalf, in spite of her misgivings about her political skills. Another challenge is presented by Trixie, granddaughter of a very distant cousin, who is dumped in Abbotsville for the summer in the hopes that she will absorb something from Miss Julia about la-di-da living. To everyone's surprise, the charmless Trixie soon lands a boyfriend, Rodney, but Rodney turns out to be a schemer. Miss Julia's efforts to thwart his plans to get hold of a piece of her property so he can build a mortuary complex lead to a typical Miss Julia escapade. A number of the series' regular characters, such as Hazel Marie, are very much in the background here; introducing new characters and shuffling old ones around help to keep the series fresh.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

November 1, 2013

Bad news for Miss Julia: long-lost cousin Elsie is sending her granddaughter her way for some much-needed lessons in manners, while Sam's plans to run for state senate are waylaid by a fainting spell that lands him in the hospital for tests.

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