A literary joyride through the calendar year with an acclaimed Oklahoma author.

"Apartheid South Africa was on fire around me."

So begins the memoir of Career Foreign Service Officer Edward J. Perkins, the first black United States ambassador to South Africa. In 1986, President Ronald Reagan gave him the unparalleled assignment: dismantle apartheid without violence.

As he fulfilled that assignment, Perkins was scourged by the American press, despised by the Afrikaner government, hissed at by white South African citizens, and initially boycotted by black South African revolutionaries, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu. His advice to...

Open this book and who knows what will pop out: the story of a gangland funeral, a status report on an ex-husband, a meditation on cats and gardens, a feuilleton about Native American fry bread, or a thoughtful musing on old women and books. Welcome to the delightfully irreverent world of Connie Cronley, essayist, radio commentator, and native Oklahoman.

In this collection of true stories, Cronley pokes fun at everything--including herself--as she delights in the world around her. With her trademark down-home humor, Cronley takes on a range of subjects as broad as the...