Now Read This: The Miss Julia Series, by Ann B. Ross

Sharon Anderson

Old South meets New South in the light-hearted “Miss Julia” series, by Ann B. Ross. Spending time with Miss Julia is like going to a family reunion and sitting beside a favorite aunt who is privy to all the family secrets.

Julia is a southern lady — the kind who has always done what the men in her life told her to do: “When Papa said, ‘Jump,’ I was always the first one in the air,” she reflects.

When her controlling husband of 44 years, Wesley Lloyd Springer, dies of a heart attack, Julia is shocked to discover she’s not just a widow, but a rather wealthy one. As if that isn’t enough of a shock, Hazel Marie Puckett shows up on her doorstep with a 9-year-old boy in tow and a bit of news: Wesley wasn’t just a banker, church leader, Bible-thumper and community pillar — he was also a philandering hypocrite. The boy is Wesley’s illegitimate son, and since Wesley hadn’t provided for little Lloyd in his will, Hazel has to do it herself. Hazel Marie has enrolled in beauty school in Raleigh, North Carolina, and she’ll be leaving the boy in the care of his daddy’s widow. Miss Julia feels she has no choice but to take the poor child in.

The storyline is complicated by the fact Miss Julia’s inheritance has attracted the attention of a whole passel of southern eccentrics, all plotting to find a way to get their hands on her newfound wealth. No one would suspect the prim, quiet Miss Julia might prove to be a handful. But Julia has spent far too many years being proper and doing what she’s been told; the last thing she’s going to do now is hold her tongue and worry about keeping up appearances. At the age of 60, she’s finally ready to speak her mind. Imagine, if you will, an eclectic mix of Ouiser and Clairee from “Steel Magnolias” and Dorothy and Sophia from “The Golden Girls.”

Miss Julia may be a widow, but she’s an empowered one. As it turns out, there is life after Wesley — quite a lot of it. There are 22 books in the “Miss Julia” series to date; pick one up at the library in regular or large-print format. They are also available as audiobooks, or as a downloaded e-book from the library’s overdrive collection on your favorite device.