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

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.