Rating: 
Summary: Standing in the Rainbow~
Review: If you love southern fiction, and the slow-paced lifestyle of sipping iced-tea on the front porch and chatting it up with the neighbors, you'll love Fannie Flagg's latest novel, Standing in the Rainbow.Fans of Flagg's earlier novel, Welcome to the World, Baby Girl, will be delighted to see that Flagg has returned to beloved Elmwood Springs, Missouri, where we get a glimpse back in time to some lightly touched upon characters in Welcome to the World. Standing in the Rainbow takes us through the decades, from the 1930's to present day, through the eyes of the residents of Elmwood Springs. The highlight, is Dorothy Smith & family. Known as Neighbor Dorothy, for her daily broadcast radio show, Neighbor Dorothy's show provides recipes, town news, live singing, and a slew of entertainment, live from her home from 9:30-10am every day. As you move through each decade you will get to know Neighbor Dorothy, her husband Doc, children Bobby and Anna Lee, and some of the local townsfolk..Norma & Macky, Aunt Elner, Betty Raye, Tot Whooten. You'll feel like a resident of Elmwood Springs yourself, and delight in the quircky, but lovable characters. As always, Flagg delivers an entertaining story, with a great message. As time progresses, and the sense of loss of the "good old days" seems eminent, we realize that life is a cycle and that at this very moment, somewhere, someone out there is creating those "good old days" for a little young one~
Rating: 
Summary: church of Christ
Review: As a member of the church of Christ I was disappointed that the author did not research the background for the church of Christ.
Please go to a woship service and learn the truth. Everything in the book is wrong related to the Church.
Rating:
Summary: Heartwarming, Witty, and Captivating.....
Review: The year, 1946; the place, Elmwood Springs, Missouri. Life is good and filled with unlimited opportunities and promise, the future never seemed brighter, and spirits are lifted daily, by the "lady with the smile in her voice," radio homemaker, Neighbor Dorothy Smith, as she passes along recipes, friendly advice, local news, and a little entertainment, each morning, from her living room on station WDOT. Meet the Smith family, their friends, neighbors, and acquaintances, and revel in the joys of small town life, as Fannie Flagg takes the reader on an amazing fifty year odyssey, rich in insight, wisdom, humor, and truth. This is storytelling at its very best, filled with interesting twists and surprises, vivid scenes, engaging writing, and clever dialogue. But it's Ms Flagg's brilliant characterizations that make this book stand out and sparkle. These are complex and endearing, real people, warts and all, not cliched, cartoon characters, and Ms Flagg is able to breathe life into each and every one of them. Standing In The Rainbow is an intriguing and captivating story, sometimes poignant, often uplifting, but always touching and heartwarming; a story that captures the imagination as it pulls you in, and introduces a whole new generation to the simple wonders of living in a small town. You'll laugh, you'll cry, but mostly you'll remember what it was like to walk with your family down a decorated Main Street at Christmas to buy your tree at the town lot for $1.50, sit on a stool and have a sundae at the drug store soda fountain, watch a whole afternoon of movies, every Saturday, for a nickle, and listen to the voice of a friendly "neighbor" each day on the radio. And there was never a doubt that "something wonderful was always just about to happen..."
Rating:
Summary: Flagg's rainbow sparkles
Review: Those who read Fannie Flagg's Welcome to the World, Baby Girl! will feel as if they've come home in her newest novel "Standing in the Rainbow."
And although the author may be best known for her appearances on 1970's game shows, she's at the top of her game here. This is a book you can get lost in and and will find yourself unable to put down. Fabulous and leaves you waiting for another.
Rating:
Summary: Standing in the Rainbow
Review: How do you convey what it's like to read a book, and feel as if you are returning to a hometown and old friends you never knew you had? Or how you love a book so much that you deliberately put off finishing it so that you don't have to say goodbye? I don't know how Ms. Flagg does it, but she somehow infuses her books with her own personal qualities of warmth, compassion, and humor, and especially her "down-home" common sense. I truly fell in love with this book, as I have the author's previous works, and am highly recommending it to all my readers in the library where I work and on my booktalk review television show.
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Summary: This woman can write a book!!!!
Review: I truly enjoyed Fannie's latest effort.."Standing in the......" her style is unlike any other and it is so refreshing to see someone write a book others can relate to. I especially liked Neighbor Dorothy and Betty Raye. I just wish Fannie could write faster, although her writing keeps me up WAY past my bedtime.
Rating:
Summary: WARM, WITTY AND REFRESHING
Review: Remember dish night at the movies? If so, you'll be delighted with Fannie Flagg's fifth novel. Not to worry if you don't recall that 1940s give-away, you'll still be captivated by "Standing In The Rainbow," a warm, witty, refreshing journey through fifty years with the residents of Elmwood Springs, Missouri. An important element of the story is the town itself. Set smack dab in the middle of America, Elmwood Springs boasts a one-block long downtown. Seeking to lure visitors from the interstate, a sign is posted: "Elmwood Springs - Voted The Most Middle Town In America." "...Not a single car turned off because of it, but the town felt better." Everyone felt better when they tuned in to local radio personality Neighbor Dorothy, "the lady with a smile in her voice" and a tall radio tower in her backyard. The program's theme, "On The Sunny Side of the Street" was exuberantly played on the organ by her mother-in-law, a former suffragette. Neighbor Dorothy, Mrs. Dorothy Smith, shared recipes, swapping information, local news, and tips on raising children (although her 10-year-old son, Bobby, was a challenge). Married to Doc, the town's only pharmacist, Dorothy was privy to inside information, but she didn't gossip. Now, Bobby might disagree as he felt his mother sometimes discussed his personal business for all the world to hear. He found consolation in getting a quarter for leaving a boy alone on the front porch with his older sister, Anna Lee, and in believing that "something wonderful was always just about to happen." Many shared Bobby's optimism in 1946, which was a time when "We had just beaten the Germans and the Japanese in a fair fight. We had saved Europe and everyone liked us that year, even the French." Another possibility thinker was 200 pound gospel singer Minnie Oatman who firmly believed "God never shuts up one door till He slings open another." She could "hit a note dead center with the accuracy of a silver bullet," and left a pharmaceutical convention audience with "a ringing in their ears long after the curtain closed." However, Minnie was perplexed by her daughter, Betty Raye, who didn't sing out, and suffered from stage fright. When Minnie replaced Betty Raye with a bolder voice, the quiet, thin girl was taken in by the Smiths. Leave it to Anna Lee - despite a strict upbringing Betty Raye soon wore a dab of lipstick and went to a Ginger Rogers movie. However, one of the biggest surprises awaiting Betty Raye was Hamm Sparks, a "banty rooster" of a tractor salesman with a poor hair cut and one ill fitting suit. He knew he was destined for greatness. With unlimited self-confidence and unparalleled drive Hamm sold himself to the people of Missouri, and almost to the entire United States. He was aided in his grab for political power by the Funeral King, Cecil Figgs, a wealthy afraid-to-come-out-of-the-closet gay who wore "a bad hair piece the color of root beer." As time rolls by until it is the year 2000, we watch an assortment of tetched and lovable characters adapt (some more easily than others) to a changing America. And, we thank Fannie Flagg for a look at those years before "the world had flipped over like a giant pancake." The author dedicates her book to Eudora Welty and Willie Morris - Ms. Flagg has done them proud.
Rating:
Summary: Elmwood Springs Eternal
Review: It's hard trying to talk about a book that has become a part of you. I've begun this review a hundred times only to abandon each attempt as unworth of the book. Of course, anything I attempt would be, so here goes. I first encountered the wonderful, quirky citizens of Elmwood Springs, MO in "Welcome To The World, Baby Girl" where their lives served as a counterpoint to the people that Dena Nordstrom had to deal with on a daily basis. Being from a small southern town, I could identify with and cherish the various characters as they lived out their lives not knowing the wonder of their little world. But that is one of the things that makes you care about them and what is happening to them. "Standing In The Rainbow" will intrigue you, charm you and leave you filled with such a sense of poignancy that you will find yourself putting the book down just to prolong the joy and futily try to stop the hands of time. I do have just suggestion, though. Read "Welcome To The World, Baby Girl" first. It gives you a frame of reference for what follows.
Rating:
Summary: Here's to Neighbor Dorothy!
Review: A salute to Fannie Flagg for giving us a terrific piece of Americana. A rare bit of historical fiction with a kind of gee-whiz, by gosh flavor. Flagg has a way of rendering characters of a small ordinary town into unique individuals, and entertaining us with humor along the way. For some of us, we are laughing at ourselves, because we can identify with the ways of small town life, and can remember colorful characters and what seem now like innocent times. The story is set up in the first half, basically introducing us to the cast, then unfolds as the characters mature and age. We see over six decades the triumphs and tragadies. The central figures, Neighbor Dorothy and Doc, remain basically the same, and connect the rest of the cast. I enjoyed the ending because Flagg brought everyone together again.
Rating:
Summary: The return of Neighbor Dorothy
Review: Fannie Flagg returns with a sequel to "Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!" Neighbor Dorothy is back in her kitchen with her folksy radio program, accompanied by her organ-playing mother-in-law, Mother Smith. This book spans 50 years in the small town of Elmwood Springs, Misssouri, and follows such wonderful characters as Tot Whooten, Hamm Sparks, and the Oatman Family Gospel Singers. The book is reminiscent of "The Prairie Home Companion" and Flagg spins her tales in a never-take-a-breath style which evokes equal shares of laughter and tears in her readers. Her stories and characters are unforgettable and Flagg recounts a wonderful era during the 40's and 50's when neighbors were neighborly, people were honest, and patriotism was a quality to be admired. This is a wonderful book, which will bring back warm memories to those of us who lived in that era, and will show those who didn't what they missed!
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