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Rating: 
Summary: Laughing with recognition
Review: The Kids are Gone, The Dog's Depressed and Mom's on the Loose is a slender book of Shelley Fraser Mickle's musings on the changes in life brought on by children growing up and leaving home. She doesn't dwell on the loss, rather she casts a bemused eye on the household left behind. There is also a decidedly Southern leaning in these stories, detailing a slower pace of life, and the southern obsession with "who do you belong to?"..She returns to the days of carpools and I could just see my mother at the wheel of her station wagon....ready to go. She writes of the ties we forge and the tests they undergo, the memories that an "empty" house evokes. A wonderful book to share with someone who may be entering this phase.
Rating:
Summary: Laughing with recognition
Review: The Kids are Gone, The Dog's Depressed and Mom's on the Loose is a slender book of Shelley Fraser Mickle's musings on the changes in life brought on by children growing up and leaving home. She doesn't dwell on the loss, rather she casts a bemused eye on the household left behind. There is also a decidedly Southern leaning in these stories, detailing a slower pace of life, and the southern obsession with "who do you belong to?"..She returns to the days of carpools and I could just see my mother at the wheel of her station wagon....ready to go. She writes of the ties we forge and the tests they undergo, the memories that an "empty" house evokes. A wonderful book to share with someone who may be entering this phase.
Rating: 
Summary: One of Alachua County's Finest
Review: There is something in this book with which we can all identify. Shelley Fraser Mickle's easy going, loving but laid back approach to the job of motherhood reassures the reader of the good nature of mankind without smothering us in warm fuzzies. The book is a collection of essays originally delivered over the air, but available only to those who receive Florida public radio. My favorite is The Ark:When, in an el Nino year it rained in Alachua County for five days and five nights, she figured that was close enough: it was time to build an ark. She searched the garage for materials, looked up the plans in the Bible, and modified her husband's bass boat as best she could. On the seventh day, she declared it "finished", but her children said they would take their chances with the rain, thank you. She gave up the endeavor when she figured she could not repopulate the earth with a gelding, a spayed dog, three neutered cats and herself on the far side of the child-bearing years.
Rating:
Summary: A mother looks at life without children
Review: These essays focus on the mudane,but wildly humorous world of a mom whose kids have gone and whose dog is depressed. The first essay, Blue Dog, is typical as the author tries to placate a household pet who misses his usual outings with two schoolchildren, now off to college. She recounts her adventures in surviving halloween parties, school programs and buying a first suit for her son. A group of the essays deal with her childhood in a small Arkansas cotton town where everyone is related to someome else and being constantly asked "You're Whose?" My favorite essay is called "Long Distance Christmas." Here Ms Mickle describes correspondence with an Arkansas grandmother who condense down all her communications to a few cryptic words like an Xmas call that went: " Saturday. Pecans. Fruitcake. And Metholatum." Translated that meant the grandmother would arrive on Saturday, bringing a sack of pecans and a fruitcake and that she had a cold. Once she called her granddaugher then living in Boston and said" "Bare bark. Horseraddish. Mincemeat. And get home." So her grandmother was telling her that all the trees in the yard had lost leaves; that she had some fine shrimp and was making horseraddish suace to dip them in; that she was baking a mincemeat pie; and that she missed her granddaughter. All of them are funny and touching and filled with a warm wisdom that comes from loving life and the people that surround you.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Mother's Day Gift!
Review: This book would make a terrific gift for Mom on any day. Any mother can see herself in the funny observations of life that Shelley Mickle has presented. It made me laugh outloud repeatedly!!
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