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Summary: Great insight on healing, growing & overcoming the past.
Review: Fannie Flagg's newest book shows a different writing style & character development than we have seen from her in the past. The book does a great job of juggling many characters, time periods & places without seeming disjointed. The reader gets to see Dena with all the warts beneath her beautiful glamorous facade. The reader then gradually finds out the deep-seated reasons for her seemingly selfish & destructive behavior. This newest book is a departure from Ms. Flagg's past homespun tales; however, it comes back in the end to the rural Southern life readers have come to expect. Give this very different book a chance and you will fall in love with Dena and all the unusual folks who populate this fascinating book. Ms. Flagg does a great job of weaving small town life, odd characters and a puzzling mysterious past into a must-read book.
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Summary: Read this book on tape
Review: Read this book on tape: Fannie Flagg is an engaging story-teller. She differentiates her characters with slightly different voices and accents, making the reading experience much more interesting than it would be in straight book form. I read it in the car, and then sat in my driveway for the last half hour of the book to hear its end. The tapes last for 5 hours, so it was perfectly perfect for the long ride. (I do wonder what I missed, now that I know it was an abridged version. Maybe I'll have to get the book too.)
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Summary: Extremely insightful
Review: I could not put this book down. It is a quick read which really allows one to think about the effects of television news. Not only that, but the main character, who is well developed, really draws the reader in.
Rating: 
Summary: Good beginning that deteriorates badly.
Review: The beginning of the story was well written and full of interesting characters. It drifts backs and forth in time which is not a distraction once you adjust, but then it switches from an interesting combination of dialogue and narrative to straight narrative and letters which seemed to say, "I've got to wind this sucker up and get it to the publisher."I don't want to give away the ending, but I have to say that to me it was very unbelievable.
Rating: 
Summary: Poor story line and unbelievable characters.
Review: I would never have finished this book, were it not for the fact that my book club selected it. I think I can include it on my list of the worst 10 books I've ever read. Nothing seemed to work - not the story, not the characters, not even the prose.
Rating:
Summary: a big disappointment, this is a dull book
Review: A big disappointment, this dull book is a messy hash of trite story lines leading to a particularly silly ending - don't waste your time on it, read something beautiful and nourishing instead. The author needed an editor, and didn't have one. Not an original thought or story turn in the whole mess!
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Summary: A book with heart and a lesson.
Review: Welcome to the World Baby Girl is a wonderful study of friendship, ambition and heartbreak in a story that made me feel all of it. It provided wonderful contrasts of warm nostalgia and bitter pain from the same time period. At times, I was reminded of the complex struggles in "Band of Angels". It is a completely different book and different type book from Ms. Flagg's previous works, but has just as much heart in its own way. The book's characters are universal. Welcome to the World Baby Girl also reminded us that rejudice is not limited just to Alabama. A very worthwhile read and a very powerful book.
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Summary: Don't read this in public!
Review: Normally I read only mystery novels, hundreds of them each year. However, I saw this title last time I was at the library and picked it up (having read Fried Green Tomatoes a while back). This book was very engrossing. Towards the end of the book I found myself crying - which was quite embarassing because I was riding on a commuter train at the time! I see that others are a bit more critical, and comparative - but I think this is a good read!
Rating:
Summary: I've read better.
Review: I was a little disappointed with Flagg's most recent installment of the South that we rarely get to see in the history books. I myself just couldn't get excited about "Baby Girl", alias Dena Nordstrom. I enjoyed witnessing her personal journey, but I found it difficult to feel sympathy towards her. "Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!" just wasn't as charming as Flagg's previous work. I must admit, it got better as it went along, but waiting until you're two-thirds of the way into the book is an awful long time.
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Summary: Made for T.V. movie???!!
Review: I loved both Fried Green Tomatoes and Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man and was thrilled to see a new book by Fannie Flagg. The thrill was short-lived. All the depth and charm of the characters in her previous books is missing here. The dialogue seems stilted and awkward. This reads more like a screenplay than a novel. I was really disappointed
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