Customer Reviews

Dearest Dorothy, Are We There Yet?

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4 star:		(9)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Dorothy Jean Westra's the sort of Old lady who would wear purple if she darn well felt like it. CHARLENE ANN BAUMBICH has captured perfectly the kind of spunky older person we all admire and hope we can be in her little novel DEAREST DOROTHY, ARE WE THERE YET? Zipping betweenher farm and town in an old car she calls The Bomb, Dorothy Jean uses all the experiences of her 80-some years to face some of the toughest decisions of herlife. By her example, younger people around her realize that they, too can apply their own brand of wisdom to their knotty problems. As we laugh, ponder, love, care, and cry along with Dorothy, CHARLOTTE ANN BAUMBICH reminds us all that we need to keep our zest for life, because our attitudes and thought processes affect more people than we realize. DEAREST DOROTHY ARE WE THERE YET makes us remember, in a light-hearted way, that life is what we make it, and we owe it to ourselves and everyone else to make it good. A lesson like this could get heavy if delivered by a stern hand, but CHARLENE ANN BAUMBICH presents it in a rollicking way we can't resist,as we meet several delightful characters who inhabit a small Illinois town.

Welcome to Partonville! Meet the spunky Dorothy Jean Wetstra, the glue that holds her small farming community together. Clad in her trademark pink from head to toe, 87-year-old Dorothy and her faithful mutt Sheba tool around the community in "The Tank," a "rusty-and-white" 1976 Lincoln Continental that shows increased signs of wear and tear from Dorothy's lead-foot driving.

Partonville is, in the words of the author Charlene Ann Baumbich, "a circle-the-square town in the northern part of southern Illinois, where oldsters are young, trees have names and cars don't fly." The characters that populate Dorothy's world are as endearing as the ones in Jan Karon's "Mitford" series.

Dorothy, a retired bandleader, is a member of "The Happy Hookers Club," which, having long given up hooking rugs as too stodgy, now plays bunco every month for prizes. The club includes Dorothy's best friend, May Belle, who makes award-winning double chocolate brownies and keeps a solicitous watch over her mentally challenged adult son Earl, who Partonville residents describe as "slow and particular."

Maggie Malone, the 72-year-old proprietor of La Feminique Hair Salon & Day Spa, never fails to shock the ladies with her propensity for change, and she's about to make a new fashion statement that will surprise the whole town. Soft-spoken sixty-two-year-old Nellie Ruth McGregor is the youngster in the club, who owes a debt to Dorothy she can never repay. Rounding out the club is Glady's McKern, the swaggering "acting mayor" of Partonville, and Jessie Landers, an aged former semi-professional softball star who still throws a mean pitch for the Wild Musketeers, the community team.

Down at Harry's Grill, rumors fly thick and fast about farmers selling out to a big developer. Sharon Teller, a reporter for the Partonville Press, works hard to get a big scoop on what is up the handsome developer Colton Craig's sleeve. Few of the town's residents guess that the resident of Partonville who is struggling with whether to sell or keep her farm is --- Dorothy! As always, when faced with difficulty, Dorothy spends time praying about what she should do with the family acreage where she was born. In her ritual evening "Moment with the Big Guy", she straightforwardly addresses the Lord succinctly: "Dear Lord, give me answers. Now. Amen." Or her favorite prayer, "Dear Jesus, Just DO something. Amen." She's also been known to blow God kisses.

God answers Dorothy's prayer in the unlikely guise of 47-year-old divorcee' Katie Durbin and her 15-year-old son Josh, who come down from Chicago to settle the estate of Katie's Aunt Tess Walker, one of Partonville's reclusive eccentrics. Katie has nothing but scorn for the country ways of "Pardon-Me-Ville," and hopes to get her business there wrapped up quickly and head back to her high-powered life in the city. Yet, Partonville has a way of ambushing the hearts of those who visit it, and under the warm care of the town's inhabitants, Katie finds old prejudices beginning to melt.

Although Baumbich's refreshingly unpretentious writing is not quite as seamless as Karon's, her ability to craft characters as interesting as Karon's does will cause them to sneak into your heart and take up residence there. Fans of the "Mitford" series should take to this new one from the same parent company like ducks to water.

--- Reviewed by Cindy Crosby

Actually, I have just finished reading the follow-up to "Dearest Dorothy, Are We There Yet?" - which is "Dearest Dorothy, Slow Down, Your're Wearing Us Out!" What delightful books these are. They are "Gentle Fiction" like the Miss Julia Books, The Mitford Series and The Ladies of Covington. How nice to be able to read books that have age-appropriate characters in them - especially when they have so much SPUNK! I believe the author has another book coming out at the end of August and am eagerly anticipating it already. You will not be disappointed.

Nice to read something light and 'inspirational' after so many of the dreary murder and meyham fictions on the best selling list. This was a choice of our local book club and I'm glad we had the opportunity to read it.

I didn't realize that this book had been classified under "inspirational" until after I'd started it (unabridged audiobook). I'm really glad I gave it a chance; Dorothy is a pretty wild character, and if she's religious ... well ... that's just who she is. She comes off as pretty non-judgmental to me.
I do have a request for the author (and her editor): please, please knock off using "AM" and "PM" for setting the time! Perhaps it isn't so much an issue with the print version, but on tape it got really grating. The reader can infer the time-of-day from other clues.

If you want a book that is an easy, restful read, then this qualifies. The characters range from almost angelic to just slightly quirky. The most dramatic scenes involve the heavy-footed driving of Darling Dorothy. And the emotion (to steal part of a quote from Dorothy Parker) runs the gamat "from A to B." Still, it is charming enough that you might want to read the rest of the Dorothy books.......but BEWARE! While this first book is $4.99 (and probably should be $1.99 or $2.99), book number two is an astonishng $11.99! (The remainder of the books range from $3.99 to $7.99.)

It appears that the author is out to squeeze as much money out of these fluff-like books as possible. I want a quite a bit more than just charm for my $11.99.....and to entice readers with a fairly low price for the first book and then hike the second book up to bestseller price makes me wonder about the ethics of the author.

This book has all the charming characters of a cozy mystery but without the murder. The mystery is will Dorothy sell her farm? Dorothy is an eighty-something dynamo who drives a car known in town as "The Tank." She is surrounded by a bunch of delightful small-town characters--each with their own unique personalities. Into this mix, throw a big city realtor who must come to the little village to close down her elderly aunt's property after the aunt dies. The question is, "Will this sophisticate's heart be warmed by small town charm and generosity?" You can probably guess the answer, but let me tell you, there are many unexpected twists and turns before the happy ending. The book reminded me of the old television series "Touched by an Angel."

Lovely story about the day to day life in a small town story revolving mainly around retired people (dorothy is 89). great different characters with a wide range of attitudes etc just like in real life. dorothy has loads of spunk and the author gives her a great simple faith - the prayers to God are funny but personally helpful at the same time (should we all do such short prayers with the same faith).
Looking forward to reading more in this series, do recommend it for all ages (I am in my 30s) but a lovely gift maybe for an elderly person that lasts longer than chocolates!

I came upon this book by accident and I am glad that I did. The characters are wonderfully written and you will find yourself laughing one minute and all of a sudden you will have tears in your eyes. Dorothy is the type of woman that you hope you grow up to be like. Even though she is in her late 80's, she is young at heart and people find her a joy to be around. Not only is the character of Dorothy well written, but the other people in the town are interesting too. After reading this book, I went and bought all the others that are out and look forward to upcoming books. If you have read and enjoyed the "Mitford" books, I know you will enjoy this also.

At Partonville life is grand with very colorful characters and Dorothy Wetstra is sure to be in the middle of whatever is going on.

The residents of this lovely town are mostly all elderly and they don't like change very much. Even though they are older people they still have a soft ball team and Dorothy is the cheer leader. These wonderful people are just full of life and believe that God will take care of them. There is a lot of love and caring in this town.

Katie Durbin and her son Josh who live in Chicago come to town to attend her aunt's funeral and clean out her very clutered house. Josh falls in love with this town and with Dearest Dorothy.

Gladys, Cora, Earl,Lester, Arthur and all the other characters just leap off the pages of this book into your heart.

This is book one of a series of six books (so far) and I just can't wait to read all of them. I am now reading book two, "Slow Down Your'e Wearing Us Out"

The following are the titles of the rest of the Dearest Dorothy books. Hope this helps you find all of them.

Book three: "Help, I've Lost Myself"
Book Four: "Who Would Have Ever Thought?!"
Book Five:"Merry Everything"
Book Six:"If Not Now,When?"