The Southern Belle's Handbook: Sissy LeBlanc's Rules to Live By [Hardcover]

Loraine Despres (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 29, 2003

Learn how to navigate life with the effortless savior faire of a true daughter of the South with The Southern Belle's Handbook.

Sissy LeBlanc's rules to live by will teach you how to hook, hold on to, and handle any man as well as conquer any personal situation with the poise and confidence of a sophisticated southern stunner.

And because every woman possesses her own sassy instincts, you can also record your own rules for unstoppable fabulousness and success.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This little gift book, following TV writer Despres's 2001 novel The Scandalous Summer of Sissy LeBlanc (Sissy lived by the titular code) and packaged in a vaguely cocktail-nation design schema, aims to define a new "southern belle" through pithy rules of living. While the general profile that emerges is slightly more liberated than the antebellum stereotype, the edicts are generally goofy and sometimes a little confused, tacking from warmed-over Ben Franklin ("Men always find themselves the most fascinating subject of any conversation. When in doubt, let him talk about himself. He'll think you're a brilliant conversationalist") to reheated Oscar Wilde ("A girl doesn't have to give in to temptation but she might not get another chance"). Dictating equal parts subservience ("Laugh at his wit, and he'll admire your sense of humor"), naughtiness ("A girl can stand just so much virtue") and outright nonsense ("Sometimes doing good can be delightfully bad"-whatever that means), this book is short on authentic advice, but long on kitschy appeal.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

“Pearls of wisdom.” (New Orleans Times-Picayune )

“A humorous take on our land of cotton, good times ne’er forgotten.” (The Tennessean )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow (April 29, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060540893
• ISBN-13: 978-0060540890
• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #433,407 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Writing is easy. Good writing is agony.
Never-the-less I'm a writer. That's what I do. Fortunately I've actually been able to make a living at it. In a former life, I wrote educational radio in Chicago and advertising in Paris. I wrote poetry and plays in New Orleans, where I won some awards, was published, and produced, but I wanted to break into show business. So I packed up my son and headed for Hollywood.
Within two years I was writing network television. I worked on a lot of shows you'll probably remember, but I was most famous for penning that icon of pop culture, the 'Who Shot J.R.?' episode of DALLAS. It was a big deal and at the time the most watched show in history.
I quit TV in the 90s to fulfill a life-long ambition. I wanted people to read my words as I'd written them and not think some beautiful actor made them up. I believed I'd be able to finish my first book THE SCANDALOUS SUMMER OF SISSY LEBLANC in six months. It took me three long years and for a while nobody wanted to publish it, although editors agreed it was beautifully written. They said so in their rejection letters. They also said they didn't know how to sell it. Then Rebecca Wells, bless her heart, published the Devine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood and suddenly there was a market.
A perspicacious editor at William Morrow bought SCANDALOUS SISSY. It became a Literary Guild Selection, a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Pick, a national best-seller and is now in its 21st printing in paperback. Sissy is the ultimate Desperate Housewife, trapped in a little town in a bad marriage when her old high school boyfriend comes back.
My second book, THE SOUTHERN BELLE'S HANDBOOK, SISSY LEBLANC'S RULES TO LIVE BY, was published because people kept telling me they were going through SCANDALOUS SUMMER and writing down all Sissy's 'Rules.' It's a little gift book and a compilation of Sissy's wisdom.
My new novel, now going into its second paperback printing, is THE BAD BEHAVIOR OF BELLE CANTRELL. It's about Sissy's wild suffragist grandmother Belle when she was a beautiful young widow who kicked up her heels in 1920. It's another story of murder, adultery, and regular church attendance, but on a deeper level it's a story of intolerance and love, my main themes, and one woman's search for her moral center in a violent time, much like today.
Quick update: My son, David Mulholland, whom I packed up and moved to California, is now a writer and editor living in London. I continue to live in Los Angeles with my writer-producer husband, Carleton Eastlake, and continue to enjoy bad behavior.
For more check out: www.LoraineDespres.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Waste of money., November 10, 2003

By 

joeqe (NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Southern Belle's Handbook: Sissy LeBlanc's Rules to Live By (Hardcover)

Ridiculous, teeny little book with one sentence per page. Don't waste your money. Better to get Ronda Rich's "What Southern Women Know."

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not what I thought, March 19, 2006

By 

Kayla Brady - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Southern Belle's Handbook: Sissy LeBlanc's Rules to Live By (Hardcover)

This book is cute. It is more of a coffee table book for a young girl's room. I did not realize that it just listed off quotes to "live by". It is formatted with like a "rule" on each page.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars IF..., December 9, 2003

By 

M. Watson "Lady Ashura" (TX, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Southern Belle's Handbook: Sissy LeBlanc's Rules to Live By (Hardcover)

If you are walking through a store, bored out of your mind or simply disgusted at the lack of selection, your eye will be caught by this (admittedly) teeny book. Or at least, that happened to me. This is a very good read for everyone with "too much of the South in 'em", or not enough! Great quotes, ladies' humor, and southern philosophy that everyone can enjoy. I definitely recommend this book, because even though it wasn't long enough to fill an appetite, it definitely whets the eyes for more. It is the kind of "little thing" you pass on to your daughters once they blossom, which is exactly what I plan on doing!