Saving Cee Cee Honeycutt

When one of your most wonderfully eccentric friends breathlessly calls you and insists you leave a lovely party to come buy a book ‘cause it's on sale next door for just forty cents...well, you do it, and you buy it, and you read it.

And, of course, it turns out to be the perfect first read for a new year.

CeeCee Honeycutt is a girl, trapped in a horrible life, with a crazy mama who struts around town in old prom dresses from the Goodwill store, and a daddy is always on the road and never seems to be around. And then everything changes, and CeeCee is jerked out of her awful life and, amid a whole crop of delightful Southern women, she slowly starts to heal.

It's chock full of good advice from these delightful Southern women, for a young girl who is trying to start again or for an old woman like me who is setting off into a brand new year.

“Age is inevitable, but if you nurture a childlike heart, you'll never ever grow old.”

“Don't go wastin' all them bright tomorrows you ain't even seen by hangin' on to what happened yesterday. Let go, child. Just breathe out and let go.”

When CeeCee and the ladies get ready to play Chinese checkers, CeeCee takes a look at the marbles and says there aren't enough. One of the ladies tells her, “Just set up the board as best you can. We'll play with whatever we got.”

Is there any better advice for a brand new year? Childlike heart. Let go. And play with whatever you got.