Master storyteller and beloved NPR commentator Carol Wasserman shares the quirky joys and tribulations of her “impecunious, ordinary, fixed little life” among fellow Swamp Yankees in her raggedy little tourist town on the Massachusetts coast, across the water from upscale Cape Cod. In the tradition of Bailey White and Garrison Keillor, she regales us with amusing and touching stories about the colorful characters and yearly rituals—from the absurd to the sublime—that keep her so closely tethered to the town and her ancient, crumbling half-Cape house, which she describes as “a fragile, sinking, lovely old wreck of a place that I have come to confuse with my own flesh.” In these tales that have delighted millions of listeners, she tells about the fine art of buying apples from squabbling orchard owners who impugn one another’s fruit; the wild enthusiams of her dearly departed husband, Aubrey, who was once sure he’d discovered a tiny Stonehenge by the side of the road; the pleasures of buying abandoned sewing projects while others scrape and claw at the semiannual rummage sa≤ the reassuring qualities of living life amid ghosts and her neighbor’s claims of witnessing ectoplasm in the upstairs hall; her several days spent in darkness because of a rutabaga cassero≤ her discovery of the surprising religious fervor of a good friend who prays to a guy named Wendell; the strange comforts of the sound of coyotes singing in the middle of the night; and the community of ladies who swim at suppertime, when the beach is deserted and they know “the ocean will be as warm as the primordial soup.” Swimming at Suppertime is the remarkable debut of one of the most original and entertaining new voices writing about the wondrous daily surprises and pleasures of American life.

"Hilarious adventures of an Ozark family growing up on the Missouri-Arkansas border during the Thirties"--Jacket subtitle.

The seven dwarfs are none too happy about washing, but clean up anyway in order to have supper with Snow White.

In this delightful and heart-warming stroll through the kitchens of his life, Leon Hale recreates for us the bountiful tables of our parents and grandparents -- and if we are lucky, ourselves. These were tables glowing with the memory of good friends and good times -- filled with nurturing fare like chicken and dumplings, cornbread with Jersey butter, green beans simmered with salt pork, and fragrant fried pies. From the day in Bryan when he invented blackened chicken to his bachelor apartment adventures making pot roast and "the Soupwich" -- a lunch time staple -- Hale has been a producer of unusual dishes. But he is only an occasional cook. For the most part he has been on the consuming end, as he recalls some of the beloved figures whose signature dishes he still longs for: "Mimi" Vick's Christmas ambrosia; Mary Elizabeth Adams and her world class fried chicken, Marie Moore's guacamole salad accompanied by fried Matagorda oysters -- a holiday tradition. Or Mark Hale's Texas cheese dip, which remains the Hale family's all purpose comfort food. With memories of meals prepared by cooks who learned their craft in the late 1800s mingling with portrayals of more recent, often healthier fare, Supper Time serves as a small scale food history of the twentieth century South and Southwest. But it is, primarily, an intimate, unforgettable portrait of a man, his friends, his family and his time, full of personal preferences, brimming with memory and affection, enriched by family recipes, old and new. And Hale tells his story with the self-deprecating humor, wit and grace for which he is celebrated.

In this warm and affectionate book, William Zinsser describes his lifelong love affair with American popular song and the American musical theater.