A Hundred Coloring Books

Meet Peggy, a frank woman who suffered no fools and had a gift and affinity for creative cursing. You are guaranteed to laugh, are just as likely to cry, and could very well be offended before you finish this book.

With her own parents out of the picture before she was 10, Peggy first married at 13 and became a mother nine months later. Like most everything in her life, romance didn't come easy for her. Her dates were often hilarious disasters in the brief respites between calamitous marriages. But her final marriage stuck and produced its own legacy of comedic moments.

Having only her wits and intuition as her guide, she managed to raise eleven children, usually with precious few resources. Her fifth son, William A. Browning, wrote this book as both a tribute to her imperishable spirit and a testimony of their offbeat relationship. Shopping expeditions, jaunts to the bingo hall, doctor appointments, or trips out for ice cream--pedestrian events with other people--were memorable with her.

Readers have described Browning's writing as something between David Sedaris funny and Garrison Keillor folksy. He's been writing for more than 20 years. This is his first published collection.