Wrestling Alligators: Of Florida, Family, Furry Friends, and More

The 80 stories in Wrestling Alligators: Of Florida, Family, Furry Friends and More are a collection of columns written by Mims Cushing of Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, for The Ponte Vedra Recorder. The stories include a fantasy on what her children might present to her on Mother's Day, starting off with a 150-carat diamond; the chaos her kids once had with a bat in a condo; a look at the real Mad Men of the '60s as she experienced it; how to decorate a home that would make Martha Stewart pass out; and the day her mother left her in a baby carriage outside a New York City grocery store and nobody demanded a ransom.

Compared to Erma Bombeck, Nora Ephron, or Fran Leibowitz, the author looks at daily life that is alternately quirky, sarcastic, insightful, sometimes nostalgic. She takes on the Olympics, discovers herself locked in a bathroom in New York City, finds "Purellies" everywhere on a cruise ship, and faces a consignment shop owner who is not amused by her clothing offerings.

Here's an antidote to today's dreary news. The stories have been divided into ten sections and each can be read in a few minutes, but you won't want to read just one.

For more than 30 years Cushing has written entertaining human interest riffs as well as cover stories and features for 12 magazines and three books not to mention a "ridiculous" (her word) number of book reviews: 1800.