Ballantine Reader's Circle Series

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe

by Fannie Flagg

Published 12 August 1987

Rediscover the ultimate comfort read in the classic story of friendship, loyalty and secrets set in the deep south of America in the 1930s.

The day Idgie Threadgoode and Ruth Jamison opened the Whistle Stop Cafe, the town took a turn for the better. It was the Depression and that cafe was a home from home for many of us. You could get eggs, grits, bacon, ham, coffee and a smile for 25 cents. Ruth was just the sweetest girl you ever met. And Idgie? She was a character, all right. You never saw anyone so headstrong. But how anybody could have thought she murdered that man is beyond me.

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe is a mouth-watering tale of love, laughter and mystery. It will lift your spirits and above all it'll remind you of the secret to life: friends.

'A richly comic, poignant narrative' Harper Lee

Can't Wait To Get To Heaven

by Fannie Flagg

Published 27 June 2006

Combining her trademark charm with unabashed emotion and side-splitting hilarity, Fannie Flagg takes readers back to Elmwood Springs, Missouri, where the most unlikely and surprising experiences of a high-spirited octogenarian inspire a town to ponder the age-old question: Why are we here? Life is the strangest thing. One minute, Mrs Elner Shimfissle is up in her tree, picking figs to make jam, and the next thing she knows, she is off on an adventure she never dreamed of, running into people she never in a million years expected to meet, including Neighbor Dorothy (from Standing in the Rainbow) and her husband in the unlikeliest of places. Meanwhile, back home, Elner's nervous, high-strung niece Norma faints and ends up in bed with a cold towel on her head; Elner's neighbor Verbena rushes immediately to the Bible; her truck driver friend, Luther Griggs, runs his eighteen-wheeler into a ditch - and the entire town is thrown out of kilter and left wondering, "What is life all about, anyway?" Except for Tot Whooten, who owns Tot's Tell It Like It Is Beauty Shop. Her main concern is that the end of the world might come before she can collect her social security.
In this comedy-mystery, those near and dear to Elner discover something wonderful: Heaven is actually right here, right now, with people you love, neighbours you help, friendships you keep. A plea for honest doubt and humanity in an over-certain world, "Can't Wait to Get to Heaven" is proof once more that Fannie Flagg "was put on this earth to write", spinning tales as sweet and refreshing as lemonade on a summer day, with a little extra kick thrown in.

Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!

by Fannie Flagg

Published 1 September 1998

Sweeping from the gentler confines of late 1940s small town America to the tough side of the New York media circus in the '70s, Welcome to the World, Baby Girl! mines golden seams of goodness and gritty determination, prejudice and despair, love and survival, in the story of a young TV interviewer, Dena Nordstrom, whose future looks full of promise, whose present is an emotional mess, and whose past is marked by mystery.

With a cast of unforgettable characters, from the comic masterpiece that is Neighbour Dorothy (broadcasting home tips and good news to the midwest from her own front room) to the monstrosity that is Ira Wallace, TV network head - Fannie Flagg's novel is a funny, constantly surprising novel that keeps you guessing and turing the page right up to the last.