Quotable Ustinov Book

The author Effie Leland Wilder started writing at 85 years old! These are her tales at the retirement community she lives at.

Book #2 in the series of 5. I just found out there were that many, I thought it only went to 3. What a wonderful surprise! I read the first book a few years ago, and when I came across #2 in a second hand book shop last Thursday, I was thrilled. Yesterday I finished this book, so I've started on #3 (I already had it).

Short novels in the "notes from the pasture" series, these books are in under 200 pages. These are fast and enjoyable reads.

We are taken back into the world of Hattie and the retirement community at FairAcres with lots of laughing out loud moments for the readers to enjoy. Hattie writes in a Dear Diary format, not every day, just when she wants to write or has something to say. She shares with us the tales of conversations that take place with fellow residents, or shares with us what is going on in the retirement home, as in Sidney and Retta's romance, or helping out the Davis family.

Some laughing out moments for me:

Conversation between Hattie & Pearl:

As I passed her room in the infirmary, she called out, "Who's that?" I backed up and said, "It's Hattie."
"Come in, Hattie, please, and help me find it."
"Find what" I asked as I stepped through her door.
"You know. What we're lookin' for."
I said, "What are you looking for?"
"You know, Pearl said, impatiently, "the thing we want to find."
"But I don't know what we want to find," I replied.
"Then why are we lookin' for it?"
Oh, dear.

And then there's Paul and Curtis, who unknown to the pair, Hattie enjoys ease dropping on their conversations because they are a hoot:

They were quiet for awhile, and then Paul said, "I see you're not smoking tonight. How come? Haven't you been smoking most of your life?"
"Sixty years, I recon," said Curtis. "I just decided yesterday that it might get to be a bad habit, so I quit."
On that good line I left them and came upstairs to do some "jotting."

Yep, good clean humor, for all to enjoy.

Now I'm back on a mission, I need to find books 4 & 5.