Grits (Girls Raised in the South) Guide to Life

The New York Times bestselling Southern girls’ guide to succeeding in life—with a foreword by Fannie Flag.

They're called Sweet Potato Queens, Steel Magnolias, Ya-Ya Sisters, and Southern Belles, but at heart they're just plain Grits—Girls Raised in the South!

Now, Deborah Ford, founder of Grits® Inc., reveals the code behind the distinctive—and irresistible—style of the Southern woman.  Equal parts sweet sincerity and sharp, sly humor, The Grits Guide to Life is chock-full of Southern charm: advice, true-life stories from honest-to-god "Grits," recipes, humor, quotable wisdom, and more.  Readers will learn vital lessons, including: how to eat a watermelon in a sundress; how to drink like a Southern lady (sip... a lot); and the real meaning of PMS (Precious Mood Southerner).

This charming book is destined to become a bible for the Southern girl—whether born and bred, expatriated, or adoptive—and her many admirers.

“Funny, wise, charming, and smart...Grits deserves a place on your shelf between Gone With the Wind and the Memphis Junior League cookbook, and I predict in the years to come it will be passed down to daughter along with the family silver and great-grandmother's lace doilies.”—Fannie Flag, from her foreword to The Grits Guide to Life

Deborah Ford is the founder of Grits, Inc., a merchandising company specializing in women’s apparel. In 1995, Ford—then a high school volleyball coach in Alabama—began printing T-shirts emblazoned with “Girls Raised in the South” to inspire her players. The response she received was so overwhelming that she quit her teaching job and took her products to an apparel trade show. Her multimillion-dollar business sells GRITS books and merchandise world-wide to Southerners and wannabe Southerners. Her first book, The GRITS Guide to Life, was a New York Times bestseller and SEBA Award winner, and spurred the series of lifestyle books that include GRITS Friends Are Forevah and Puttin’ on the GRITS.