Katherine Snow Smith muses on the vicissitudes of life in her essay collection Rules for the Southern Rulebreaker.

Smith’s twenty-two essays follow a loose chronology. The daughter of a prominent Southern journalist, Smith also pursued a newspaper career in the South and beyond. Her insightful anecdotes concern self-image, career, child-rearing, divorce, dating, and mortality. Some entries are serious, some not; each is self-contained, but together they capture the highlights of womanhood in the modern world, especially womanhood that considers the expectations of the South. Smith shares episodes from a lifetime defying rules of Southern living with aplomb.

Clever titles, including “A Minute on Your Lips, Forever on Your Hips” and “Miranda Lambert is Not a Licensed Therapist,” reflect the grit, resourcefulness, and humor of the entries themselves. One entry, about meeting President and First Lady Obama, reflects a sweet interaction, but one that becomes all about the high heels torturing Smith’s feet, while “Don’t Move to Podunk” and “Don’t Talk to Strangers” are glimpses of the unglamorous life of a young reporter covering town council and school board meetings and the pitfalls of fielding the romantic interest of a source.

Its style pithy and unaffected, the book boils its stories down to their essences and finds levity in the most heartbreaking moments, including the death of Smith’s sister, heart surgery, and cancer. When Smith’s daughter undergoes surgery, Smith’s compassion and concern are palpable, though without the suggestion that she’s a perfect mother. A story about a dying friend includes funny incidents from their time coleading a Girl Scouts group and baking brownies; these punctuate Smith’s last moments with her friend well.

Rules for the Southern Rulebreaker is a warm, genuine memoir about living fully beyond the bounds of others’ expectations.

Reviewed by Wendy Hinman for Foreword Reviews
July / August 2020

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As a Southerner who grew up in the North (but has lived in the South for over 50 years), I missed all the training on Southern rules and I'm sure that I broke a lot of those rules when I first moved here. The author of this book looks at 22 specific rules of a well-bred Southern woman and writes a humorous essay about how she broke that rule. Her rules range from 'Always Wear Sensible Shoes' to "Family Secrets aren't Meant to be Shared' and 'Never get a Tattoo." The entire book is entertaining and some of her essays made me laugh out loud.

I am going to tell you about one of my favorite essays:

Always Wear Sensible Shoes - she made the decision to look stylish and wear 4 inch heels that were very uncomfortable to her first media holiday party at the White House. She could barely walk and was in great pain when she finally got a chance to shake hands with President Obama and his wife. "Just as we smiled for our big moment, my left foot twisted, my knee gave way, I fell against the 44th President of the United States then headed backward." (p 3).

This is a fun look at following the rules of life (or breaking them) no matter where you live. ( )