Reading Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven is like taking an antidote to the almost constant stream of bad news that surrounds us in our modern world. Tot (the town hairdresser) voices something we all feel: "I always try to put on a happy face, but it’s getting harder and harder to keep up a good attitude…..Nostradamus, CNN, all the papers, according to them, we are on the brink of total annihilation at any second."

This book celebrates the beauty of a simple life, lived well. In this case, the life is Aunt Elner, a 90-ish widow who dies after she falls off a ladder having been stung by wasps while she is picking figs out of her tree. When she dies, we learn the impact she has had on so many lives. She goes to heaven and prepares "to meet her maker", who comes to her in the form of Sister Dorothy, a beloved (and dead) neighbor, and her husband, Raymond. The secret to life? It is always better to practice happiness and forgiveness, rather than hatred and revenge. Why are we here? Life is a precious gift from the supreme being, in whatever form you believe he or she or they take. (In Elner’s heaven, Raymond was in charge of creating the moon and the sun, and other such masculine and important things, while Dorothy gave us colors, and birds singing, and puppies and kittens . . .)

This is the second book by Fannie Flagg I’ve read (the other being Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café) and she really does have a gift for telling a yarn or two. I highly recommend this book for anyone looking for delightful re-affirmation that life is what you make it, and that practicing kindness and good will towards others will pay off in ways you can never imagine.

p.s. as a bonus, Flagg includes the recipes at the end of the book for the cakes and goodies that play a role in the story.