SECRETS OF A MYSTERIOUS OLDER WOMAN or Don't Face The Facts . . . By Constance Feathers

One Amazon reviewer compared this book to the writings of the late essayists, Erma Bombeck and Jean Kerr. High praise, indeed, and not misplaced. Please consider the following . . .

If Constance Feathers did not already possess an impeccable sense of comic timing before she opened her cabaret act, she certainly developed said skill on the job. It now shines through in the pacing of her hilarious memoir, complete with songs, dances, and jokes from her stage show. Pacing, it might be added, that kept this usually slow reader turning pages until completion of the book . . . in one sitting. That never happens.

Readers will sense - and not just from the single sitting component - the resonance of this book; truth weaves through the comic alter ego performance pieces just as surely as it exists in the author's laughter-inducing life experiences. Ms. Feathers' ability to showcase the "funny" in scenes, such as border crossings between France and Switzerland and a necklace-stealing cat, raises what might have been just moderately enjoyable fluff in other hands to a level approaching the sublime.

Fiction only readers need not shy away, this memoir contains some made-up segments. Feathers sprinkles her life experience chapters, called Intermissions, among those based on her stage show "which does have certain similarities to my life" where her true experiences have been upended and tumbled as if through a laundry cycle, rendering what must have been splendid fun for her cabaret audiences and is now chuckle-inciting pleasure for her readers. Expect the most notable fiction sequence to appear near the book's end in one of the two versions of the epilogue.

Women should share this gem, gifting it between friends, sisters, mothers and daughters; book groups should discuss it, perhaps accompanied by some of the ". . .light, dry, white table wine of the [Swiss] region (the worst of which is excellent). . ." spreading the laughter and embracing the comedy in life's otherwise ordinary moments. We should all aspire to become Mysterious Older Women.

Remember . . . "MOW rhymes with WOW!"

Secrets of a Mysterious Older Woman or Don't Face The Facts by Constance Feathers is available in paperback ($16.95) or as a Kindle download ($2.99) at www.amazon.com.