Southern sass enlivens humor essays

class of 1988, certain boys were ‘shy’ or ‘respectful.’ ‘Artistic’ or ‘sensitive.’ Some ‘kept to themselves.’ This was all Southern Lady Code for something, but at the time, we girls weren’t exactly sure what.”

Rules about the Southern Lady Code, defined as “a technique by which, if you don’t have something nice to say, you say something not-so-nice in a nice way,” run throughout this slim, breezy book. In her essay “Free to Be … You and Me (And Childfree),” she observes, “’If it happens, it happens’ is Southern Lady Code for we don’t want kids.”

An anomaly among the collection is “Serious Women” about the murder trial of a woman charged with killing a pregnant acquaintance and removing the fetus, which survived, and trying to pass the child off as her own. Ellis attended the trial in part because she was friends with the prosecutor and wanted to show her support. The author thankfully does not try to find humor in the tragic events, but the point of the story remains elusive as does her reason for including it in this collection.

A better fit is “We’re Going to Party Like It’s 1979,” in which she dispenses with slaving all day over fancy hors d’oeuvres and serves her Upper West Side party guests Hawaiian Cheese Log and onion dip made from soup mix from recipes she finds in Junior League cookbooks. Or “How I Watch Pornography Like a Lady,” about her campaign against the public relations department of Twitter to scrub the social media platform free of pornography. Or “Peggy Sue Got Marijuana,” about her first experience smoking pot on Halloween night when “every kid’s costume was freaking fantastic and I made love to a box of super seed crackers.”

It’s when Ellis regales us with sassy observations about her daily exploits that her essays shine.

by Helen Ellis Doubleday 224 pages, $22