I can remember my first sip of beer. I was in elementary school visiting my relatives in New Orleans. They were having people over and there was a keg of Dixie Beer on the front porch. Yes, when no one was looking my cousin and I slipped over there fixed us a little and yes my love affair with the stuff began! I will say that my next sip of beer was a long time after that but I do love the stuff!!

I can remember my first Tom Robbins novel. About 15 or so years ago my good friend Joey (who I have had a “few” beers with) was reading Still Life with a Woodpecker. I picked it up when no one was looking and read a few pages and yes my love affair with Tom Robbins began! I will say that my next Tom Robbins was very soon after that until I had read them all and had to wait (a long time) for his next one!

B Is for Beer: A Children’s Book for Grown-ups, A Grown-up Book for Children is probably not what Tom Robbin’s fans are expecting. It’s only 125 pages long and yes basically it is a story about beer, everything about beer, with some interesting quirky characters. Gracie, a very precocious 5 year old, is fascinated by beer. Her eccentric “uncle” tries to answer all her questions while her mom tries to curb her enthusiasm for the brewski. Finally, on her birthday, Gracie just can’t stand it any longer. She reaches in the fridge and downs a beer, she is feeling good and then suddenly feeling bad. The next thing she knows the “Beer Fairy” has come to see her and takes her to a “world within our world” and proceeds to answer every question there is to ask about beer.

If I really had any questions about beer except that I know I like it they have been answered and I know why I consume my fair share of 36 billion gallons of beer that the people of earth consume a year!!

If you are looking for a book to read on a lazy summer day while swinging in a hammock and drinking a cold frosty tall one then B is for Beer by Tom Robbins is perfect!

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