When I got an email asking me if I’d like to participate in an online book tour reviewing a new book by Birmingham’s own, Phyllis Norton Hoffman, and the subject is shoes, I was all over it! I mean, I don’t know about you, but I’ve had a lifelong shoe addiction. Guilty as charged. I actually did a post back in January titled Can you have too many shoes?? And I’ve concluded that no, no, you really can’t.
Here’s a little about Phyllis, from her online bio:
A leading figure in the publishing industry, Phyllis Norton Hoffman is majority owner and president of Hoffman Media, LLC.
A native of Hoover, Alabama and a graduate of the University of Alabama in Birmingham, she began her career as a Certified Public Accountant with a nationally known firm before founding a special-interest publication company in 1983 that is now known as Hoffman Media, LLC.
Hoffman is recognized industry-wide as a savvy businesswoman and talented entrepreneur. She serves as the creative engine of the company, producing an ever-widening range of beautiful magazines including TeaTime, Southern Lady, Just CrossStitch, Sew Beautiful, and Taste of the South magazines. She is also a sought-after speaker across the country, a devoted wife and mother and a church and community leader.
Did you catch the magazines that her publishing company is responsible for: Southern Lady and also Cooking with Paula, which is not listed on that. I actually got to meet Phyllis last year at a women’s event our church was sponsoring and she was the speaker. I thoroughly enjoyed hearing her and she even brought magazines for all of us, so I really loved her then. Magazines are my love language.
(In Style Home, Spring 2006, Mariah Carey’s closet…don’t we wish?!)
The tag line of the book is “Celebrating the footsteps of the Contemporary Woman”, and it really is true that as we grow and mature, so do our shoes. Phyllis tells many humorous and witty stories all throughout the book about her life growing up and how shoes played a major part in it. All done with wit, wisdom and a whole lotta fun thrown in. I sure do remember my first pair of grown up heels that I finally got to choose one Easter when I was around 12 or 13. Oh my, the excitement of looking for the perfect pair of 1” heels! You’d have thought we were shopping for gold. I think they were black patent with ribbon ties that came across the top of my foot and the heel was tiny, but oh yeah, it was a heel. Finally, I had arrived.
From Cinderella’s glass slipper, to Dorothy’s fancy red ruby slippers in the Wizard of Oz, to fashion mavens Jackie O and Princess Di, Phyllis covers the gamut of shoes and finery and what a role all of that plays in each of our lives. Most of us as women feel good in a pair of good-looking shoes, no doubt about that. They can make you feel sexy. Or sassy. Or dowdy. They can certainly make or break an outfit, as well as even be cruel at times. My days of wearing a lot of high heels are probably past me for the most part, I just don’t do a lot of dressing up anymore, but I can remember feeling really cute and sassy in certain shoes that I’ve had over the years.
My closet is still full of them, even if the heel is back down to that 1” I started with when I was around 12. Phyllis shares many of her life struggles and how she got through them and even the shoes that walked her through those struggles. A witty and fun book to read (especially if you’re Southern and even if you’re not). She laments wearing white shoes before Memorial Day or after Labor Day (a cardinal sin, just listen to your mother), which is what most of us in the South have heard all our lives. The rules have relaxed a bit over the years, thankfully. I don’t even own a white pair of shoes anymore. I do remember very vividly the white go-go boots that were all the rage when I was in Jr. High School and that Phyllis fondly remembers in the book. I don’t remember having a pair, but I think my sister did. She was older and got to do things before I did, darn it.
Phyllis Norton Hoffman takes you on a journey examining these defining moments, sharing what she has learned when she was required to wear different shoes – from a mother and wife to entrepreneur and businesswoman to publishing powerhouse to doting grandmother – and provides advice for women on putting their best foot forward, no matter their role, circumstance, or stage of life.
So, if you get a chance to read this fun and fascinating book about women and our devotion to all things shoes, I’d definitely say do it! You’ll thoroughly enjoy tip-toeing through the pages with Phyllis, in whatever shoes you might choose for the day!
I love what cooking queen, Paula Deen, says on the cover, “Phyllis and I have taken many steps together. I take mine in flats!”
Amen, Paula! Flip-flops for me.
And for the really fun part! I am getting 3 copies of this book to give away to my readers, so all you have to do is leave me a comment telling me your favorite memory of shoes and what your favorites are. You know I love some shoes! Contest closes Friday evening at 6:00 PM Central time. I’ll pick a winner and announce it Saturday a.m.
red suede dolly shoes 20 years ago
silver flats – last year
green wedge – high gorgeous oh-so-wedgy!
I'm so glad those talented ladies saw *your talent and asked you to contribute
Sarah
Hi Rhoda,
This book sounds like such a fun read! Your comments brought back memories of my first pair of high heel shoes and Oh! those go go boots – what fun! I had trouble walking in my first pair of heels and now at 56 y.o. I'm starting to have trouble walking in heels again. So, at this stage in my life I like to wear a lower heel sandal but I still can't resist a nice pair of dressy shoes either! Thanks for the chance to win this great book. Sheila
Although I am not a shoe hound. My daughter is….As a funny scrap book page we decided to lay out her many shoes. She was pulling out tubs from the closet and under the bed for quite awhile. As I started to count, she told me she wasn't finished, there was more in storage. I stopped counting at 100.
I do believe with the sandle craze, she could top 200 pair.
I LOVE Hoffman's mags. She does
the Sandra Lee one also.
Shoes, well I love them to.
I think the purple ones I wore
this spring for my daughters
wedding are some of the most fun
ones, I've never had purple shoes
before and I think everyone should
have a pair sometime in their
lives.
Rhoda, I have lurked on your blog for weeks now and I have enjoyed your humor and style. I have always loved shoes. My favorite pair has to be the ones that my sisters and I picked out to wear to my Mom's funeral. Not a fun occasion, at all…but those blue (colon cancer awareness color) 3" pumps have bonded us sisters in a way that can never be undone. I wear them a lot and always remember the time with my sisters, when everything could have gone wrong…but magically turned out alright.
I had these great platforms in high school–black corduroy around the bottom and a cute print on top with 5" heels! Loved, loved, loved those shoes–wish I'd kept them.
I don't think I have a favorite pair now. Wearing those platforms and heels early on left my feet in not so great condition. Flats are my best friend now, too.
My favorite pair was back in the 70's. It was a pair of cork wedge sandals with the ties that came up your leg and wrapped around. I thought I had arrived! I tried my best to wear them every day of my life – even with shorts!
Morning Rhoda,
I am not a shoe person, my one daughter is, but I love anything flat. Truth be told, I am a klutz in heels. Right now I have a pair of thinly strapped silver "flat" sandal that I love, it took me two years to find the perfect ones and when I was a preteen I remember a pair of white go go boots with a small heel that I absolutely thought I looked "cool" in.
This book sounds like a fun read and I love me some reading material.
Cheri
My hubby thinks I am crazy because I have so many shoes. But I know that a girl can never have too many!! I remember when we went on our honeymoon last September…we went to the beach & to Disney World. So really (in his mind) all I need are 2 pairs of shoes. Flip flops for the beach & tennis shoes for Disney. WRONG!! The funny thing is when we were checking our bags in at the airport, my bag was 7 pounds over…so we had to (in front of everyone!!!) put some of my shoes in his bag!! What a great way to break em in..the day after we got married!HA!
I remember my mom getting me a pair of shoes that I hated! I just took a scissors and cut off the ugly parts and they were ruined! I was a brat.
My favorite shoes were a pair of red maryjanes, I loved those shoes! I was about 12 and they were so hip at the time…lol….
Now high heels I loved! I had them is so many colors. I loved plain pumps and strappy ones…Oh gosh I just love shoes! When you gain weight and are mad at yourself because you have to go up a size, you can always get a great pair of shoes and all is well.
Great post, Rhoda.
I love shoes too, but I think my favorite memories about shoes will always be of my just-now-two-year-old daughter. She LOVES shoes and it was from an early time. "Shoes!" was one of her earliest words. It's the craziest thing and my husband is already sweating her teenage years. When we go into a shop she is seemingly drawn to the shoe department and she always picks out cute shoes! Each day, she wants to put shoes on first thing in the morning. The girl loves shoes. And I love that.
My most memorable shoes were hot pink heels and peek toes…made me feel "sassy" as you say!
Hi first time posting here! My favorite memory has to be my wedding shoes. The only white shoes I own. They were beautiful with the glittering stones on them that day. I truly felt like a queen for one day:)
My favorite shoe memory actually belongs to my daughter. From the time she was about 2 yrs. she has been obsessed with shoes. She has so many when she was tiny, black patents, flip-flops, sneakers, you name it. And she always wanted more, even as a toddler. No surprise that now that she is 15, her obsession is in full swing. She is breakin my pocketbook with her shoe requests. Um, maybe it's time for her to get a job and feed her own shoe desires.
Me? I'm a flip-flop girl. And now that Old Navy has them for $2.50 a pair, I have them in every color.
I love shoes. I bought a pair of flats from Macy's the first time I went to NYC. They were different. They were blue and green checked. They were so very comfortable. I wore them until they couldn't be worn any longer.
My niece is 6 yrs old now. She loves shoes but since she now lives in Florida she wears flip flops a lot. Her favorite ones are the ones that I have knit around the straps or the ones where I have helped her bling up the straps.
My current favorite pair of shoes are my red ballet flats – love 'em! Let's see…my favorite memory involving shoes is probably all the memories (and miles) that my running shoes have brought me. I've done 4 marathons and 2 half-marathons and the memories of those events and preparing for them are priceless. I ran the Chicago Marathon just a couple of weeks after 9/11 and it was a really special event.
I love shoes so much my husband had to have an intervention! haha. I have tons in just about every color! I cannot pick a certain pair that is my favorite and each of them have special memories! =)
I love your post on shoes. I used to have so many cute heels in college, funny thing after having 2 children my feet got bigger I had to give them all away. But over the years I have aquired more, most of them more sensible. After being a nurse for 25 years and having had heel pain issues, I now live in my Birkenstocks. I uses to think they were the ugliest shoes and they are but no pain is better. I do wear small heels when I dress up. I just bought me a red pair to wear this weekend, to my husbands 30 yr reunion. I never knew what a red pair of hels could do for you, I am very excited to wear them. Marla
My mother would not let me get suede black loafers for school; thought they were for teenagers..( I was in the 5th grade! ) but one time in the summer we found some black patent
penny loafers on sale that she felt were acceptable. I remember thinking I looked SO WITH IT….when really I wasn't because they were black patent!
I love shoes. I have more shoes than outfits. I love to find bargain on shoes and my latest find was a pair of speery for 2.97 – you can't beat that price and they are so comfy. My favorite pair of shoes was my rah-rah's from high school.( in the 80's ) they were in my school colors and I had two or three pairs because I kept wearing the soles out. The book looks os interesting – hope that I am blessed with a copy. Thanks for every and love your blog.