Laugh out loud funny; this memoir about growing up in small town Indiana during the seventies is an absolute blast. Philip Gulley muses about old Quaker widows, the Thanksgiving table, child labor laws, childhood crushes, and occasional streaks of lawlessness. It was a different time back then and Gulley's effortless and amusing narration sucks readers in and keeps them engaged throughout. Peppered throughout are some childhood photos which add some credence and a focal point for his stories. I haven't read such an amusing and outlandish memoir in a while but I literally (LITERALLY) found myself laughing along with the anecdotes and crazy childhood friends he had. A must read and not just for Hoosiers. ( )

A+
I Love You, Miss Huddleston is a wonderful reminiscence into Philip Gulley's Indiana Childhood. In the same great style as 'A Christmas Story'; it leaves the reader feeling as if they were right there with Philip during his hilarious childhood years. ( )

Absolutely fell in love with this book. I was familiar with Gulley from his other more thelogical works cowritten with James Mulholland (also very good!), so I was delighted to find a work so vastly different in content and style.

Actually i have my wife to thank for this discovery. While at our Annual Conference session (United Methodist here), she found this book at the Cokesbury Bookstore display, starting leafing through it and reading. People began looking at here as she was breaking up in tears of laughter. Needless to say I bought it!

For the next month we spend bedtime reading one chapter at a time. He recounts childhood memories that were in many cases all too familiar to my own childhood exploits in rural America! It is a sheer delight to recommend this book! ( )

HBB and I loved this book. Gulley is a Quaker pastor from a small town in Indiana who tells such charming tales of small town life growing up that I felt transported right back to my own childhood. His stories are filled with family and friendships and the humorous exaggerations that the young tend to give to their lives. I actually read this aloud over many nights (a chapter at a time, usually, and since HBB is only home on weekends, and we usually go to bed far too late to consider reading, only a chapter every occasional weekend - but this book lends itself perfectly to that type of reading) and it is a wonderful read aloud if the reader can read clearly while simultaneously laughing, too.

Each chapter focuses on a different part of his youth and each of them shines for a different reason I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a terrific tale with light-heartedness. Something different from the norm in today's world, in other words. ( )

Whenever I discover that a new book by Philip Gulley has hit the market, I immediately set about tracking it down and then clear my reading schedule. Gully's work--both fiction and non-fiction--is some of the best on the market today and each new book is a treat. It's hard to say if I prefer his fiction or his non-fiction more. The fiction is great because each trip to his fictional town of Harmony is a lot of fun and always good for a good natured laugh or two. On the other hand, his non fiction always feels like you're sitting down with an old friend to catch up a bit, reminisce about things and just enjoy a good conversation.

It's reminiscing about Gulley's childhood that serves as the focus for the latest series of essays in "I Love You, Miss Huddleston." From his crush on his sixth grade teacher to his first job as a newspaper boy and then working as a lawn care entrepreneur, Gully's reflections are full of humor, wit and the right amount of self-deprecation. Reading the stories, you can see glimpses of where he got some of the pieces for his Harmony novels and you'll feel like you're spending time with an old friend, enjoying some good memories. ( )