Sign up for our newsletters to receive our Best of 2024 ezine!

Excerpt from Step-Ball-Change by Jeanne Ray, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Summary |  Excerpt |  Reviews |  Readalikes |  Genres & Themes |  Author Bio

Step-Ball-Change by Jeanne Ray

Step-Ball-Change

by Jeanne Ray
  • Critics' Consensus (4):
  • Readers' Rating (4):
  • First Published:
  • May 1, 2002, 240 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Mar 2003, 240 pages
  • Rate this book

About this Book

Print Excerpt


She put the phone down. Far in the distance of Atlanta I heard my sister blowing her nose. "Neddy left me." She sniffed and cleared her throat. "There. What do you think of that?"

I didn't like Neddy, but that was hardly the point. I only saw him once a year. Taffy saw him every day. "What happened?"

She sighed, which I read as her being bored by such an obvious question. "What always happens: He took up with some junior executive. It isn't even a secretary they leave you for these days. Neddy has to tell me she's a junior executive. She's thirty-four years old. Do you know what that means? Holden is thirty-six."

I closed my eyes tightly, remembering Holden's second birthday party. Holden in a white linen dress with yellow daisies embroidered across the front, blowing out two candles stuck on top of something that looked like Queen Elizabeth's wedding cake. Taffy was wearing sling-backs and diamond studs with her Lilly Pulitzer, making sure everybody had champagne. Neddy was talking too loudly about golf and forgot to take the pictures, which had been his assignment. On the day of Holden's second birthday, the junior executive, my sister's rival for her husband's affections, had yet to be born.

Excerpted from Step-Ball-Change by Jeanne Ray Copyright 2002 by Jeanne Ray. Excerpted by permission of Shaye Areheart Books, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: Tell Me Everything
    Tell Me Everything
    by Elizabeth Strout
    Elizabeth Strout's Tell Me Everything picks up where her previous book Lucy by the Sea (2022) left ...
  • Book Jacket: The God of the Woods
    The God of the Woods
    by Liz Moore
    Bestselling author Liz Moore's latest novel, The God of the Woods, begins with a disappearance. ...
  • Book Jacket: Becoming Madam Secretary
    Becoming Madam Secretary
    by Stephanie Dray
    Our First Impressions reviewers enjoyed reading about Frances Perkins, Franklin Delano Roosevelt's ...
  • Book Jacket: Everything We Never Had
    Everything We Never Had
    by Randy Ribay
    Francisco Maghabol has recently arrived in California from the Philippines, eager to earn money to ...

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
The Memory Library
by Kate Storey
Journey through the pages of this heartwarming novel, where hope, friendship and second chances are written in the margins.
Win This Book
Win My Darling Boy

My Darling Boy by John Dufresne

The story of of a man whose son collapses into addiction and vanishes into the chaotic netherworld of southern Florida.

Enter

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

D T the B O W the B

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.