Keep Your Mouth Shut
and Wear Beige

St. Martin's Press, 2008
ISBN-13: 978-0312367749

The best advice for the mother of the groom?
Keep your mouth shut and wear beige!

“It’s bad enough when two mothers plan an event as fraught
as a wedding, but what happens when the ex-husband’s new girlfriend elbows her way in? Keep Your Mouth Shut and Wear Beige adds the mother of the groom to literature’s rich collection of long-suffering women. When Seidel’s heroine refuses to suffer in silence, the results are both poignant and hilarious.

Debra Galant,
author of Rattled and Fear
and Yoga in New Jersey

Darcy Van Aiken is doing just fine, thank you. She’s an ICU nurse with an “amicable” divorce from her ex-husband, Mike, two great kids, and a prescription for Ritalin. Then her older son, Jeremy, gets engaged to Cami Zander-Brown—daughter of a wealthy New York family—and her world gets turned upside down. The source of her trouble, much to Darcy’s surprise, is not in the form of Rose Zander-Brown, Cami’s elegant and accomplished mother. Nor is it in the form of Guy Zander-Brown, Cami’s charismatic and wildly successful literary agent father. Instead, lurking in the shadows of Mike’s new life is the beautifully dressed Claudia, a self-described “managed perfectionist.”

The Zander-Browns have money. Lots of money. The plans for their daughter’s dream wedding grow more fabulous by the day, and loving every minute is Claudia. With her perfect taste, Claudia can’t help thinking she would make a much better mother of the groom than Darcy. This wedding is her chance to entrench herself in Mike’s life—and take credit for the two sons Darcy has worked so hard to raise right.

It’s a battle of will and wits. What Darcy learns about herself—and about family and friendship—makes for a delicious, hilarious, touching read.

Early Cheers and Advance
Praise for Keep Your Mouth Shut and Wear Beige

“Reading Kathleen Gilles Seidel’s wonderful book is like sitting down next to a woman at a party and discovering she’s really smart and really honest—and has no intention of keeping her mouth shut. Hang on for an engaging, insightful, grown-up ride.”

Pamela Redmond Satran,
author of Suburbanistas

“In Keep Your Mouth Shut and Wear Beige, Kathleen Gilles Seidel writes with pointed wit, wisdom, and a keen eye for relationships as she targets the emotionally turbocharged world of weddings.”

Mary Alice Monroe,
author of Swimming Lessons and The Beach House

“Don’t sweat the small stuff? Kathleen Gilles Seidel details the small stuff with such insight and wit that in the end, the reader understands that none of it is small, after all. This is the big stuff real life and real families are made of.”

Emilie Richards,
author of Sister’s Choice

“Kathleen Gilles Seidel writes with subtle wit and true emotion.... She knows how to write, in intricate detail, about the things women care about...whether it’s a wedding or a dinner party or the ramifications of holiday gatherings—she gets the details right and she never fails to deliver a thought-provoking, fascinating read.”

Susan Elizabeth Phillips,
author of Natural Born Charmer

"... gently humorous...
full of chuckle-inducing moments..."

Publishers Weekly

"...entertaining..."

Boston Globe