Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover

THE PULPWOOD QUEENS' TIARA WEARING, BOOK SHARING, GUIDE TO LIFE celebrates female friendship, sisterhood, and the transformative power of reading. It includes life principles and motivational anecdotes, hilarious and heart-warming stories of friendships among the Queens, and stories from Kathy about the books that have inspired her throughout her life, complete with personalized suggested book lists.

Enjoy an excerpt from chapter two of THE Pulpwood Queen Kathy L. Murphy’s book - it’s recommended reading for everyone who is interested in knowing what it means to be a Pulpwood Queen.

“This is a rollicking, heartwarming, and ultimately inspiring book by a Pulpwood Queen who proudly proclaims a passion for literature, tiaras, peanut butter-fudge cake, and Elvis.” —Daniel A. Olivas, author of Devil Talk

Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover

People often ask me what in the world do a bookstore and beauty salon have in common. I look them straight in the eye and state the obvious: Both are about friendship, community, and feeling good about yourself. They will walk into my shop and turn around to leave, saying, “It’s a beauty shop.”

I’ll stop them and reply, “Wait, we are so much more— we’re a bookstore too!”

They stop in their tracks and turn around as I explain what my shop really is. Sometimes they’ll stay on for just a couple of minutes; often they’ll stay for almost an hour.

You see, they judged the book by the cover, when all they had to do was keep an open mind and experience what Beauty and the Book really is.

I believe that women go to the beauty shop for so much more than getting their hair done. The hour or two a woman spends each week or month at the beauty salon is often the only time she ever gets for herself, and for sure it’s the only time she takes care of her. It’s the same way with books.

Most women think reading a good book is a luxury, what with taxiing the kids to and from piano lessons and softball games, picking up the dry cleaning, and all the other tasks women have to do daily. I, like many women, find it hard to indulge in anything without feeling guilty— except reading.

Reading a good book helps us to escape from our lives for a while.

Have you ever read a book about someone that you thought would read one way and then it turned out to be totally different? That’s what happened when my friend and author Andy Behrman told me about Jeannette Walls’s The Glass Castle. He told me a little bit about Jeannette, his good friend from college who was the MSNBC reporter for gossip and entertainment in New York. I had the idea that she was raised a privileged, educated New Yorker, a Manhattan princess. But when I read the book I found out that her family was from Appalachia and she spent most of her growing-up years homeless with her genius father and artistic, yet I think mentally ill, mother. I couldn’t put that book down. I’ve learned that you should never judge a book by its cover; read it first.

My Beauty and the Book has been judged as a place only for women and, yes, it has become a safe haven for a wonderful community of women, but we also have men clientele. Women tend to be drawn to our shop, though, a world where they’re comfortable talking, where they can just plop down and relax. Where they can drink a real Dr. Pepper made with pure cane sugar and not be reprimanded for the calorie intake. We have a community spirit here at Beauty and the Book where we can let our hair down or put it up. We let women just be themselves.

“I was inspired to be a Pulpwood Queen after reading The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. I never took the Pulpwood Queens seriously, and often laughed and even poked fun at their antics and appearance. However, as a media guest at the 2006 Girlfriend Weekend press conference, I was in awe when I saw MSNBC reporter Walls walking up the sidewalk at Kathy’s bookstore/ beauty shop, Beauty and the Book. To realize that someone I admired as much as Walls would be a part of an event such as this changed my thinking and forced me to turn my feelings around and realize that the work of Kathy Murphy was worthwhile and not in vain. After that weekend I started a Pulpwood Queens chapter in my hometown and I have been wearing my tiara and reading ever since.” Phyllis, of the Pulpwood Queens of Marshall, Texas