Books by Connie Cronley

Sometimes a Wheel Falls off (Hawk Publishing Group, 2000)  
     For years now, fans of public radio have enjoyed the warm, witty and uplifting essays of acclaimed commentator Connie Cronley. Now, for the first time, she has written them down, in a collection sure to please her legion of fans.
     Sometimes a Wheel Falls Off is a how-to book for life. Cronley covers all the Big Stuff - elderly parents, broken hearts, ailing pets - and lends insightful advice on dealing with Life’s Vexations - baffling computers, rebellious gardens, sizzling sibling rivalry, hair like Hector Berlioz. And at the heart of it all. Cronley has some true wisdom to share, about finding your passion, living at peace, aging with grace. And preparing for the unexpected. Because at times loss and change hound us. The prevailing winds turn brooding and ominous. We find ourselves in unfamiliar territory. And sometimes a wheel falls off! But Cronley describes the process of picking up the pieces, scrambling for higher ground, and completing life's journey.

Publishers Weekly Review: “The majority of these short essays by Cronley, a freelance writer and communications consultant, were originally broadcast as commentaries on both local and National Public Radio; the others were written for publications from her hometown of Tulsa, Okla. Her subjects run the gamut, from aspects of contemporary culture, like feng shui and e-mail, to the pleasure she takes in living in a small city and in welcoming the onset of spring. Many of these pieces sing with sharp humor and poke fun at the author's own foibles, such as her obsessive reading of exploitative celebrity bios or playing computer solitaire to avoid writing. Cronley, however, also takes on more serious issues with sensitivity and intelligence. The title article deals with a time in her life when everything was going wrong and when the support of friends kept her going. She also shares her grief over the death of her mother, which is somewhat mollified by her reminiscences of the happy times they shared. An adventurer at heart, Cronley also takes readers along on her journeys of discovery, such as her visit to an Amish kitchen, where she greatly relished the rich food, and her trip to France, where she visited the American Library in Paris, first established for U.S. soldiers in WWI and later serving as a refuge for writer William Styron when he was a marine. Entertaining and touching by turns, this is a pleasingly well-crafted collection.”
 
Teresa Miller, author of Family Correspondence:
"Sometimes a wheel does fall off, and we're lucky enough, in the midst of our frustrations, to discover a wonderful writer like Connie Cronley. With her talent and charm, she fastens the wheel right back on, then takes us for a lovely trip."

Joyce Sequichie Hifler, author of A Cherokee Feast of Days:
"Connie Cronley has the unique ability to tweak a feeling or a memory we thought to have cleverly hidden. When she writes, it comes out deep and dear and so touching that I want more of it."

Donald Westlake, award winning author of the Dortmunder novels:
"This string of pearls is an endless delight."

Tulsa World review:
“Connie Cronley is a modern day Mark Twain.”

Mr. Ambassador: Warrior for Peace with Edward J. Perkins (University of Oklahoma Press, 2006)
Memoir of a Career Foreign Service Officer

    “Apartheid South Africa was on fire around me.” So begins the memoir of Career Foreign Service Officer Edward J. Perkins, the first black United States ambassador to South Africa. In 1986, President Ronald Reagan gave him the unparalleled assignment: dismantle apartheid without violence.
     As he fulfilled that assignment, Perkins was scourged by the American press, despised by the Afrikaner government, hissed at by white South African citizens, and initially boycotted by black South African revolutionaries, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu. His advice to President-elect George H. W. Bush helped modify American policy and hasten the release of Nelson Mandela and others from prison.
     Perkins’s up-by-your-bootstraps life took him from a cotton farm in segregated Louisiana to the white elite Foreign Service, where he became the first black officer to ascend to the top position of director general.
    This is the  story of how one man turned the page of history.

Georgie Anne Geyer, syndicated columnist, Universal Press Syndicate: “Mr. Ambassador conveys what sophisticated and effective diplomacy is all about. A remarkable journey that should inspire, inform, and influence everyone it touches.”

Colleen McCullough, author of The Thorn Birds and The October Horse: A Novel of Caesar and Cleopatra: “A dynamic history of a time, a people, a nation, and one extraordinary man, Edward J. Perkins, career diplomat and patriot in the best sense of that too blithely used word. I was hooked on the first page, and the further I read, the more spellbound I became. Told from the heart yet devoid of self-pity, this book traces the progress of a black farm boy from Louisiana’s cotton fields to Washington’s corridors of power. The people Perkins describes—whether his grandmother, his stepfather, his wife, Henry Kissinger or Nelson Mandela—spring to life like characters in a fast-paced novel. Mr. Ambassador should become compulsory reading not only for all Americans, but also for individuals throughout the world who want a one-volume history of the United States as a superpower during the latter half of the twentieth century. Edward Perkins personifies the spirit of his nation.”