How advice to her daughter became a book for all

Becky Blades wrote her eldest daughter a letter after she left home for college offering all the advice and words of wisdom she wished she had dispensed beforehand.

Her daughter had some advice of her own: Turn the letter into a book. Blades, who lives in Kansas City, Missouri, did just that and the result is a nifty, gifty little book, titled Do Your Laundry or You'll Die Alone, out in April from Sourcebooks.

Blades knows her audience, keeping her pearls mostly text length - and funny.