High on Arrival by Mackenzie Phillips eBook edition

In the interest of full disclosure: I did not see the Oprah interview and I was never really a Phillips fan. I picked up this book because everyone I know was talking about it. Flat out curiosity was my only motivation.

Whatever else you can say about the book, it is a quick read. I didn't spend a lot of time or energy on it. Basically it took me an afternoon to read. I have to constantly remind myself that, really, the only thing I lost in the transaction was a few bucks.

Let me get this part out of the way, her revelation that she had a sexual relationship with her Dad (consensual or not) is one of the least shocking parts of the book. The real shocker is the extent to which Mackenzie and her brother were chronically abused and neglected by their hapless, feckless parents. The sex is almost anticlimactic.

If she is to be believed, the abysmal lack of responsible adults in her life is horrifying. In the end none of the supposed adults look good. Not her father or her mother or her many step parents or even her aunt who at least tried to intervene.

The "if she is to be believed part" is also troubling. This is a women who by her own account was pretty chronically wasted on drugs. Yet she has an uncanny recollection of events, conversations and her motives when it suits her purpose.

The book is really nothing more than a long rambling "drunkalog" in which she names names, settles a few scores, blames a lot of people and justifies her life choices. The resulting story, all 300 pages of it, is sad and frustrating.

Abuse, whether neglect or incest, has long term, serious consequences and at a year of sobriety most people are unable to sort out the wreckage. And even if they can, it is not exactly something to do out loud and in public. It is a job that requires time, hard work and a lot of help from someone: a therapist, spiritual advisor or 12-step sponsor.

Admittedly she has a story to tell. The problem is that by telling it too soon she has set her self up become a victim. Creating a media circus and implicating others guarantees more isolation for a person who's whole life has been about being alone and different.

Here is the publisher's synopsis:

Not long before her fiftieth birthday,Mackenzie Phillips walked into Los Angeles International Airport. She was on her way to a reunion for One Day at a Time, the hugely popular 70s sitcom on which she once starred as the lovable rebel Julie Cooper. Within minutes of entering the security checkpoint, Mackenzie was in handcuffs, arrested for possession of cocaine and heroin.

Born into rock and roll royalty, flying in Learjets to the Virgin Islands at five, making pot brownies with her father's friends at eleven, Mackenzie grew up in an all-access kingdom of hippie freedom and heroin cool. It was a kingdom over which her father, the legendary John Phillips of The Mamas & the Papas, presided, often in absentia, as a spellbinding, visionary phantom.

When Mackenzie was a teenager, Hollywood and the world took notice of the charming, talented, precocious child actor after her star-making turn in American Graffiti. As a young woman she joined the nonstop party in the hedonistic pleasure dome

del.icio.us Tags: ebook,e-book,high on arrival,mackinezie phillips,phillips

her father created for himself and his fellow revelers, and a rapt TV audience watched as Julie Cooper wasted away before their eyes. By the time Mackenzie discovered how deep and dark her father's trip was going, it was too late. And as an adult, she has paid dearly for a lifetime of excess, working tirelessly to reconcile a wonderful, terrible past in which she succumbed to the power of addiction and the pull of her magnetic father.

As her astounding, outrageous, and often tender life story unfolds, the actor-musician-mother shares her lifelong battle with personal demons and near-fatal addictions. She overcomes seemingly impossible obstacles again and again and journeys toward redemption and peace. By exposing the shadows and secrets of the past to the light of day, the star who turned up High on Arrival has finally come back down to earth -- to stay.

The Girls From Ames by Jeffrey Zaslow

I am a big sucker for books about women's friendships so it is no surprise that I picked up The Girls From Ames.

Forty years of close friendship is no mean feat!  Especially in this day and age when so many of us leave the scenes of our childhoods and build lives so far away. 

Zaslow who co-wrote The Last Lecture and is a regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal is a wonderful writer.  He spent a year getting to know these women.  He Interviewed them and their families, hung out at a reunion, read letters and emails and examined scrapbooks. 

This should be a fabulous book.  It is, actually, a fairly interesting book.  It isn't dreadful or even bad; it just isn't wonderful.  I do not want to diminish the fact that these ten women have remained friends through all of life experience for four decades. And yet, this book was a long slog!

It is impossible to cover forty years and eleven character and do them justice in 300 pages.  After all character and plot are not built by telling story after loosely related story and hoping that some how it will all jell. 

Most of my problem with this book stems from the fact that you never really get to know any one of these women well; never mind all of them.  And they are not individually flamboyant enough to clearly differentiate themselves.  I spent a lot of time going "OK, who exactly is Jenny (or Karen or Karla)."  I finally resorted to making a cheat sheet on an index card that I put next to my table.

My other problem is that I didn't get any real sense of place and time.  In other words, nothing really evoked and emotional response or deep recognition of these women or their particular world either as children or as adults.  There early years took place in a world vastly different than mine.  In a well written story (fiction or non-fiction) the author paints a picture that evokes time, place and circumstances.  In this book; not so much.

Perhaps if you are from Ames, or if you are younger than I you will love this book.  I really wanted to!

As children, they formed a special bond, growing up in the small town of Ames, Iowa. As young women, they moved to eight different states, yet they managed to maintain an extraordinary friendship that would carry them through college and careers, marriage and motherhood, dating and divorce, the death of a child, and the mysterious death of the eleventh member of their group.

Capturing their remarkable story, The Girls from Ames is a testament to the enduring, deep bonds of women as they experience life's challenges, and the power of friendship to overcome even the most daunting odds.

Because they came of age in an era of unprecedented opportunity for women, their story also examines how feminism's major breakthroughs have been seized or wasted, and captures what it was like to be girls in the sixties, to come of age in the seventies and eighties, to be new mothers in the nineties, and enter middle age in the new millennium and how close female relationships can shape every aspect of women's lives. With both universal events and deeply personal moments, it's a book that every woman will relate to and be inspired by.

del.icio.us Tags: ebook,e-book,ebook reviews,ebooks about women,Ames,Zaslow

The Code of Love by Andro Linklater

Astonishing, amazing, remarkable, and incredible, all apply to Linklater's The Code Of Love. You could add fascinating, riveting, captivating and engrossing.  This is a true story that is a romance, a war story and a mystery all rolled into one. 

Linklater moves seamlessly between the story of Pamela and Donald Hill's romance, Donald's horrific war story as a prisoner of war and the saga of decoding Donald's journal. 

The early part of the book makes you feel as if you are living in England in the early 1940s.  He paints a picture of daily life that is vibrant and clear. 

He is equally clear when describing the world of ciphers and codes.  In easily accessible language he tells the story of Philip Aston's attempts to break the code.  This part of the story is fascinating all by its self.  An added impact comes from the realization of just how brilliant and disciplined Donald had to have been to create and use  such a code. 

In many ways this is a book that broke my heart.  Donald's fight for survival was heroic.  I marveled at his sheer determination and grit.   The courage it took to hold his mind and body together under appalling conditions and dreadful psychological trauma is almost unbelievable. He should have had a happy ending. . .Lord knows, he deserved it.

And yet, it was not to be.  He obviously suffered from a severe case of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder which was unnamed and untreatable. In many ways his struggle to create a normal life, medicate himself with alcohol and bury the trauma are even more courageous than his basic survival.

If his story were not so familiar today I might have been able to shake it off.  But over the last few days I have thought about the veterans of the current war.  It is shameful that with all the information we have about PTSD our veterans are still untreated. They too, must struggle to create a normal life, medicate themselves and bury their trauma.  What a miserable statement about our society!

Reading this book, however, will remind you of what really matter in life: the power of love.  If you don't read another book this year, read this one!

An astonishing true tale of secrets, love, and war.

Pamela Kirrage, beautiful and impulsive, met and fell in love with the dashing RAF pilot Donald Hill just months before Hill was shipped off to the Far East to protect the British colonies against Japanese aggression. They exchanged rings the day before he left, a promise to marry as soon as he returned. Little did they know that five years would pass before they saw each other again.

The Code of Love tells the stirring tale of Donald's experiences in the front lines of the Pacific Theater and Pamela's war efforts back in England in a dramatic, deeply moving portrayal of the World War II era and its aftermath. On the day the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, they also moved into Hong Kong, where Donald had the misfortune to be part of a small group of officers in charge of a meager five planes. He spent the rest of the war in a POW camp, keeping a journal of the indignities he faced in complex, nearly unbreakable code. Meanwhile, Pamela was swept into the frantic swirl of a wartime society eager to live to the fullest. She cooked meals for secret agents and danced the nights away with handsome soldiers. But her love for Donald never altered, and the two married within weeks of Donald's release at the end of the war. The scars Hill bore from his years of emotional encoding would eventually wear away at their relationship, though never their love.

Andro Linklater skillfully weaves the many fascinating parts of this tale together into an unforgettable narrative. From the mesmerizing siege of Hong Kong, to the romantic roller coaster of a truly great love, to the unbelievable efforts of the mathematician who finally cracked the encoded diary, The Code of Love is storytelling at its very finest.

del.icio.us Tags: ebook,e-books,ebooks about people,codes,Donald Hill,Philip Aston,World War II

I'm Perfect, You're Doomed: Tales from a Jehovah's Witness Upbringing eBook edition by Kyria Abrahams

The first half of Kyria Abraham's I'm Perfect You're Doomed is like taking a trip to strange land.  It looks familiar, the people sound the same but the culture is very different.  The inhabitants have peculiar superstitions and curious rituals.

Kyria takes us on a tour and explains.  In this land the Devil is hiding in Smurfs and lurking at yard sales. Only repeating the word "Jehovah" over and over again will drive out evil.  Inhabitants do not dance or smoke but alcohol is permitted.  The people do not celebrate holidays, value education or socialize with foreigners.

Growing up this was her world.  A world in which these beliefs were accepted without question.  And where it was hip to be holy and zealous.  Her (slightly twisted) sense of humor keeps you entertained and amused.

The tone change as she enters her teenage years and battles with OCD, her sexuality and a creeping apostasy. Her solution?  Get married!

From here on the story is like the proverbial train wreck. Disgusting and riveting.  Abrahams carefully chronicles her depression and loneliness as she attempts to replace the void left by her religion.  She is painfully honest about her ventures into adultery, alcohol and suicide. 

This book ends as she finally seizes responsibility for her life and begins to grow up.  I suspect that is a more interesting story in the long run.  Hopefully she will write it someday.

I was deeply affected by this book. I found it by turns disgusting, exhilarating, terrifying and hopeful.  With all those conflicting emotions it is hard to write a simple review.  In the end I was glad I read it and you will be too. 

Here is the publisher's note:

I'm Perfect, You're Doomed is the story of Kyria Abrahams's coming-of-age as a Jehovah's Witness -- a doorbell-ringing "Pioneer of the Lord." Her childhood was haunted by the knowledge that her neighbors and schoolmates were doomed to die in an imminent fiery apocalypse; that Smurfs were evil; that just about anything you could buy at a yard sale was infested by demons; and that Ouija boards -- even if they were manufactured by Parker Brothers -- were portals to hell. Never mind how popular you are when you hand out the Watchtower instead of candy at Halloween.

When Abrahams turned eighteen, things got even stranger. That's when she found herself married to a man she didn't love, with adultery her only way out. "Disfellowshipped" and exiled from the only world she'd ever known, Abrahams realized that the only people who could save her were the very sinners she had prayed would be smitten by God's wrath.

Raucously funny, deeply unsettling, and written with scorching wit and deep compassion, I'm Perfect, You're Doomed explores the ironic absurdity of growing up believing that nothing matters because everything's about to be destroyed.

del.icio.us Tags: ebooks,e-books,ebook reviews,abrahams,jehovahs witness,ebooks about religion

Under Reported eBooks -- eBooks I have Read This Year but Haven't Reviewed

This morning I looked through the past book review postings on the site.  From the reviews posted you would think that about the only things I read are Romances, Biographies and Literary Fiction.  It would be a fair evaluation, although not exactly accurate. 

There are a number of books that I have read, but for various reasons have not reviewed.  For example, I don't know how to review a Mystery without giving away the plot.  Or (for another example) I try to stay away from political controversy so I never review books about politics or current events. 

Then there are the books that are either so bad I can't finish them, or the ones I struggle to finish because. . . well, just because.  I almost never review those either.  I mean what's the point; after all I want you to read the books I write about.

Which brings me to the point. . .listed below are some of the books I have read this year and not reviewed.  I am going to confine it to only the ones I have enjoyed.  Maybe one of these days I will post a list of the ones I couldn't finish. . . .

 Musicophilia by Sacks, Oliver

First of all I am a huge fan of Oliver Sacks and his work so this was a natural.  Added to the fact that I come from a family of musicians and music is a big part of our family culture.  Sacks explores the connection between the brain and music. 

Outliers by Gladwell, Malcolm

This was a fascinating study on intelligent people and how raw intelligence may actually be overrated.  It is also a study of how culture, environment, education and personality interplay with intelligence.  The stories are enthralling.  This was a book I read in fits and starts over several weeks. 

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Goodwin, Doris Kearns

Kerns is another favorite author.  Several years ago I did a reading project: I read at least one book about each of the US Presidents.  I wish that this book had been around then. But it is good reading now!

T is for Trespass by Grafton, Sue

I have read very one of Grafton's novels and am always anxious to get my hands on the latest one.  Now, however, I am starting to get worried since we are up to T;  are there really only six left?  Oh no!  Grafton is a master at building and holding tension and hasn't written a bunk one yet.  If you haven't read her books -- do yourself a favor and start one today!

DownHill Lie by Carl Hiaasen

I'm not a golfer, a golf watcher or even a Tiger Woods fan, but this take on golfing had me laughing out loud. . . 

 

 

So, there you have it.  A few of the other books I have enjoyed this year and highly recommend.

del.icio.us Tags: Musicophilia,Outliers,Team of Rivals,T is for Trespass,Downhill Like,Sacks,Gladwell,Goodwin,Grafton,Hiaasen

Speaking for Myself by Cherie Blair eBook edition

Do you ever play the game?  You know, the one where you sit around with a bunch of people and talk about which famous (or almost famous) person you would like to sit down and have dinner with?  We play it often.  And in the last few years I have often said, "Cherie Blair."  I just had a feeling . . .

I mean, here is a woman who is married to the Prime Minister of England, works as an attorney (and in this book I found out she is also a judge), has a family and still manages to show up for official functions. 

You can tell from her accent that she isn't exactly "upper crust" and the British Press have a field day reporting on her.  Most of the reporting less than flattering, but somehow managing to show her as a REAL flesh and blood person with a real inner life.

Often these conjectures about people are hilariously off base.  But in Cherie Blair's case they may not be. 

Speaking for Myself is her accounting of her life.  Her telling of her own history is frank, opinionated, unsentimental and humorous.  It is at times a painfully honest account of who she is (and not always to her benefit).

She is a study in contrasts and contradictions.  A high achieving professional and a devoted wife and mother.  A political operator who has a tin ear when it comes to handling people and personalities. A pugnacious defender of her husband who sees him warts and all.  She has tremendous insecurities about money and this drives her to make some very unwise choices.  She is in fact, very human.  I ended up liking her a lot! 

And even if you don't like her much, her "ringseat to history" make this compelling reading. Her recounting of the events, stories about the people and insights into government make it a fascinating read.

Sure, some of the intricacies of the British legal system and Parliamentary maneuverings are dense and to me as an American a little boring.  But her story and her voice will keep you reading.

Here is the publisher's notes:

Even if she hadn't married Tony Blair, Cherie's story would have been amazing. Abandoned by her actor father, she overcame obstacles to become one of the UK's most successful barristers. But when Labour took power in 1997, she faced new challenges: her husband was the first prime minister in recent history with a young family, and Cherie was the first PM's wife with a serious career. Now, she gives a complete account of her own life--an astonishing journey for a woman whose unconventional childhood was full of drama and who grew up with a fierce sense of justice.

In her autobiography she reveals for the first time what it was like to combine life as a working mother with life married to the prime minister. She writes about her encounters with scores of foreign leaders and her friendships with Presidents Clinton and Bush, as well as with Hillary and Laura. And she offers inside details of her relationships with the royals, including Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles, and Princess Diana.

del.icio.us Tags: ebook,ebooks,ebooks about people,blair,cherie blair,ebook reviews

The Audacity of Hope eBook edition

It is eerily fitting that the author of The Audacity of Hope was written by a man who had the audacity to run for President of the United States of America. One look at the portrait on the cover told you that his chance to be President was roughly equivalent to the proverbial snowball in hell.

And yet somehow we woke up this morning with "a skinny black kid with a funny name" as the next President of the USA. Unbelievable from where I sit!

It wasn't that long ago (70 years) that the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to allow a "colored" woman to give a concert in their hall. As a side note -- I always find this story the ultimate irony! Women who's ancestors fought and died for freedom actually denying Marian Anderson access to a building! But I digress.

I am old enough to remember Selma and Montgomery and the passage of the Voting Rights Act. I am old enough to have heard Martin Luther King voice his dream.

In those dark days it seemed an impossible dream! Just the idea that his "children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character" was unfathomable. And yet this morning those children will wake up to a country where their Dad's dream has come true!

My Dad used to say that "we are saved by hope." As a teenager I thought it was perhaps the corniest thing I had ever hears. And yet this morning I can't help but think that he was on to something.

After all. what keeps us going in the face of incredible odds? It is sometimes simply the belief in a positive outcome; the feeling we can get what we want or that at the very least everything will turn out for the best.

Hope brings out the best in all of us. Hope is the sometimes the only thing that gets us out of bed in the morning. Hope is the bedrock of the American Dream. And at least for this moment in time, hope reigns in America.

If you haven't done so yet, do yourself a favor and read Barak Obama's message of hope:

In July 2004, Barack Obama electrified the Democratic National Convention with an address that spoke to Americans across the political spectrum. One phrase in particular anchored itself in listeners’ minds, a reminder that for all the discord and struggle to be found in our history as a nation, we have always been guided by a dogged optimism in the future, or what Senator Obama called “the audacity of hope.”

Now, in The Audacity of Hope, Senator Obama calls for a different brand of politics–a politics for those weary of bitter partisanship and alienated by the “endless clash of armies” we see in congress and on the campaign trail; a politics rooted in the faith, inclusiveness, and nobility of spirit at the heart of “our improbable experiment in democracy.” He explores those forces–from the fear of losing to the perpetual need to raise money to the power of the media–that can stifle even the best-intentioned politician. He also writes, with surprising intimacy and self-deprecating humor, about settling in as a senator, seeking to balance the demands of public service and family life, and his own deepening religious commitment.

At the heart of this book is Senator Obama’s vision of how we can move beyond our divisions to tackle concrete problems. He examines the growing economic insecurity of American families, the racial and religious tensions within the body politic, and the transnational threats–from terrorism to pandemic–that gather beyond our shores. And he grapples with the role that faith plays in a democracy–where it is vital and where it must never intrude. Underlying his stories about family, friends, members of the Senate, even the president, is a vigorous search for connection: the foundation for a radically hopeful political consensus.

A senator and a lawyer, a professor and a father, a Christian and a skeptic, and above all a student of history and human nature, Senator Obama has written a book of transforming power. Only by returning to the principles that gave birth to our Constitution, he says, can Americans repair a political process that is broken, and restore to working order a government that has fallen dangerously out of touch with millions of ordinary Americans. Those Americans are out there, he writes–“waiting for Republicans and Democrats to catch up with them.”

del.icio.us Tags: ebook,e-book,obama,hope,the audacity of hope,ebooks about people,new york times best sellers

Emma's Table eBook edition

 Emma's Table it that is was a far better book than I had thought it would be!  A friend begged me to read it and told me that it was told "a sort of Martha Stewart roman à clef."

I am not a Martha Stewart Fan, I know nothing about interior design or auctions.  And I certainly don't know the difference between a Nakashima table from an Ethan Allen one. 

I grudgingly started the book noting that it was mercifully short.  I spent the first half hour hating every single one of the characters.  They are at first meeting totally unappealing and deeply flaw characters. 

But slowly my attitude began to change.  There is no discernable point of change just a gradual understanding and even a little empathy for these fearful and imperfect people.

Yes, Emma is self absorbed, perfectionist, manipulative.  She is also insecure, self castigating and deeply wounded.  Benjamin Blackwell, her weekend assistant is an obsequious commitment phobe who cares deeply about the kids in his school.  Gracie, one of Ben's school kids, is an awkward, fat and sneaky kid who just wants to control something in her life.  Casey, Emma's daughter is slightly less sympathetic as a lonely, angry nymphomaniac who just want her Mom to acknowledge her.

Every one of the characters in the book are simultaneously despicable and empathetic.  Quite a feat!

The writer, Philip Galanes has done a masterful job of creating these characters out of the most unlikely material.  He keeps the simple the plot moving and he doesn't stint on detail.  This is a man who knows interior design and people.

This is a great weekend read!

The publisher tell us:

From the moment Emma Sutton walks into the esteemed FitzCoopers auction house, the one-time media darling knows exactly what she wants: an exquisite antique dining table. What she doesn't realize is what she's getting: the chance to set things right.

Fresh from a year-long stretch in prison and the public bloodletting that accompanied her fall, Emma needs a clean slate. She finds her life just as she left it, filled with glittering business successes and bruising personal defeats—rolling television cameras and chauffeured limousines, followed by awkward Sunday dinners at home. She knows, deep down, that she needs a change, though she can't imagine where it might come from or where it will lead.

Enter Benjamin Blackman, a terminally charming social worker who moonlights for Emma on the weekends, and Gracie Santiago, an overweight little girl from Queens, one of Benjamin's most heartbreaking wards. Together with an eclectic supporting cast—including Emma's prodigal ex-husband, a bossy yoga teacher, and a tiny Japanese diplomat—the unlikely trio is whisked into a fleet-footed story of unforeseen circumstance and delicious opportunity, as their solitary searching for better paths leads them all, however improbably, straight to Park Avenue and the dynamic woman at the novel's center.

Sophisticated yet accessible, lighthearted but also telling, Emma's Table is a thoroughly winning and surprisingly affecting tale of second chances.

del.icio.us Tags: ebook,e-book,ebook review,Emma's Table,Galanes,ebooks about fictions

Thrumpton Hall eBook edition

Thrumpton Hall by Miranda Seymour was one of those books that took me forever to finish.  I'm not even sure why.  Henri suggested that it was because it is the quintessential British book.  Nothing happens for something like 300 pages.  But that really isn't the reason. 

This is a very odd and oddly affecting book. I found it beautifully written and deeply unsettling.  I am always attracted and repulsed by stories of great obsession.  From Romeo and Juliet to George Seymour and Thrumpton Hall, the power of obsession is both fascinating and repulsive. 

This is the story of a house, a fading way of life and an entire family.  The story is always dominated by George Seymour. He is a priggish snob and a self aggrandizing jerk.  A study in eccentricity and total self obsession.  He wants to be an aristocrat but the closest he can get is to being a bastard descendant of Charles II.  He wants a title but wasn't born to it and didn't have enough money to buy one.  In the beginning I tried to be be at least marginally non-judgmental.  By the end, I just flat out hated him.

The story is saved by Miranda Seymour's writing skill.  She does not spare her father or herself.  And the story is infinitely humanized by the interwoven narrative of her Mother and her mother's memories. 

Miranda Seymour is a fine writer and I am a fan which is why I picked up the book in the first place.  I find it fascinating that today she is living at Thrumpton Hall.  She rents it out for weddings, movie shoots and even as a vacation spot just to keep it.  In many ways she is as tied to the house as he.   In Thrumpton Hall she has proven that not only is she a fine writer but that (as her Mother points out) she is much like her father. 

The official stuff:

Dear Thrumpton, how I miss you tonight, wrote twenty-one-year-old George Seymour in 1944. But the object of his affection was not a young woman but a house—ownership of which was then a distant dream. But he did eventually acquire Thrumpton, a beautiful country house in Nottinghamshire, and it was in this idyllic home that Miranda Seymour was raised.

Her upbringing was far from idyllic, however, as life revolved around her father's capriciousness. The house took priority and everything else was secondary, even his wife. Until, that is, the day when George Seymour, already in his golden years, took to wearing black leather and riding powerful motorbikes around the countryside in the company of a young male friend. Had he taken leave of his senses? Or had he finally found them? And how did this sea change affect his wife and daughter?

Both biography and family memoir, this sometimes hilarious, sometimes heart-wrenching story—told in a voice as unforgettable as it is moving—is a riveting and ultimately shocking portrait of desire and the devastating consequences of misplaced love.

del.icio.us Tags: ebook,e-book,Thrumpton Hall,Miranda Seymour,ebook review

Bitter is the New Black eBook Edition

Jen Lancaster is sarcastic, self-involved, shallow and condescending. She is also direct, clever and funny.

It should come as no surprise that I had a little trouble in the beginning.  The title says it all:  Confessions of a Condescending, Egomaniacal, Self-Centered Smartass.   Guess what?  She isn't kidding. 

The first part of the book is a view into her high powered job and  self-reported extravagant lifestyle. Maybe I am just too old to be impressed by designer clothes, Prada handbags, expensive restaurants and spas and "everyone who is anyone in Chicago". 

Things begin to change when she gets downsized.  Resumes, interviews, unemployment and temp jobs.  Moving, selling shoes on eBay, car repo and all.  Great material for her wit and and snappy one liners. 

The first time you see the other side of Jen is when she volunteers to be a dog walker for an animal rescue organization.  She ends up with two of the dogs because she can't bare to let them go.  Behind the wisecracks and cynicism there is a woman who is loyal and cares about her family and friends.  A committed partner in her marriage, a dutiful daughter and a caring aunt.  OK, so sometimes the caring comes out sideways, but she does care; deeply.  Little by little I began to see behind the tough facade.

Months go by and life becomes harder and harder; yet Jen manages to keep her sense of humor and not take herself to seriously (most of the time).  Whatever character flaws she may have, she is frank and painfully honest about her sense of losing herself.  After all, what happens when you lose all the things that make your identity -- your wonderful apartment, your high powered job and your bank account?

What happened for Jen was a serious evaluation of her choices, her priorities, her career choices and ultimately her toughness.  She is a creative survivor and by the end of the book I developed an admiration for both she and her husband Fletch.

Great book to read on the patio, by the pool or beach or on a plane.  Jen will make you laugh, cry and reflect.

Here is the publisher's words:

Jen Lancaster was living the sweet life-until real life kicked her to the curb. She had the perfect man, the perfect job-hell, she had the perfect life-and there was no reason to think it wouldn't last. Or maybe there was, but Jen Lancaster was too busy being manicured, pedicured, highlighted, and generally adored to notice. This is the smart-mouthed, soul-searching story of a woman trying to figure out what happens next when she's gone from six figures to unemployment checks and she stops to reconsider some of the less-than-rosy attitudes and values she thought she'd never have to answer for when times were good. Filled with caustic wit and unusual insight, it's a rollicking read as speedy and unpredictable as the trajectory of a burst balloon.

del.icio.us Tags: ebook,e-book,eBook review,memoir,jen lancaster,downsized,unemployed,prada,bitter is the new black