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Booklist Review Susan McCorkindale. NAL (paperback), $15.00 (368p)
McCorkindale, former marketing director at Family Circle, takes a lighthearted look at the abrupt change in lifestyle she experienced when she quit her job and moved with her husband and their two sons from bustling Ridgewood, New Jersey, to “beautiful, anything but bustling” Upperville, Virginia. Though admittedly weary of the corporate rat race, she wasn’t prepared for the huge cultural differences she encounters once ensconced on their 500-acre beef-cattle farm. In chapters packed with droll humor (and numerous unnecessary footnotes), she addresses fashion, public versus private schools, horseback riding versus football, and Saturdays in suburbia versus Saturdays in the sticks. Cheery e-mails to friends and family include McCorkindale’s prolific lists of do’s and don’ts of Virginia social life and her own “Girls Guide to Farm Speak.” Though she seems to be adapting to life without Manolos and Starbucks, she still relishes her New Jersey visits – hitting the nearest Designer Shoe Warehouse and loading up Italian cold cuts. McCorkindale’s memoir is a witty take on what happens when you try to “take the girl out of New Jersey.”
— Deborah Donovan |
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