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    The Leisure Seeker: A Novel
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    The Leisure Seeker: A Novel
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    The Leisure Seeker: A Novel
    Audiobook8 hours

    The Leisure Seeker: A Novel

    Written by Michael Zadoorian

    Narrated by Judith West

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    A sort of Easy Rider meets The Notebook, Michael Zadoorian's poignant, funny, vibrant, and unforgettable novel, The Leisure Seeker, is a story of two seniors who escape from their retirement home and embark upon a hilarious and touching end-of-life road trip. Here is a story that will appeal to a wide range of readers: from retiring Baby Boomers to fans of Mitch Albom, Tom Perotta, David Sedaris, Nick Hornby, and Nicholas Sparks. In fact, the Detroit Free Press says, "I would recommend Michael Zadoorian's The Leisure Seeker to almost anyone."

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateJan 23, 2012
    ISBN9780062199645
    Author

    Michael Zadoorian

    Michael Zadoorian is the author of the critically acclaimed novel Second Hand.

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    Reviews for The Leisure Seeker

    4/5

    19 ratings23 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Very often we tend to infantilize the elderly. We say old people are in a second childhood and act as if they need to be protected from themselves and all the things that can go wrong to and for them. Most often we do this out of a sense of love. We want them to be safe and cared for but we are undeniably taking away much of their own agency, discounting their knowledge and wishes. Don't get me wrong, sometimes the decisions we make on behalf of the frail and elderly in our lives are the only ones we can possibly make. But we also have to consider their situations and think long and hard before we deny them the pleasures that make life worth sticking around for. Getting old doesn't automatically equal incompetence and sometimes death, the scary outcome we try so hard to deny both for ourselves and on behalf of those we love, is a risk worth taking if we get to live more along the way. Michael Zadoorian truly gets this, as evidenced by his funny, entertaining, and poignant novel, The Leisure Seeker, coming out this month as a movie starring Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland.Ella and John Robina are in their eighties. They've been married for 60 some odd years and they've had a full life together. Now Ella has terminal breast cancer and John has Alzheimer's. Ella is failing physically and John is failing mentally but they want to make one last trip together. Well, Ella wants one last trip and John is amenable to suggestion even though the Robina's children and their doctors are against it. These two old codgers sneak off in their '78 Leisure Seeker, determined to follow Route 66 from their home in Detroit to Disneyland one last time, escaping the futile medical treatments and unwelcome opinions of those who want to choose how they spend their final days or years.Ella is hilarious, acerbic and witty; she's the brains of the operation. John might only have very sporadic flashes of memory but he can still drive and he's happy to be directed by Ella; he's the brawn. As these two travel across Route 66, they are traveling back into their history together, watching slides each evening as they camp and talking through their long life (or at least Ella is even when John can't), but they are also enjoying their life right now. Sure, Ella has to pop little blue "discomfort" pills and John doesn't often know where he is or who the people Ella is talking about are, but their love for each other and all of its attendant joy and frustration continues to shine through the novel. They have some crazy escapades on their road trip and they do some perfectly banal things as well but in both cases, the reader is happy to travel along with them.There is both regular humor and black humor galore here leavening the fact that Ella and John are making it clear that aging isn't for sissies. Ella's first person narrative voice is honest and straightforward and the story itself is touching. Zadoorian has a great eye for detail (as in the description of the 70's decor of the camper) as well as a deep understanding of his characters and the curve balls that they've been thrown in these, their twilight years. His depiction of a man with Alzheimer's is heartbreaking and true but he refrains from wallowing in the sadness of John's loss by celebrating the moments when John's memory sparks and showing the simple joy Ella feels in those fleeting moments. His portrayal of Ella is equally well done, her stubbornness and determination, her refusal to consider ridiculous treatments in the face of her real prognosis, and her deep loyalty to her husband. The book doesn't flinch from the realities and indignities of aging and disease but it also celebrates life for as long as there's life left in the old geezers. Although the story could be depressing, it is in fact the exact opposite. It's life affirming and highly entertaining in spite of the omnipresent shadow of mortality. The end is perfect; it could not be any other way. This novel is both laughter and tears, light and dark. In a nutshell, that's life.
    • 5/5
      This is the story of John and Ella Robina and their last hurrah! After nearly 60 years of marriage, Ella has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and John has alzheimers. Against the advice of their doctors and to the horror of their children, they decide to dust off their ?Leisure Seeker? camper and go on a cross country trip along historical Route 66 from Detroit to California. Destination: Disneyland.

      This book is ?Road Trip? for grown-ups. This is an amazing book, laugh out loud funny and heart wrenchingly touching at the same time. It probably would not appeal to the younger set, but for anyone over 40 I think it?s a must read.
    • 5/5
      I think that everyone who is a Baby Boomer or in the sandwich generation needs to read this book. Even though this book will make you laugh so hard that you work at have to keep from crying, it poses a very important ethical question. The latter, you will become aware as you this book. Ella and John are couple in their eighties that I would love to have lived next door to. When you are that old, why spend time pleasing people? Why not do what is best for you? Ella is a witty, sarcastic woman who has terminal cancer. She doesn't mess around, she speaks her mind. She deeply loves her husband John and doesn't want another round of radiation and chemotherapy. What she wants is one last road trip, this time to Disneyland. John is her husband, he married her after WWII. He can be very stubborn, loving and has Alzheimer's. He calls Ella, his lover and thinks of her as the most beautiful woman that he has ever seen. A side story of this book is about Route 66 in past and present. I remember many of the things that she mentions in the book like Stuckey's nut rolls. But it also makes me think of the tiny red signs for Burma Shave that we used to see when driving long ago. So, if you are a fan of history about Route 66, you will really enjoy this story. There are so many things that I loved about this book. I cannot think of any negative criticism at all. It will make you, laugh, cry, get mad, get scared and be brave and enjoy life with Ella and John on Route 66.
    • 5/5
      This was such a wonderful book full of beautiful writing that I'm not sure a movie can do it justice. One of the main differences is that in the book, the two main characters escape from their home in Detroit and take a road trip to Disneyland, following Route 66 as much as possible. Ella and John are in their 80s, they have been married for over 60 years and both have end of life health problems - John has Alzheimers and Ella has cancer. Ella feels that they need one more camping trip together so they sneak away from their home in Detroit, their two concerned children and their doctors and take a road trip. As they travel, John often has no clue where they are or who Ella is. Ella is fighting constant pain but feels the need to forge ahead and make it to the Pacific. Does this sound depressing? Believe me, it's anything but depressing. It's thoughtful and funny and fantastically entertaining. Ella tells the story and she is so funny that there were parts of the story that made me laugh out loud. She also made many observations that really made me think about life will be like in those final years. ?Why does the world have to destroy anything that doesn't fit in? We still can?t figure out this is the most important reason to love something.? ?Anyone who never met a man he didn't like just isn't trying hard enough.??After a while, just staying alive becomes a full-time job. No wonder we need a vacation.? This is a wonderful well written book about the final road trip of an elderly couple who want to be together and having fun until the end. It proves that when it comes to life, you can go back for seconds?even when everyone says you can't.
    • 4/5
      A woman with cancer and her husband with dementia take a road trip from Detroit to Disneyland, along Route 66, in their RV named the Leisure Seeker. It was okay -- the workmanlike writing and cranky narrator got a little more interesting as it went along. I?m interested in aging and have read quite a bit in fiction and nonfiction, but this was a darker novel throughout than I?d expected.
    • 4/5
      I loved the voice of Ella in this book - matter-of-fact, content with herself, in charge. I loved the glimpses of the life Ella and John have made with each other - the moments when John remembers, when they are themselves together again. This is an unconventional road trip story, and I was torn between fear for the couple and sorrow for the difficulties that old age and sickness bring. Despite that, there are moments of real humor in the book, and I admired Ella so much for her strength.
    • 3/5
      Very romantic and very sad. An elderly couple decides to take a final road trip before the end of their lives. Neither is in great health (the husband has Alzheimer's, the wife has cancer), and the trip is hard, but they would rather take this trip than sit at home or in a hospital. Their children freak out, but ultimately these are two adults and there is not much they can do.Everyone should have the right to live the way they want to, even or especially at the end of a long life. They reminisce and travel. I felt that this was very gentle, with two very believable characters. Very sad, but feels true.
    • 3/5
      This book was both funny and poignant. It was about an elderly couple, John who has Alzheimers and Ella who has been diagnosed with cancer and has decided not to seek treatment. Ella decides they need to take a last vacation together, so ignoring the warnings and threats from both doctors and their adult children they pack their things and escape in their "Leisure Seeker" RV. Heading from Michigan to Disneyland in California they struggle through the small daily difficulties that arise from getting older. Although there were many interesting scenes in the book and the characters were very well written, the book dragged a bit from too little plot. I would give this book 3-1/2 stars.
    • 2/5
      This book story line flows very smoothly which makes it a quick read. I've had relatives or their spouses as well as friends whose spouses with Alzheimer's. "Death by inches" is what one friend called it and cancer isn't any better. I loved the travelogue as they drove across country, showing past family vacations and fending off predatory roadway robbers. I can't say that I blame them for not wanting to wind up in hospital or a nursing home. At the same time, I've known caregivers that have had massive incapacitating strokes due to the stress of dealing with an Alzheimer's patient. It would have been kinder to somehow allow Ella & John to remain in their home under hospice or home healthcare. After Ella dies have twenty-four hour health workers to look after John. As it is Ella had made a promise never to allow John to be put in a nursing home and she had reached the end of her rope. I wish it could have ended differently.
    • 4/5
      This is the oddly enthralling story of an elderly couple, on their last legs with Alzheimers and incurable cancer, who escape their worried children and endless medical appointments by setting out in their little RV on a roadtrip across the US. I was completely won over by these characters - funny, spirited and unflinchingly authentic.
    • 5/5
      Maybe because we travel in a fifth wheel part time, after camping for years with our kids, I could relate to many parts of this story. I do not know much about the author but he has a lot of insight on the camping lifestyle and on old age. Maybe it is experiential.But the story was funny, sad, romantic and poignant. I did not put it down once I started it. Will look into his other book.
    • 3/5
      A sweet tale that looks at illness, aging and end-of-life choices, Ride along with Ella and John for one last road trip to the end of the line where they decide their own fate. Touching and funny.
    • 4/5
      As someone who was born in Detroit, grew up in the northwest suburbs, and lived in the general area for most of my first 40+ years of life, I enjoyed Michael Zadoorian's short story collection, The Lost Tiki Palaces of Detroit, and, now, this novel about an elderly Michigan couple. Ella Robina has terminal cancer; her husband, John, is starting to fade away with Alzheimer's. Thinking about the short amount of time they have left and the many adventures they've enjoyed in the past, Ella decides that they need to rev up their Leisure Seeker RV one more time. Her goal: to follow old Route 66 all the way from Detroit to Disneyland in California. Along the way, they run into good folks and some not-so-good folks, and John and Ella each have their good days and some not-so-good days. But there's never any doubt that this trip was just what they needed--despite their doctors' and children's objections.Zadoorian creates in Ella, his narrator, the kind of little old lady that you'd never think of calling a little old lady: she's spunky, outspoken, and resourceful, and even though she's well into her eighties and not in the best of health, she shows a real interest in other people. The novel depicts some frustrating moments, some painful ones, and some that will m ake you laugh; but most of all, it depicts the enduring strength and memory of love.I'll definitely be looking for more of Zadoorian's work, and I hope he keeps sneaking in those Michigan references (Faygo, the big tire, et al).
    • 4/5
      Michael Zadoorian's The Leisure Seeker is about many things, chief of which, I suppose, is growing old and all the aches, pains, illnesses and infirmities that go along with aging. It's also an achingly sweet love story that has spanned sixty years. John and Ella Robina, now in their 80s and on a fast-track downslope to the end of the trail, aren't quite ready to wrap things up yet. Or at least Ella isn't. John, in the middle-stages of dementia or Alzheimer's, drifts in and out of lucidity throughout the narrative, told from Ella's point-of-view. Ella who is in the end stages of cancer, and has resisted all the pain, sickness and indignities that she knows chemo and radiation therapy would add to the already often piercing pain of her cancer. So they pack up their mini-RV and leave their suburban Detroit home and hit the road for Disneyland.Zadoorian is a good storyteller, and a skillful one. Small details of the trip and the places they pass through and things they see are often pertinent to the final predicament of the old couple, a foreshadowing of what's to come. A ghost town on the Texas-New Mexico border is described as "unsettling ... hollowed out, yet gorged with memories. Still ... there are ruins here to hint at the past."In another scene reflecting the similarities of the beginning and end of life, Ella gives advice to a young mother with a colicky baby, suggesting the parents take the baby for a drive -"Then I wonder to myself: Does a feeling of movement soothe a new baby in the same way it soothes an old woman? ... New to the earth and not long for it somehow don't seem so different these days."Ella thinks often too about what happens after death, not at all certain about things like an afterlife, heaven and God. Zadoorian plays with this in a scene where John picks up the slide projector while it's showing an image of the two and the picture veers wildly about until - "finally, into the sky, where it is released completely, a mist of light ..." Ella's speculations along these lines continue later - "A gleaming world of energy and light, where nothing is quite the same as it is on earth - everything bluer, greener, redder. Or maybe we just become the colors, that light spilling from the sky ..."There is much humor here too, of course, the kind of gentle, old folks funny stuff you read in the comic strip PICKLES; you know, the Earl and Opal kind of absent-minded, forgetful silliness. But much of the humor in The Leisure Seeker takes on a darker hue, always colored by the knowledge of John's dementia and Ella's cancer and the inescapable consequences of both. Zadoorian also manages to poke a little gentle fun at his own heritage in a bit about the boyfriend who dumped Ella during the war for some "round-heeled Armenian broad. He wound up marrying her, after knocking her up."The darker edges of this sweet story are always lurking, however. Because no matter how much John and Ella love each other, even love can't stave off the inevitable. The ending, which is set, ironically, in The Best Destination RV Park, just a few miles from Disneyland, will break your heart, even if you may have guessed it was coming. My wife, as she raced toward the end of this book, sat at our kitchen table crying into her chicken soup, as she turned the final page. Now I've read it too and I understand why. Bittersweet thought the ending may be, Michael Zadoorian has written a lovely story - a love story for old folks. I will recommend it highly.
    • 2/5
      As I approached reading this book, I assumed it would be a narrative about an elderly couple doing a cross-country adventure. It's not. It's a fictional memoir about a seriously ill cancer patient well past the average life span, who basically kidnaps her equally old husband with fairly advanced but still generally functional Alzheimer's disease, and goes on a road trip from Michigan to California in their Leisure Seeker camper van, trying to track along the old U.S. Route 66 as much as practical. She makes nearly all the decisions for the couple, leaving some decisions up to her husband in much the same way a dog or cat owner sometimes caves to the pet's desires over their own. Her doctor and their two adult children are dead set against it. She has them go anyway. I wondered why a male author would speak through the woman and not the man. If he thought he couldn't really know the man's thoughts because he had Alzheimer's, then he could have easily have switched the maladies between the sexes and spoken through the man. It turns out the author's father had died from the disease and felt compelled to express himself about it through this book. But the whole book revolves around the cancer-stricken woman. She's not very likable. Despite knowing her husband's condition, she chastises him regularly for failure to measure up. She explains their white-flight from the dangerous blacks of Detroit in the past. All Latinos are "Mexicans" who she takes little effort to appreciate. Towns and buildings and people that aren't "nice", all get her emphasis on their shortcomings, while frequently daring others to show any discount for their own deficiencies. When she isn't being especially thrifty with money, she expects absolute top service for what extra dollars she paid. (At one point she's flabbergasted at having to pay $125 for a double room at a motel.) And through it all, she seems to be wondering why her husband doesn't make life easier for her. I wondered if the author was reflecting his own mother's views of life or his own. Having watched a rather lengthy interview with him from a book reviewer, I decided his mother was merely a general stand-in for the character, capturing "old mom talk" and it was his own biases that came through in the book. He specifically said it was easy for him to write as an elderly woman. Two final thoughts: the first being the ending to the book, which I will not reveal, but I thought the ending was fairly obvious as it approached, but some readers will be caught off guard. Given that the author fraudulently presented earlier parts of the book in contradiction to the obvious nature of the ending, I guess those readers can be forgiven for their surprise. The second thought is about the "major motion picture" that has been released starring to fine actors. I can say conclusively that the movie makers made several changes from the book, such as replacing a Leisure Seeker brand camper with a Winnebago RV, thus negating the dual meaning to the Leisure Seeker title. I'm hoping the movie also makes the female character more likable.
    • 4/5
      Delightful, witty and tender and real, highly recommended - its likely to suprise you.Perhaps all the more personally since it echoes my own grandparents relationship.
    • 4/5
      As busy as Mothers? Day weekend was, I found time to spend a few hours lingering over Michael Zadoorian?s bittersweet second novel. It was the most rewarding few hours I?ve had in a long time. But I was totally caught napping and unprepared for the sucker punch that was part of the package.Ella and John Robina are retired and sick, she with cancer and he with Alzheimer?s. They want to get in one last trip in their camper (the Leisure Seeker), so they defy their doctors and children and set out from their Detroit home to travel the length of Rt. 66 from Lake Michigan to the Pacific Ocean. The book tells the story of their journey, the people they meet and the stops they make along the way. A wry, tender novel, filled with dark humor, and episodes of comic relief, we follow Ella and John through small towns and historical landmarks and along the way we get to know them very well. The author provides us with glimpses of life when you?re near the end of the road and the irony of coming to the end of Rt. 66 parallels the lives of these two. Rundown seedy towns, neglected stores and tourist venues dot the route that has been by-passed by the super highways that could get them to their destination so much faster.Zadoorian presents a cynical look at life that?s bound to accompany the old age and illness that we?re all destined to face at some point. Every evening they spread a white sheet on the side of their camper, and watch slides of previous vacations, time gone by:?I think about the people in the slides, most of them gone now, heart attacks and cancers, betrayed by the foods we ate, by our La-Z-Boys, by our postwar contentment, everyone getting larger and larger in every year?s photographs, our prosperity gone wide.? (page 57)The author throws more than a few gems our way:?We pass a church with a massive blue neon cross, and I am spiritually lifted by feelings of great religiosity. No, I?m not, for crying out loud. Don?t be ridiculous. But what I do love about this road is how the gaudy becomes grand, how tastelessness is a way of everyday life.?(page 37)And Ella reveals a complete distrust for the authenticity of Will Rogers:?We pass on the Will Rogers Memorial in Claremore. I never much cared for the man. A big phony, I believe. Anyone who never met a man he didn?t like just isn?t trying hard enough.? (page 79)I grew fond of these two curmudgeons whose love for each other is unparalleled and I could have gone on reading about them forever. Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      A book does not have to be of great literary merit to win my round of applause. It does, however, have to strike a chord within my soul, as does this bittersweet story by Michael Zadoorian of an elderly, declining couple who go on a road trip in a motor home with their destination as Disneyland. Does this sound silly? It?s anything but that. It?s a story of love, fear, determination, and joy. In fact, it made me laugh on one page, cry on the next, and run away quickly on the following page to copy down some notable quotes. What this author can do is hit the right notes. It tells the poignant story of aging, both physical and mental decline. For a long time it?s a process which we see others doing, but eventually we all see this on our own horizon. As a result, this book may be less interesting to a younger person, but for someone nearing or in his golden years, this book totally expresses our feelings.
    • 4/5
      This is a novel about aging, but one in which the elderly protagonists break out of the stereotypes. Ella and John are "Two down-on-their-luck geezers, one with more health problems than a third world country, the other so senile that he doesn't even know what day it is." Their children and doctors want John who has Alzheimers to be placed in a nursing home, and Ella who has terminal cancer to be hospitalized for further, probably futile, treatment. Against the advice of their doctors and children, Ella decides to take one final trip with her husband in their RV, the Leisure Seeker, a trip from their home in Michigan along fabled US Route 66 to Disneyland in California. The novel is narrated by Ella, whose acerbic wit makes the trip a pleasure for the reader, despite the various travails she and John undergo. The book is part travelogue exploring the decrepit ruins of the (mostly) abandoned Route 66, and part reflection on what meaning, in the end, we can take from our lives. Ella and John are very real people, and I enjoyed going along on their journey.
    • 4/5
      I?m of an age where thoughts of end-of-life issues are not foreign to me, especially health issues. So I found this story fascinating. An elderly couple goes on one last road trip. Not a lot happens. They spend evenings looking at slides of past road trips, watching as their children grew, and enjoying memories of good times of long ago. Sometimes. And some of the time, the Alzheimer?s-afflicted husband?s memories don?t kick in, but after so many years of road trips, he just keeps plugging along on the road. The cancer-riddled wife keeps them on track, following Route 66 from beginning to end, as she pops her ?discomfort? pills to keep going. This was a very realistic picture of the marriage bond and aging, but with a punch.
    • 5/5
      Just fantastic! Ella's tone is perfection (I was somewhat surprised that this was written by a man; he certainly captured a woman's perspective flawlessly).
    • 4/5
      The Leisure Seeker by Michael Zadoorian is the story of two people, Ella and John, who have been married for more than 50 years. Ella has cancer and John has Alzheimer?s. Tired of treatments and procedures and doctors? appointments, Ella has decided to go on a final vacation in their RV, the Leisure Seeker, forgoing any more medical care, much to the consternation of their two adult children. What follows is the ultimate road trip. Ella and John?s journey follows as much as possible the old Route 66, to their final destination, Disneyland. They have travelled frequently most of their married life and memories are shared of previous trips taken alone and with their children. Ella has brought along their collection of slides from previous journeys and we learn of their history through these slide shows and Ella?s reminiscences. At times hysterically funny and at other times terribly poignant, The Leisure Seeker is a story of a marriage and a deep and abiding love. The writing is extremely good, clear and precise. You will not soon forget Ella and John.

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    • 5/5
      Call it the ultimate road trip, or perhaps liken it to THE BUCKET LIST, Michael Zadoorian presents a poignant, humorous, tender tale that the reader can tell must be drawn to some extent from personal experience. THE LEISURE SEEKER is a love story woven around a couple with such warmth and care that they will haunt you for a long time, but in a way that you will welcome each time you think of them. Their somewhat ironic story is so well written, with just the right touch of humor that you will laugh out loud, cry, smile, and want to tell those close to you all about it. Ella and John Robina have shared a life for over 50 years and so now in their eighties they ?run away from home? leaving behind their grown children and their families, a medical team bent on treating Ella?s incurable cancer and John?s Alzheimer?s, and their beloved Detroit. Their journey will revisit the places and trips from their past that they shared with their children and friends as they make their way to their ultimate destination, Disneyland. Ella feels Disneyland is the perfect place because, as she says ?After all, at this point in our lives, we are more like children than ever. Especially John.?Ella, is spunky and not worried about John?s dementia as she says, ?It?s all right. I?m the keeper of the memories? and feels they will be fine because ?Between the two of us, we are one whole person.? John drives their seasoned 1978 Leisure Seeker RV and is quite capable and in fact seems better driving for hours on end as he is increasingly less lucid during normal everyday activities. Ella, meanwhile, has not driven in over 30 years, so she is the navigator and seeks out all the kitschy, tacky tourist stops along their chosen path of travel on Route 66 to California. Popping Pepcid first, they eat at several Route 66 Diners, but McDonalds remains John?s favorite. From the start of the route, Ella throws caution to the wind, along with her wig, as she enjoys the sun on her almost bald scalp after so long without this feeling of freedom. Museums, giant ?must see? statues, ghost towns, Stuckey?s and the famous pecan log by day, and by night at their campsite, Ella and John relive their life together through old slides that they project on a sheet. This is more than a ?Kodak Moment?; this is a retelling of their love story, of their lives together. Park neighbors venture by and share in the love and courage these two people have lived through as the cinematic interpretations flash across the simple screen. With many a mishap, as well as much joy, the Robinas make it to Disneyland as each of them, especially Ella, exhibits rapidly declining health, the increased dependence on medication to treat Ella?s ?discomfort?, and John?s lack of hygiene and control, physically and mentally. What happens at their final destination is told with such care by an author who clearly knew his subject and how to tell about it. With Michael Zadoorian?s beautifully phrased descriptions, such as when he describes the campsite in early evening for Ella by saying ?Twilight slips in like a timid creature?, one knows they are holding something special in their hands. The ending will come too quickly for the reader as it truly is a book you can?t put down. I read it in one sitting and it left me with much to ponder, appreciate, and continue to contemplate even after I closed the book. The ending is affecting in ways, while remarkable and fitting in others. Do not miss this book as it is a joy to treasure and makes it quite clear why Michael Zadoorian was selected for Barnes & Noble?s Discover Great New Writers after only his first book, SECOND HAND. What shall Mr. Zadoorian be selected for after this superb second novel? You decide as I already have! Submitted Originally to BOOKIN? WITH BINGO by Karen Haney, February, 2009