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Carolyn
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My hermit cabin covered in 4 rare colors of wisteria!


A Best Book Club Book 2007-8
Book Sense

A Best Book 2007-8
The Literary Guild

Nominated for 2008
SIBA Award

FIRST EVER Book of the Month for Family Circle Magazine!

Winner of Elle Magazine's Readers Prize in August!

Raves in More Magazine!

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5 stars from book clubs and Amazon readers: The Literary Guild, Doubleday,The Satellite Sisters, BookBrowse, Shelfari, GoodReads, BookReporter, The Pulpwood Queens, and more.

Rave reviews from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Des Moines Register, Louisville Courier Journal, Tampa Tribune, and many others!

cover

The true story of a spoiled, high-powered Washington lawyer (me) who is forced to leave her job at the Senate and come back home to the Smoky Mountains to work as an unpaid and inept receptionist in her father's tiny medical office.  Comedy, pathos, and bad reception follow.

Hardback from Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, June 15, 2007. Paperback in August, 2008.

Unabridged audio version from Recorded Books.

German translation rights sold to Verlag Freies Geistesleben!

literary guild

doubleday book club

american compass book club

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book reporter

bookbrowse

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book page

book sense

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redroom

shelfari

“Heartwarming, funny and utterly appealing.”
Fannie Flagg
—Author of Fried Green
Tomatoes

“This is a wonderful book. I would have enjoyed it
even if Carolyn wasn't a neighbor of mine in East Tennessee. She is a great writer.”
Dolly Parton
—Singer, Songwriter, and
Actress

“Jourdan's dispatches from the reception desk make for a stirring, beautiful memoir that is alternately hilarious and heartbreaking, and ultimately a triumph.” Publishers Weekly Starred Review

#1 Nonfiction Pick in the Nation, Book Sense, July 2007

“[Will] appeal to anyone who enjoys sweet stories with quirky characters such as the Mitford series by Jan Karon or anyone who loves the TV series Northern Exposure or Ballykissangel. But these are very real people here, not those from fiction. I laughed and I cried, I read passages out loud to my husband, and I stayed up into the wee hours of the morning two nights in a row to finish it. I can’t recommend this book enough. You will want to buy one for yourself and another as a gift for someone you care about.”
Maudeen Wachsmith—Port Townsend, WA, A Top Amazon Reviewer

“I'm not a big fan of memoirs, but checked this out under duress from the local librarian. A few pages in, though, I was hooked. ... Without a doubt, the best book I've read in 2007. 5 Stars. ”
Madame Pince, Powell's Bookstore

“Sometimes the greater good can best be served one person at a time. With lavish affection, genuine respect, and exuberant humor, Jourdan offers a zestfully compassionate portrait of a poor community rich in the ways of true humanity.”
Carol Haggas

Booklist

“[A]n absolute delight of a book: warm, funny and written with great heart and understanding.”
Howard Shirley
BookPage

Heart in the Right Place does for the medical community what James Herriot's
classic All Creatures Great and Small did for the veterinary one. A blend of science and soul, the story of the Jourdan family's devotion to their rural community is one of compassion, wisdom, and wit. A beautiful, compelling true story.”
Marty Becker, D.V.M.
Veterinarian on ABC's Good Morning America, host of The Pet Doctor on PBS.

Heart in the Right Place was so wonderful...you should immediately run out and buy it! Jourdan is one of those authors who make you wish she were your next-door neighbor, and her book is one of those books you want to buy to give to everybody you care about.”
Alison C. Jameson
Little Epiphanies Blogger, reviewer for Elle

“... heartwarming and hilarious...You'll fall in love with this story about family, community, and coming home...reminding us that the best heroes are the ones living right beside us!”
The Satellite Sisters
Satellite Sisters Radio Book of the Month Club

For more reviews, click here!

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Carolyn Jourdan 2006-2008. All rights reserved.
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