"Why My Third Husband Will Be a Dog"
By Lisa Scottoline
($21.99, St. Martin's Press)



Lisa Scottoline dedicated this book "For extraordinary ordinary women everywhere." I like that. Perhaps it suits me because it's about the ordinary things women experience, which should be considered extraordinary. She opens by quoting Eleanor Roosevelt, "A woman is like a tea bag. You never know how strong she is until she's in hot water."

This is a smart, funny and dead-on book that you'll want to share with your girlfriend or even give to your mother. It is non-fiction, almost a memoir; I could not put it down for the absolute enjoyment of the "Been there!" sequences. Reading this was like sitting down with a girlfriend and realizing you aren't the only one to have these things happen in your life.

There's much more to this than the dissing of her ex-husbands. Her daughter grows up and moves on to college...and then returns home. She's now a vegetarian. While Lisa is carb-free, Francesca is cruelty-free, among other things. When shopping for groceries, they can only agree on celery. All of this would be trauma central for a mother struggling to find herself. With Scottoline at the keyboard, it provides fresh stories for the reader.

Scottoline wrote this in a similar context to her enjoyable series of mystery books involving a woman detective/attorney in high heels who is not only great at her job, but fun to observe in action as she moves through the author's storyline.

Mary Burns is the owner of The BookWORKS, located at 1510 Third Street, downtown Marysville, 360.659.4997, or online at www.marysvillebookworks.com. Comments or requests are welcome at [email protected].