Lisa Maria's Guide for the Perplexed

Lisa Maria #1

by Susan Hubbard

Tired of mundane nine-to-five office jobs, Lisa Maria returns home to New Sparta, New York, where she becomes a "household assistant" while trying to clean up her own social life with the help of her wild sister, her meddling mother and her Dolls of Many Nations, a strange novelist, and the local mall.

Genres: Fiction, Chick Lit

256 pages, Paperback

First published May 25, 2004

About the author

Susan Hubbard, born in upstate New York, is the author of two collections of short fiction, both winners of national prizes, and four novels. The Society of S was published in May 2007 by Simon & Schuster, and The Year of Disappearances, a sequel, was released in May 2008. The U.S. paperback edition of The Year of Disappearances was published in 2009.
The third volume in the Ethical Vampire series, The Season of Risks, was published in July 2010.
Hubbard's books have been translated and published in more than 15 countries. Her short stories have appeared in TriQuarterly, The Mississippi Review, The North American Review, America West, Kalliope, Ploughshares, and other journals. She is coeditor of 100% Pure Florida Fiction, an anthology.
She has received teaching awards from Syracuse University, Cornell University, the University of Central Florida, and the South Atlantic Adminstrators of Departments of English. She has been awarded residencies at Yaddo, the Djerassi Resident Artists Project, the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, and Cill Rialaig.
Hubbard has led writing workshops at universities and arts programs across the United States and the United Kingdom. A former president of Associated Writing Programs, she has served as an assessor and curriculum consultant to several colleges and universities.
Hubbard currently is a Professor of English at the University of Central Florida. She is an advocate for animal rights, social justice, academic etiquette, and literacy. Her hobbies include running, salvaging, and collecting items of questionable taste.

Reviews

[Charity · Rating 3 out of 5]

Since Lisa Maria has a hard time cleaning up her own messy life, she opts to clean up other people's messes as a maid...er...'Household Assistant' and as an advice columnist. This selection lacked a little oomph, but I'm hoping that it is because it is a segue to Lisa Maria Takes Off.

[Julie H. Ernstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this witty little book in an evening. While I'd imagined it would be your typical light chicklit sort of book, it had the zing of a Janet Evanovich in terms of the mother-daughter-sister-father family dynamic. Quite a fun read, well-written and not altogether unrealistic.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really cute read. In hindsight, I probably should've read this one before Lisa Maria Takes Off, but oh well. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

[Lea · Rating 2 out of 5]

Girl has crazy life. Drama, drama, drama.

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I put this down at pg120. I will revisit this later (I hope)