Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home

“Janzen is always ready to gently turn the humor back on herself . . . and women will immediately warm to the self-deprecating honesty with which she describes the efforts of friends and family to help her re-establish her emotional well-being.”― Publishers Weekly [starred review]“Hillary Huber's narration has a sharp edge that deals effectively with the ironic humor that runs throughout this memoir.”xa0xa0xa0xa0xa0xa0― AudioFile “Wonderfully intelligent and frank . . . snort-up-your-coffee funny, breezy yet profound, and poetic without trying.”xa0xa0xa0xa0xa0xa0―Kate Christensen, New York Times HILLARY HUBER had hundreds of commercial voiceovers and promos under her belt when she was bitten by the audiobook bug in 2005. She now records books on a regular basis and delights in the tradition of long form storytelling.RHONDA JANZEN holds a PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles, where she was the University of California Poet Laureate in 1994 and 1997. She is the author of Babel’s Stair , a collection of poems, and her poems have also appeared in Poetry, The Yale Review, The Gettysburg Review , and The Southern Review . She teaches English and creative writing at Hope College in Holland, Michigan. From AudioFile Hillary Huber's narration has a sharp edge that deals effectively with the ironic humor that runs throughout this memoir. Years into her marriage to an abusive, bipolar man, Janzen ultimately loses him--to a man he met on the Internet. She turns to her Mennonite upbringing to help see her through and ends up moving back home with her parents, a move that prompts her to look at the Mennonite religion and culture with fresh eyes. Janzen's husband's defection obviously had a profound effect on her, and Huber recites her frequent references to "Bob" from gay.com almost like a mantra. In other places, Huber's tone aptly depicts Janzen's habit of coping through humor and introspection. J.E.M. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine Read more