Pimpin’ my Peeps

Oh crap, I’m so excited today, I might pee myself. You see, one of my favorite blogs over there on my sidebar, Riley’s Ramblings, belongs to Jess Riley, whose first novel is being released TODAY! And I’ve been there for a bit of her journey, as her editor changed publishing houses, nearly putting the kibosh on the whole project; the name was changed from “Driving with Larry Resnick” to “Driving Sideways”…which is better, actually, because I am a supremo dork, and got Larry Resnick mixed up in my mind with John Rzeznik from the Goo Goo Dolls, which may have been an interesting novel, but surely not the one Ms. Riley had in mind. That whole rock star thing might have been distracting.

Anyway, I’m putting the non-fiction book I’ve been reading (“Why Do I Love These People”) on hold for a bit, and running down to the local bookstore, and picking this up TODAY. Watch this space for a review soonish, because if the book is half as good as her blog, it will be fabulous.

Here’s the summary, from Amazon.com:

Leigh Fielding wants a life. Seriously. Having spent the past five years on dialysis, she has one simple wish: to make it to her thirtieth birthday. Now, thanks to the generosity of the late Larry Resnick and his transplanted kidney, it looks like her wish may come true.

With her newfound vitality (and Larry’s kidney) in tow, Leigh hits the road for an excursion that will carry her from Wisconsin to California, with a few stops in between: Mount Rushmore, the Badlands, the Rockies, Las Vegas–and a memorable visit to thank Larry’s family for the second chance.

Yet Leigh’s itinerary takes a sudden detour when she picks up a seventeen-year-old hitchhiker, Denise, a runaway with a bunch of stories and a couple of secrets. Add a long-lost mother, a loaded gun, an RV full of swingers, and Hall and Oates’s Greatest Hits to the mix, and Driving Sideways becomes a hilarious and original journey of friendship, hope, and discovery.

Intrigued? (Hall and Oats?) I totally am. Yay Jess! Keep on with your bad self!

As a special giftie to my readers, if you’re so inclined, here’s Aimee Mann’s Driving Sideways. (click to listen!)