Heart in the Right Place

by Carolyn Jourdan

Book Overview

Carolyn Jourdan, an attorney on Capitol Hill, thought she had it made. But when her mother has a heart attack, she returns home--to the Tennessee mountains, where her father is a country doctor and her mother works as his receptionist. Jourdan offers to fill in for her mother until she gets better. But days turn into weeks as she trades her suits for scrubs and finds herself following hazmat regulations for cleaning up bodily fluids; maintaining composure...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1565124871
• ISBN13: 9781565124875
• Release Date: May 2007
• Publisher: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
• Length: 297 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.6" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

What a Great Book!

A very good friend recommended this book to me because I don't live very far from the town where the author's father practiced medicine. It turned out to be an excellent recommendation because I don't know when I have enjoyed a book more than I did this one. Being a native of the same area as the author I recognized many of the characters that she describes although they have different names and live a little farther to the east. I even had a relative who was just like Miss Hiawatha. Miss Hiawatha in case you are wondering is one of the many delightful characters that populate this book. The basic plot of this book follows a powerful Washington DC attorney (the author) who has to take a leave from her job as a Senate council to come back home to East Tennessee to help out her parents. Her father is a doctor in a small town just outside of Knoxville who offers care to anyone and everyone regardless of their ability to pay and he even takes things like chickens in trade. Because of that he can't afford to hire a receptionist when his wife suffers a heart attack and has to take some time off. The author plans on spending a few days helping out but days turn into months and she ends up getting very attached to the job. As she tries to settle in to her new duties the author runs into a cast of characters that could never be called up from even the most fertile imagination. Besides Miss Hiawatha there is a farmer who has the worst luck in the world and a George Jones like character who gets drunk and drives his lawnmower down the four-lane highway. And those three are just the appetizers. There are parts of this book that will make you laugh so hard that you will cry. Of course with this being the story of a doctor's office there are other very sad stories that will make you cry for other reasons. This author has a distinct talent for causing her readers to get very attached to the characters that she writes about. On the technical side this is a very well written book and it contains some very thought provoking chapters. The author put a lot of feeling into this book and it shows. Above all though this is just an enjoyable book about some wonderful and sometimes eccentric people who reside in East Tennessee. This was a very good book and it is one that will always hold a special place in my personal library.

Yes, Virginia, once upon a time, there really was a Mayberry

This is a great book! I couldn't put it down. It's funny! It's entertaining! And on top of that - it's all true. Maybe it doesn't hurt that I know these people: that the doctor in the book was my family doctor for many years, and that his eventual retirement was a truly sad blow, as well as a tragic day, in the lives of all his patients. Maybe we took his little unpretentious practice for granted while we had it: well, we don't anymore! L.C. Cate

at last, some real life time

As a new resident of the area written about in the book, I just missed the author when I was buying this book - she writes with a true clarity, insight honed by experience with these wonderful people. I am even more looking forward to the years to come in the Great Smoky Mountains. Her books were sold out after I bought the last one in TN-and she will be available for signing and I hope to catch her. I will recommend this book to my family and friends as a meaninful respite from the fantasy sex and violence that so dominates our culture - it is time to hear about real people who do care and do endure.

Page turner

What a surprise. It looked like a good read, but I couldn't put it down. The first book in a long time that I read in one day. Enjoyable, funny, tear jerker, heart warming all fit this this book.