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Heck on Heels:  Still Balancing on Shoes, Love & Chocolate!
Mary T. Wagner, 2009
CreateSpace
206 pp.
ISBN-13: 978148202208



Summary

I thought briefly about packing the shotgun, but the car was nearly full and I was exhausted with 120 miles yet to drive. I also left the chain saw behind. Not that I'm sure I couldn't find a use for it.… Squadrons of geese flew overhead, and a hawk soared over the interstate, utterly unconcerned with the myriad human dramas unfolding below him at seventy miles an hour on six lanes of traffic. I was headed back to Chicago, my home town, for the worst of all possible reasons.

Following in the spike-heeled footsteps of Wagner’s critically acclaimed debut essay collection, Running with Stilettos, this amusing, touching and heartfelt collection of inspiring and empowering essays unfolds in a voice described as “bed time tales for grownups" and "the Midwest’s answer to Carrie Bradshaw. It also includes several dozen of Wagner's nature photos, combining to create a "portable serenity zone" within its pages.

Wagner (once a journalist and now a prosecuting attorney) writes for the modern woman who deftly juggles career, family, love and chocolate all at once...and still sees the whole stack come crashing down from time to time. Weaving tales of humor and heartbreak, triumph and tragedy, Wagner brings her readers along as she savors the post-divorce view from the back seat of a Harley, reflects on the maternal importance of “theme” cupcakes, gets back on a horse after a terrible, life-changing riding accident, and keeps a vigil by her father’s deathbed. She also shares her inspiring journey from stay-at-home soccer mom to arguing cases before the state supreme court…after an accident that put her in a body cast for three months.

For every busy woman who's asked herself "is there one more goal I can shoot for?"...and then answered "YES!!" (From the author.)