Jennie Nash

(Berkley, 2008)

With the style of a poet and the strength of a survivor, Jennie Nash delivers her first novel—a poignant tale of what makes a house a home, a body a person, and people living under one roof a family…

FOR SALE: THE LAST BEACH BUNGALOW
The owner of this 1928 original bungalow is
seeking a buyer with heart. What would you give— besides money—to live here? Bring your offers, your stories, and a promise to preserve and protect. Winner will pay $300,000. Open House, Saturday 1 to 4.

After five years cancer-free, April Newton should be celebrating, but instead she’s suffering. She feels her husband slipping away, and though the spectacular, stylish house he’s building for her should be a fresh start, April finds herself resenting it. As their move-in date approaches, she becomes obsessed with winning the right to buy the last Redondo Beach bungalow, convinced that the quirky, lived-in little house represents everything she is missing in her life—comfort, completeness, survival. And though her quest for the bungalow will take some surprising twists, it may put back together the pieces of her heart…

(Scribner, 2001)

“More revealing than a low-cut blouse and more uplifting than a Wonderbra! I laughed, I cried, I checked for lumps! Celebrate life and buy this book today.”

Breast cancer made Jennie Nash a wise old woman at the age of thirty-six. She learned, among other things, that the fight against breast cancer can be a surprisingly positive, life-affirming experience for patients, family and friends.

From detection and surgery to reconstruction and recovery, Jennie gives readers a road map for a journey no one chooses to take. She details both the large and small lessons learned along the way: the importance of a child’s birthday cake; the pleasure of wearing a beautiful, provocative red dress; and how to be grateful rather than guilty when someone brings lasagna to the door.

A celebration of survival for everyone, Nash’s account transforms one of life’s most harrowing experiences into a story of reassurance and enlightenment.

(St. Martin’s Press, 2004)

"Raising a Reader is for every parent who ever worried about a child's reading, who compared one child with another, who charted, prodded, prompted, and coaxed words into little mouths and minds. For any parent -- timid, pushy, or frightened--who has a child entering school and literary, this is the book for you.”

Can passion be passed along from parent to child? Can you, in other words, make someone love baseball, ballet, or books? Of course you can't -- but that doesn't stop parents from trying. Jennie Nash was one of those parents -- a parent so focused on getting her kids to read that her desire sometimes strayed into desperation; her hope often became an obsession; and instead of helping, her resolve got in the way. In the end, she found that, like so many of the things we do as parents, passing along a passion for reading happens in the push and pull of digging in and letting go, day in and day out, both because of and in spite of our efforts. Raising a Reader is her story.

“As a librarian, I found this book to be a delightful reminder of why I am in the book business. As a parent, I found that it perfectly captures the balancing act of trying to focus on the skill of reading versus the love of reading. A fun, humorous, appealing read.”