Lori Jakiela Entertains in Miss New York Has Everything

Reading Lori Jakiela's moving and witty memoir, Miss New York Has Everything, is akin to a night out with your best girl friend. You sit sipping wine, discussing your hopes and dreams - sometimes you laugh, sometimes you yell, sometimes you cry - but always you feel better off. Jakiela captures the essence of life in a blue collar Pennsylvania town with simple, straightforward, no holds barred writing. Honest at its core, this memoir relates moments that we can all remember - our teenage room covered with pictures of Shaun Cassidy, our first disastrous sexual experience, our dreams of grandeur and finally the reality that is family and home.

Taking as her role model, Marlo Thomas in That Girl, Jakiela dreams of fleeing her tiny hometown for the literary world of Manhattan (the title of the book comes from an episode of the 1970s television series). Fortuitously an ad appears in a local newspaper offering her the chance to become a flight attendant with New York City as her base (it doesn't matter that she has a fear of flying). Jakiela, her eyes in the clouds, jumps at the chance. Of course, as with most dreams, things don't turn out the way she plans. In a humorous and sardonic manner, Jakiela writes of her experiences as a flight attendant. The horrendous layovers in bug infested hotels, the roach apartment in Kew Gardens shared with other flight attendants, the drunk, disruptive passengers who throw food at her head. The reader is taken along on this wild ride, one that is insightful, at times painful but always enjoyable.

When her father is diagnosed with terminal cancer, Jakiela's world is turned upside down and she begins to question what she truly wants from life. These questions are ones we all ask ourselves, ones we can easily relate to and ones we search high and low for answers to. In the very capable hands of author Lori Jakiela, we are entertained and enlightened with the reality that sometimes that elusive thing called happiness has been standing before us all along. Take an afternoon off, pour a glass of wine, curl up on the couch and read Lori Jakiela's Miss New York Has Everything.