Coming Attraction: Living Oprah

We begin, of course, with full disclosure: I received a free copy of the book pictured above, and have been solicited for a review, by Liza Lucas of Goldberg McDuffie Communications.

Living Oprah (that's a link to Amazon.com) is a memoir of an experiment. Chicago actress and author Robyn Okrant (that's a link to the author's website) decided to do everything the Oprah way -- buy what Oprah recommended -- live according to the principles Oprah espoused -- eat as Oprah suggested -- for an entire year. And she blogged about it, too. (I'll bet you can guess what that's a link to all by yourself.)

I am not an Oprah-watcher. I am not even female. I regard Oprah with great affection and respect due her as a person who has helped, in no small ways, to hold down my property taxes in Chicago because of her many contributions to the local economy. I was devastated when she announced that she'll pull up stakes and leave us -- but more as a revenue matter than a personal loss. Thus, I might seem an unlikely reviewer for Ms. Okrant's book. I hope that Ms. Lucas's employers will not be cross with her for sending me a free copy, however.

From another perspective I am predisposed to be as sympathetic to Ms. Okrant as I can possibly be: Let's see.... Chicago writer with a blog who gets a book contract... how could I fail to identify with (and, of course, be jealous of) such a person?

Living Oprah hit the bookshelves on January 4. I think Ms. Lucas hoped that I would have something up about the book by now -- but her initial efforts to send a copy of the book faltered somewhere between her office and my Undisclosed Location. My copy of the book did not even arrive until Wednesday.

In the meantime, there are some actual legal cases to which I must attend -- I don't think a United States District Court Judge (even a female one) will be too sympathetic if I plead for an extension of time to file a long-promised summary judgment motion because I need to finish reading and reviewing Living Oprah. (*Shudder*) I don't even like to imagine how such a suggestion might be received.

But Living Oprah is firmly established on my To Do list and I shall report back on this at the earliest possible opportunity....