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| Driving Sideways: A Novel | 
 enlarge | Author: Jess Riley
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
Buy New: $4.43
You Save: $9.57 (68%)
Buy New/Used from $4.43
Avg. Customer Rating:  (26 reviews)
Sales Rank: 36439
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.9
ISBN: 0345501101
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780345501103
ASIN: 0345501101
Publication Date: May 20, 2008
Release Date: May 20, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Leigh Fielding wants a life. Seriously. Having spent the past five years on dialysis, she has one simple wish: to make it to her thirtieth birthday. Now, thanks to the generosity of the late Larry Resnick and his transplanted kidney, it looks like her wish may come true.
With her newfound vitality (and Larry?s kidney) in tow, Leigh hits the road for an excursion that will carry her from Wisconsin to California, with a few stops in between: Mount Rushmore, the Badlands, the Rockies, Las Vegas?and a memorable visit to thank Larry?s family for the second chance.
Yet Leigh?s itinerary takes a sudden detour when she picks up a seventeen-year-old hitchhiker, Denise, a runaway with a bunch of stories and a couple of secrets. Add a long-lost mother, a loaded gun, an RV full of swingers, and Hall and Oates?s Greatest Hits to the mix, and Driving Sideways becomes a hilarious and original journey of friendship, hope, and discovery.
Praise for Driving Sideways:
?Driving Sideways is a gorgeous novel . . . hugely entertaining and very touching. Jess Riley?s voice is irreverent and wonderful, and her writing is genius.?
?Marian Keyes, author of Anybody Out There?
"A hopeful and hilarious debut ... Jess Riley may well be my new favorite author." ?Jen Lancaster, author of Bitter is the New Black
?Brilliant . . . Jess Riley proves herself a huge new talent.?
?Kristy Kiernan, author of Catching Genius
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| Customer Reviews: Read 21 more reviews...
Witty Great Read October 30, 2008
Jess Riley's debut book Driving Sideways is a novel that will have you laughing and nodding your head as you connect with the characters and their adventures. Jess has written an engaging story about Leigh who has received a donated kidney and her exploits that follow as she goes on a road trip to meet the donor and find out much more about herself. The trip takes her from Wisconsin to California where fun quirky people enter Leigh's life. Can't wait to read her next novel!
 You won't regret it. September 7, 2008
I picked Driving Sideways up on a whim and am incredibly glad I did. Leigh Fielding is an endearing, snarky, down-to-earth character who embarks on a road trip to get a new lease on life after receiving a kidney transplant. Over the past few years she has lived with her brother and his wife and has trudged through a limited life of hospitals, medicine and careful eating. With a new kidney, she leaves her brother's care to find her mother and to hopefully receive some long-awaited answers.
Leigh soon discovers that nothing goes as planned and when things go from exciting to hilarious to disappointing, she realizes there are alternate routes to living a fulfilled life.
From S. Krishna's Books September 5, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Twenty-eight-year-old Leigh Fielding has a new chance at life thanks to Larry Resnick, a man she's never met - or more precisely, thanks to Larry's kidney. After five years on dialysis, Leigh is given the gift of a new kidney and a renewed sense of optimism; after all, for a long time she thought she wouldn't see her thirtieth birthday. Inspired by Larry and his gift, Leigh does what anyone who has been hooked up to a machine three days a week would want to do - she gets out of her hometown of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.
A road trip seems like the perfect way to start her new life. Planning out stops along the way (visiting friends Meg and Jillian, dropping in unannounced on Larry's grandmother to thank her for his gift and find out more about him), her ultimate destination is California. There her mother disappeared to when she left Leigh, her brother, James, and their father, who killed himself about a year later. However, along the way, something unexpected happens - Leigh picks up a hitchhiker. Seventeen-year-old Denise is a runaway from her foster home, hiding from a bad boyfriend. She asks Leigh to take her along to California and Leigh, feeling daring with her new lease on life, agrees to the companionship, though she doesn't entirely trust Denise. Together they embark on a hilarious and unforgettable journey across the country and find parts of themselves scattered along the way.
Driving Sideways is charming, insightful, and wonderfully funny. It is a story of self-discovery and loss, of hope and despair. The characters are incredibly well-written, and it is easy to sympathize with their stories. Though Leigh has had renal failure, she doesn't dwell in this place of darkness. Instead, she is irreverent and whimsical, only wanting the chance to live. After all, the doctors told her that the new kidney isn't a cure - it is simply a treatment that may fail in time. Leigh is careful with her new kidney, not taking any chances that might put Larry in harm's way. Sometimes that is the hardest part of reading a novel like this, watching the protagonist head down a spiral that is certain to lead to their own destruction (I can have just one drink, I'll be okay). The reader sees it, the other characters in the book see it, yet it happens anyways - frustrating and unpleasant to read. The fact that Leigh actually takes her sickness seriously and, while tempted, does not stray from her strict diet and healthy lifestyle is refreshing and a welcome change in novels in general.
The most appealing aspect of Driving Sideways would have to be Jess Riley's sense of humor. The novel is witty and fun with more than a few laugh-out-loud parts. Though it is about a very long roadtrip, the narrative itself doesn't drag butt goes quickly; Riley keeps readers interested (and amused) through the twists and turns of the roads that Leigh finds herself upon. The novel has a lot of heart and emotion, but it is never cheesy or sappy, demonstrative of Riley's talent as a writer. She manages to touch her readers and evoke the emotions she wants them to feel without telling them to do so. It is a mark of her ability to write sympathetic and believable characters that the reader really does care about.
Driving Sideways is a winning debut novel and is a wonderful showcase of Jess Riley's talent as an author. Whether her next book is a sequel to her first or an entirely new story, I will be first in line to see what else she can do with her impressive capacity as a writer.
Originally published at Curled Up With a Good Book
Touching and wonderful September 1, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
love Young Adult novels with a message and this book, Driving Sideways, written by Jess Riley rates right up there.First off, I loved the cover - simple - but yet sends the message of a free summer! road trip - just having a great time (ah, the good old days :)
Driving Sideways has a wonderful premise; Leigh has been diagnosed with Polycystic Kidney Disease ( I have to admit that I had never heard of this before) and although it is scary and serious, Leigh managest to get a kidney transplant from a donor who has died. Now, after rehabilitation and the blessing of her doctor, Leigh has decided to take a roadtrip - with a multi purpose, which includes meeting up with an ex-boyfriend, meeting up with her best friend in an attempt to talk some sense into her, meeting up with the family of her kidney donor and meeting up with her mother, who deserted Leigh when she was but a child.
This is definitely a coming of age novel which is absolutely beautifully written. Leigh is an incredibly likeable character who is engaging and extremely fun to read. As you travel, on the road trip alongside of her, you will feel as though you are actually sitting in the car next to her. Author Jess Riley has a knack for describing scenery and situations that make it easy to picture them in your head and Leigh has a knack for getting herself into the strangest situations.
At the end of this novel, Leigh will find some closure and she will also find a level of maturity that she was probably not expecting to find.
I loved, loved this book and I recommend it as a feel good read.
GREAT read! August 15, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Jess Riley wrote a FANTASTIC debut novel! I tore my way through this book, and I can't wait to read her next one. MUST BUY!
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