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Site Map LET'S GET ACQUAINTED OUR ROOMS We hope you have enjoyed your visit. Please return soon!  Visit Siri L. Mitchell's website. If you liked The Cubicle Next Door, be sure to check out:
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Title of Book: The Cubicle Next Door By Siri L. Mitchell
Like every good civilian working in the military, Jackie Harrison has tailored her world to pin-point specifications. Her office is her domain, she makes the rules, runs the show - that’s just the way she likes it, thank you very much. An avid environmentalist who despises SUVs, eats only healthy lunches and has never worn a dress in her life, Jackie’s a “no-nonsense” kind of gal. Her social life is just as ordered: her only excitement is being an alternate for her grandmother’s bridge night, and the closest friends she has are her fellow bloggers who post regularly on her blog, The Cubicle Next Door. Like a lot of people today; the Internet is Jackie’s place to vent, and just like everything else in her life: her blog answers to her and her only. Of course, that was all before….Joe. Thanks to some pencil-pushing bureaucrat’s idea of cost-efficiency, Jackie’s office is being divided into a cubicle space she has to share with someone else. There’s one too many instructors at the Air Force Academy this semester, and the “powers that be” have decreed that Jackie must share her office – her world, her space, her stinkin’ air, for Pete’s sake – with an interloper she has no desire to know. Of course, as luck would have it: Joe is charming, attractive, brimming and charismatic. Before Jackie knows it, she’s pulled along for the ride, having fun and feeling for Joe, despite her best intentions. So what’s a girl to do? Scarred by the war-time death of a father she never knew and the abandonment of her mother, Jackie has sworn to never get involved with anyone, ever – and never to fall in love. Joe’s charm and devil-may-care attitude has penetrated her defenses, and she’s already broken the first rule: they are most certainly involved. Can she will herself to unlock her heart and love, or will she pull up the drawbridge, slam down the gates, and return to her safe, controlled little world? The Cubicle Next Door, by Siri L. Mitchell, is a witty, insightful, and at times “laugh out loud” story about learning how to trust again, as well as the absolute chaos love can wreak on an “ordered life”. Jackie Harrison is vibrant and sarcastic; Joe is charismatic and enduring. It’s You’ve Got Mail meets Must Love Dogs – and it could easily be the next romantic comedy staring Sandra Bullock and Matthew McConaughey. Mitchell’s style is direct and conversational; and the choice to put this work into first person is a winner: as you’re reading, you’re speaking with Jackie – as if she’s posting on your blog. Its identification with the blogging culture that’s taken the Internet by storm the last few years is authentic and realistic, and I’m sure many “bloggers” out there will readily associate with the freedom of expression provided by posting their thoughts and feelings on a blog. Probably the greatest strength of this novel: it’s written for Christians to enjoy; edifying, uplifting, but it’s a story about two believers who are just trying to find their way. A pitfall some Christian novels often fall into is making their tales too evangelical, (if I can be so bold), which in many way shuts out the already born-again Christian who is simply looking for a good read. This is not a pat-conversion story, it’s about Jackie Harrison. Mitchell is daring too, which I love: she passes off a subtle indictment against huge, “mega-churches” when the only place of worship Jackie and Joe feel comfortable attending is a small, close-nit Catholic Church full of real, interested parishioners not concerned with an attendance tally. Not to repeat a refrain I’m probably over-fond of, but this is good, talented writing – not just “chic lit” – enjoyable for all. Check of The Cubicle Next Door today, and be careful the next time you post on your blog, because you never know who might be reading… ...maybe it’s the person in the cubicle next door. |
