This Is Not My Beautiful Life

February 22, 2016
One morning, when Fedden is nine-months pregnant and living with her parents while her house is renovated, her life is completely upended. Federal agents turn up at the South Florida mansion and arrest Fedden’s mother and stepfather on felony charges relating to penny stocks and wire fraud. Fedden, whose places a high priority on caring for her troubled family, details with unfailing honesty and humor the joys and meltdowns of the next several years, as she devolves into a stressed-out mother with postpartum depression. Meanwhile, her parents await trial dates. Motherhood for Fedden is harrowing rather than blissful, as she deals with a needy baby, a husband who’s often on the road, and her struggles with self-worth. She finds it hard to value herself as a parent and woman despite having fought her way from dropping out of high school to becoming a writer and teacher with a graduate degree. Fedden’s mother and stepfather, on the other hand, are straight out of a Carl Hiaasen novel: AARP-age criminals who take pride in having a couch that was used in a porn film, shop at Costco, and are friends with gigolos, Russian mobsters, and singer Michael Bolton, among others. When Fedden finally establishes boundaries with her parents and gives her mental health overdue attention, she gains back much of her self that she’d lost, proving that even when one is overwhelmed by the wackiest of surroundings, change and happiness are possible. Agent: Terra Chalberg, Chalberg & Sussman.

April 15, 2016
A blogger and nonfiction writer's account of how she survived both new motherhood and her eccentric parents' federal imprisonment for fraud. Fedden was 36 years old and nine months pregnant when she had her first encounter with the federal agents who raided her parents' luxurious South Florida home. She already knew that her wisecracking mother, Cecily, had once dabbled in drug dealing. Alongside her husband, Joel, a man who produced softcore pornography for cable TV, Cecily made "deals" that the pair never discussed. Despite the questionable nature of their business, arrest--and eventually, incarceration--was not what Fedden expected would happen to the parents whose friends included John Gotti's nephew and the "hooker who claimed to have screwed Mohammed Atta the week before 9/11." The author and her husband tried to build a quiet, relatively conventional life together, but inevitably, they became unwitting witnesses to the chaos that enveloped their parents' lives. Cecily emptied out checking accounts to "stick it straight up [the] asses" of government officials bent on destroying her life. Not to be outdone, Joel cheated on her with women who were either younger or crazier than she was. Meanwhile, Fedden struggled through the rigors of early motherhood. Feeling "defective as a woman" and generally incompetent in comparison to her apparently "perfect" sister, she explored yoga and New Age teachings, which she ridiculed at first but grew to love. As her parents' glittering world began to crumble, Fedden muddled her way to understanding that a "beautiful life" was less about finding perfection and more about accepting, and loving, flaws, especially in family members. At once disturbing and appealing, Fedden's book charts a refreshing path through family dysfunction and personal redemption. Entertaining and unexpectedly wise.

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May 15, 2016
Nine months pregnant, suffering from anxiety, and stressed out over the renovation of her house, Fedden opens her mother's door in southern Florida to a DEA team with a search warrant. What follow in this biting memoir are the travails of a self-absorbed family led by two criminals (mother and stepfather) who believe they are only guilty of getting ahead in a country that doesn't actually appreciate financial success. Their crimes involve illegal stock trades and a pump-and-dump scheme that enriched them while impoverishing others. As the federal indictments come down and the court case progresses, Fedden recounts her own escalating depression and fear. This is a family which, as do so many popular reality-television clans, excels at outrageous behavior, including loud parties, questionable relationships, and a firm belief in the healing powers of shopping, and while it's all supposed to be funny, the glaring absence of conscience is hard to ignore. Still, Fedden's true story of crime, comeuppance, and toughing it out will appeal to all devotees of scandalous endeavors and tabloid tales.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)