Funny in parts, but I felt the author was trying to hard to be likeable and I found that annoying.

This is one of a batch of memoirs I picked up when I went to get an item from my to read list from the shelf instead of putting it on hold. Which is to say, I knew nothing about it (and picked it up despite the pull-quote implying that it was for Southerners and people who wanted to live in New York, which contrary to the probably New York-based publisher's delusion, is not universal.)

In any case, it was a pleasant read, and the universality of liking where you live but not being *of* that will be familiar to anyone who has moved away from home but not quite settled. Very pleasant, and it almost makes me want to buy a silk nightgown.

I had to dock Borden some stars for being a Tarheel fan, as I was raised staunchly ABC. ABC meaning, for the uninitiated, Anybody But Carolina.

When I saw on the book cover that Borden also hails from North Carolina, I expected to have some serious regional connections with her book. However, it quickly became clear that she and I were raised in very different Souths, despite our hometowns being less than 2 hours apart, and being relatively close in age. Borden grew up in the gentile, moneyed South. The South that wears pearls and hats to church.

I definitely did not. Although our grandmother tried desperately to turn my sister and I into Southern belles, she also didn't send us etiquette books in the mail. She eventually gave up on the idea that we would be proper ladies, though she still shakes her head at us from time to time.

Despite the differences in our upbringings, Borden and I agree on a few things: Don't mess with James Taylor. Southerners are inherently, and sometimes ostentatiously, friendly. And, NC is home.

But this isn't a book about being Southern, or about moving from NC to NYC and back. It is truly a journey of self discovery. It is a constant asking of questions like, Where do I belong? Am I making the right choices? Am I in the right place? Questions I am still, always, asking myself.

I have never been an adventure seeker, but Borden makes the prospect shine. Maybe it is not so out of reach for me. It may not mean NYC, but everyone's adventure story is different.

On second thought, maybe I will give Borden one more star.

It was mildly entertaining. Not overly funny or engaging. Eh.

Perfectly fine read. Moderately amusing. Probably best enjoyed by transplants from the South to New York City who love the City and yet inexplicably feel homesick for good manners and seersucker.

Such a funny book. It was really enjoyable.

Part of the Real Simple Book Club pick list for June, 2012, and purchased for that reason...a trip to the east coast and a long plane ride back and forth and finished early.

I wasn't sure I was going to enjoy this book for the first half. Jane is a twenty something and I kept thinking my daughter would really enjoy and relate to this book more than me (she's a twenty something and has yet to experience New York City). As it turns out, to me, the book was more about the question of "Where is home?" In Jane's case, New York City or North Carolina? And this made it very relatable to me...having left the east coast many years ago, and being a Californian for 15 years now, I realized I often deal with the same very question, "Where is home?"

Thanks, Jane, I think I have my answer!

Read this for book club and was Totally disappointed. I think she is so self-absorbed she couldn't focus enough to get out a good memoir. There were a couple of perks in the books and maybe a couple of laughs, but I truly was rolling my eyes and most of it. Wouldn't waste my time on this.

Somewhat funny but also random.

A friend of mine gave me this book out of the blue, and told me to read it because Jane reminded them a lot of me. After reading her book, I'm not sure if I should be flattered or not. As a sorority girl at UNC-Chapel Hill, and also as a girl who has been "reared" in the South by a "proper" Southern family, I can relate to many of the stories that Jane tells in her book. You might think that many of the anecdotes about the South are untrue or exaggerated, but I can promise that they are not. I differ with Jane, however, because I have no desire to leave the South. I love this quirky place and the charms that come with it. Leaving the South would be akin to refusing to help an older woman to her car with groceries, which as Jane tells in the book you just don't do . Jane wrestles with her love for New York and her lingering affection for the South in this witty, amusing book. You're in for a ride if you pick this up, and I can only hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did.