Great Book

I recently received a great, new book, entitled Never Tell Our Business to Strangers by Jennifer Mascia. The book is written by an amazing woman whose story is soon to be featured in Newsday, the NY Post, and People Magazine among others. It is definitely not your typical book of memoirs.

Today, Jennifer Mascia is a strong, independent young professional at the NY Times Metro Desk, but she had a very unusual childhood: She can remember a time when the FBI came to arrest her father right before Christmas. Jennifer asked her mother’s boss if this was real and her mother’s boss responded that this was not real and they were filming a movie. And though she was always told everything was fine, she constantly moved around the country with her parents, slept in strange places, met colorful people, and even changed names.

She only discovered as a young adult—through her own journalistic investigation—that the reason for their nomadic lifestyle was that her otherwise loving father was wanted by the FBI, used to be a business associate with Joey Gallo, a big time mobster before the Gotti family, was a Mafioso and a murderer, and they were in fact, “on the lam.”

I found lots of striking themes here, including:

* Loving and even forgiving parents (family) when they’re obviously flawed, (Jennifer’s father was dying of cancer when she found out his secret)
* Finding “Self” when you’re entire identity depends on flawed family (Jennifer’s parents were her whole world)
* And of course, overcoming life obstacles. (http://www.jennifermascia.com/)

This is a wonderful book and a fascinating read. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found it very well-written.