Description: Meet Meredith Herman, a fifteen-year-old girl navigating her way through her teenage years and her parents' messy divorce -- a hard enough task before you factor in the bizarre landscape of her native Los Angeles, 1978. Meredith's father is a man perfectly content with his convertible, his backyard barbecues, and baseball games on his new TV -- after all this is Southern California, and he's living the good life. Meanwhile Meredith's mother, Leigh, is going through a distinctly Fear of Flying phase, complete with "assertiveness classes", dalliances with a lothario of a yoga instructor, and a few too many cocktails in the evening. As her parents grow ever more estranged, Meredith and her younger brother Peter are often the most responsible, mature members not only in their household, but in a world of adults who seem to have lost their good judgment in the hot tub. It's a setting that makes for both hilarious comedy and moments of pain and confusion for two kids who seem to have no one to rely on but themselves.

"Carousel of Progress", named for the diabolically optimistic ride at Disneyland, is a novel of belly laughs and gut-wrenching heartbreak. Meredith is a narrator whose precocious wit, precocious wit, insight, and intelligence will charm readers of this roller-coaster coming of age tale, author Katherine Tanney's delightful and winning debut.

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