Hip to Be Square [Paperback]

Hope Lyda (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2005

On her twenty–ninth birthday, Mari Hamilton, a worn–out recreation director at Golden Horizons Retirement Home, is convinced that leaving social work will improve her social life. So she seeks and receives a stylish position at a new and fabulous luxury spa. In addition, after countless bad first dates at hip clubs, Mari meets the perfect guy at Golden Horizon’s anniversary party (of all places!). But a funny thing happens to her on the way to a life makeover—a forced stopover in her past where she admits to the unadmittable...

Through all her work and dating adventures and misadventures, Mari realizes that it was in her old life that God was doing a new and incredibly hip thing.

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Harvest House Publishers (July 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0736915893
• ISBN-13: 978-0736915892
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,812,978 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I have always written...since gradeschool when I would draft the longest novel I could, I think I made it to page 120. I wrote plays and poems and strange stories about midget aliens. My readership was zero, but that didn't matter. The desire to write was there and set upon my heart.

Always an observer, maybe I wanted to write in order to be the ultimate observer...the one perched outside the page watching the story or situation unfold. I find comfort there...on the perimeter.

College was a great place for me to explore my love of story and expression. With a double major in Journalism and Film I had the ultimate opportunity to feed my imagination and quest for story, words, and meaning behind those words. My favorite movies list includes Broadcast News and All the Presidents Men. Even though I didn't go the way of hard journalism, I am always thrilled by the task of uncovering a story or a situation to find the meaning and more universal lesson.

Currently I try to uncover that meaning through fiction. But I think the pursuit will end up taking many shapes.

Hopefully, through it all, I keep the quest for meaning, compassion, understanding, faith, and discovery at the forefront of my writing. I hope others connect with it. I think we all can learn great lessons from one another...that is what the exchanges between writer and story, reader and story, and writer and reader can do.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Books Speaks to a Woman's Heart, September 5, 2005

By 

Mary Byers (Chatham, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hip to Be Square (Paperback)

When this book entered my life, I wondered if I, a 42-year-old married mother of two, could relate to the adventures of a single heroine. The answer is a resounding "Yes"! I enjoyed this book immensely. It kept my entertained and guessing about the outcome. Hope Lyda is a clever writer and I appreciated her wit and humor. I can't wait to read whatever she writes next!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Completely realistic fairy tale, August 15, 2005

By 

Daisy2 (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hip to Be Square (Paperback)

I absolutely loved this book. It was often laugh-out-loud funny, deliciously and stylishly clever, and engaging as to the real-life problems of the Older Single Girl. (I was one, so I could relate.) Set in the colorful town of Tucson, with equally colorful characters, three single girls (who also end up in happy circumstances) decide their their wallflower friend needs a makeover. Her accidentally spectacular success makes for a most satisfying read. The only character that needed, for me, more fleshing out was Our Hero, who was too movie-star wonderful to be believed. I'd have liked the initial meeting of the two to be less instantly successful.
But for a Cinderella story, others would say the meeting was perfection.
I hope Ms Lyda continues to write inspiring escapes like this. For us True Believers, this sort of story can never be told too often.

5.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious, True-to-Life -- A Fun Read, May 18, 2010

By 

Dr. David Frisbie (Rancho Santa Fe, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hip to Be Square (Paperback)

If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all.....

....until everything changes.

Hope Lyda has written a hilarious, witty page-turner about
missing it all, having it all, and coping with both.

Surprises abound; the characters are true-to-life and compelling.

Well written, perfectly paced, this is the work of a writer
reaching the peak of her craft.

Five stars -- and funny! :)

Dr. David & Lisa Frisbie
The Center for Marriage & Family Studies
Authors of "The Soul-Mate Marriage" and 10 other books