or the first twenty years of her life, all Nancy French knew of the world was Paris--Paris, Tennessee, that is. When the former homecoming queen trades in cow-tipping, her bouffant, and the Catfish Capital of the World for a new life up north, she's in for a real education.

Things get lost in translation when she enrolls in her first women's studies/philosophy class at New York University ("Women's Studies is the study of why men deserve to be eliminated from the planet just as soon as babies can be grown in Petri dishes and pickle jars come with easy-open lids"), gives birth in an Ithaca hospital that bans epidurals and pacifiers, faces down recycling police, and almost gets arrested for leaving a stroller at the Liberty Bell.

It's a far cry from life in the red states--especially when Nancy reveals her conservative politics and takes a beating from the MOB (Mothers Opposing Bush). Undaunted by her misadventures, she bravely acts as a red-state ambassador, dismantling stereotypes (no, red-staters do not think as slowly as they speak) and affectionately describing the nuances of the evangelical subculture.

Whether or not you share her passion for chain restaurants, Wal-Mart, and the GOP, you will fall in love with Nancy's All-American brand of spirited humor and find yourself in A RED STATE OF MIND.