Language English language Role Author Name Carolyn Jourdan | Period 2005-Present Nationality US American | |
 | ||
Alma mater University of Tennessee Genre Memoir, Biography, Medicine, Wildlife, and Mystery Subject Smoky Mountain culture and Southern Appalachian dialect Books Bear in the Back Seat: Adventur, Medicine Men: Extreme, Out on a Limb: A Smoky M, Bear in the Back Seat II: Advent, Heart in the Right Place | ||
Education University of Tennessee | ||
Carolyn Jourdan: Hillbilly Spokeswoman | Capital Area Reads 2010
Carolyn Jourdan is an American author, USA Today and five-time Wall Street Journal top-ten bestselling memoirist, biographer, and mystery writer.
Contents
Biography
Jourdan's first book, a memoir, Heart in the Right Place, was a Wall Street Journal #7 bestseller in 2012 and #9 bestseller in 2017.
Heart in the Right Place is the true story of a spoiled, high-powered Senate lawyer who gives up a glamorous life in Washington and comes back home to the Smoky Mountains to work as an inept receptionist in her father's rural medical office. It was published by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill in 2007 (hardback) and 2008 (paperback). According to WorldCat, it is held in 912 libraries.
Family Circle magazine chose Heart in the Right Place as its first ever Book of the Month, and Elle magazine awarded it a Readers Prize. It was chosen in Michigan for Capital Area Reads One Book in 2010.
Medicine Men: Extreme Appalachian Doctoring (2012) was Jourdan's second book. It was a Wall Street Journal #5 bestseller in 2014 and #6 bestseller in 2015. Medicine Men was #1 in Biography & Memoir, Science, and Medicine on Amazon. It is a follow-on to Heart in the Right Place and is a collection of true stories from Jourdan's family and over a dozen Southern Appalachian physicians.
Bear in the Back Seat: Adventures of a Wildlife Ranger in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a two-part memoir with Kim DeLozier. It was a Wall Street Journal #9 bestseller in 2013 and #7 audio book bestseller in 2016. It describes DeLozier's 32-year career dealing with wildlife.
Her medical mystery, Out on a Limb: A Smoky Mountain Mystery (2013), was a USA Today best seller and voted a Best Kindle Book of 2014. It deals with eastern Tennessee and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, with an emphasis on the insular and quirky local culture.
Jourdan is a former Counsel to the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works and the United States Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs. She has degrees from the University of Tennessee in Biomedical Engineering and Law.