Hansen, Julia 1963-

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Hansen, Julia 1963-

PERSONAL:

Born 1963, in Vineland, NJ; divorced; married John Goodman; children: a son.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Reading, PA.

CAREER:

Editor and writer. Former editor at Playgirl.

WRITINGS:

Prevention's Food for Healing Update: Breakthroughs in the Curative Power of Nutrition, Rodale (Emmaus, PA), 1996.

(Editor) Take Control of Your Health: A Woman's Guide to Staying Well at Any Age, Rodale (Emmaus, PA), 1996.

A Life in Smoke: A Memoir, Free Press (New York, NY), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

Julia Hansen is the author of A Life in Smoke: A Memoir. The book focuses on the author's efforts to quit smoking by chronicling the seven days that she was chained to a radiator in her home. As the author recounts her experience of withdrawing from nicotine, she also reflects on her life and the factors that led her to become a smoker at age nineteen, such as her family's abandonment by her father. She writes about many other aspects of her life as well, including her alcoholism, divorce, her career writing porn and health advice, her various lovers and friends, and her time in a psychiatric ward. In addition, Hansen provides a history of cigarettes and the technology of tobacco farming and cigarette making. "Hansen's writing is skillfully rich in detail," wrote a Publishers Weekly contributor of A Life in Smoke. Other reviewers also praised the book, including Josh Emmons, who called the author "gutsy," in his review in People. Emmons also noted that "readers … will applaud her." A Kirkus Reviews contributor referred to the book as "a bizarre tale of passion and lust for a malign love." Further praised was given by a Forbes Book Club Web site contributor, who wrote that A Life in Smoke is a "fierce and funny, honest and utterly absorbing" as well as "evocative and inspiring."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Hansen, Julia, A Life in Smoke: A Memoir, Free Press (New York, NY), 2006.

PERIODICALS

Kirkus Reviews, September 1, 2006, review of A Life in Smoke, p. 886.

People, November 20, 2006, Josh Emmons, review of A Life in Smoke, p. 53.

Publishers Weekly, August 14, 2006, review of A Life in Smoke, p. 190; November 7, 2006, Diane Patrick, "Authors on the Air: Smoker's Confession; Bed-Jumping Lesson; Midlife Moving," discusses author's appearance on the Early Show.