{"product_id":"dinner-with-the-smileys-paperback","title":"Dinner with the Smileys - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eSarah Smiley\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFifty-two guests take turns filling a military father's chair at his family's dinner table while he serves his yearlong deployment.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e The week before Thanksgiving 2011, Dustin Smiley left for a yearlong military deployment. Soon after, his son Ford, eleven, invited Senator Susan Collins to fill his dad's chair at dinner. On January 3, 2012, Senator Collins came to dinner ... and brought brownies. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e So began \u003ci\u003eDinner with the Smileys\u003c\/i\u003e, nationally syndicated columnist Sarah Smiley's fifty-two-week commitment to fill her husband's place at the family dinner table with interesting people--from schoolteachers to Olympians, professional athletes to famous authors, comedians to politicians--and unique role models for her three sons, even as she knows Dustin's seat cannot truly be filled until he is home again for the fifty-third dinner. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Why dinner? Because dinnertime is often the loneliest time for people living alone. If houses and apartments were like dollhouses with one side totally exposed, Sarah says, we'd see plenty of people eating alone to the glow of a television. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e That was the fate Sarah feared for herself and her children during Dustin's absence. So she opened her home, and she and the kids sent invitations. And they found that a surprising number of people really are available for dinner. You just have to ask. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In a time when popular culture leads us to believe that the family dinner table is dead, \u003ci\u003eDinner with the Smileys\u003c\/i\u003e shows people that time spent with family, friends, and neighbors is still very much part of the American lifestyle.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eNavy wife and columnist \u003cb\u003eSarah Smiley\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of a syndicated newspaper column that is published in cities across the country, the memoir \u003ci\u003eGoing Overboard: The Misadventures of a Military Wife\u003c\/i\u003e (Penguin\/New American Library, 2005) and a collection of essays titled \u003ci\u003eI'm Just Saying...\u003c\/i\u003e (Ballinger, 2008). Described as an Erma Bombeck for the military-wife set by \u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e, Sarah is known as a trailblazer for military-spouse books, columns and other publications. Sarah has been a Navy dependent for more than thirty-six years, first as the daughter of Rear Admiral Lindell Rutherford (USN, Ret.), and now as the wife of Lt. Cmdr. Dustin Smiley, a Navy pilot. She has a B.S. in Education from Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, and M.A. in Mass Communication from the University of Maine.\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 384\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1.03 x 8.53 x 5.46 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e September 16, 2014\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45334170959974,"sku":"9780316408943","price":29.87,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0599\/7255\/0758\/files\/OC9ybGkzcW82UXRldThVQ3dUNWt4UT09.webp?v=1774482414","url":"https:\/\/infinitylightwa.com\/products\/dinner-with-the-smileys-paperback","provider":"Infinity Light","version":"1.0","type":"link"}