The Wichita Eagle

The Wichita Eagle: She Wants to Guide Your Journey to Joy by Suaznne Perez TobiasNewspaper columnists - even meager ones like me - get lots of pitches. New products. Surveys. Studies. Books. Touted "experts" on any number of timely issues. They're all scrambling for a little press. So when Michelle DeAngelis' publicist called to say the author would be at the east Wichita Borders at 7p.m. Thursday, I didn't exactly sprint for my notebook. Then I heard the title: "Get a Life That Doesn't Suck: 10 Surefire Ways to Live Life and Love the Ride."What can I say? It spoke to me. DeAngelis is a Wichita native, the daughter of Dean and Joyce White, founders of Happiness Plaza shopping center in Wichita. She graduated from Southeast High School in 1977.She has known incredible joy and inexplicable sorrow. Six years ago, her mother was diagnosed with brain cancer and died just 34 days later. "People die every day," DeAngelis says. "I want people to live every day. That's why I wrote this book."