Rooville

By Julie Long

Subjects: Man-woman relationships, fiction, Fiction, general, Television weathercasters, Meditation, Fiction, Man-woman relationships, City and town life

Description: TV weatherman Owen Martin is relieved to leave Southern California--the monotonously mild climate and the holistically hip trends--and head home to Iowa, back to the four seasons and the simple life he knew before his father died. But he can't predict the atmospheric pressure awaiting him: The town his family founded has become the center of the Transcendental Meditation movement and all things alternative. There are mass meditations and dosha discussions, a vegan cafe has replaced the burger joint, and all the doors now face east. Far worse, however, is what the meditating mayor has planned for the Martin family's farm. In a town divided between "Regulars" and "Roos" (gurus), Owen is sure where he stands--until he falls for a levitating yogi. Before he knows it, he's caught in a veritable tornado of midwesternness vs. mindfulness--