"Still Standing: The Untold Story About My Fight Against Gossip, Hate and Political Attacks" by Carrie Prejean

Still Standing:  The Untold Story About My Fight Against Gossip, Hate and Political Attacks by Carrie Prejean is the revealing story of her participation in beauty pageants and how her simple answer that she believed "marriage is between a man and a woman" resulted in a national smear campaign against her, including her own pageant directors.  The judges were looking for a "politically correct" answer and the one who asked the question gave her a zero on that part of the competition.  She still came in second.   She tells the whole story of what really happened.

 

I found it very interesting that she liked sports and was an athlete before entering a beauty pageant and supported the Special Olympics.  As she won and moved up to the next levels, the "handlers" became more determined to change her to increase her chances of winning, such as dying her hair and paying for a boob job.  It is a great look at behind-the-scenes and she goes into detail about all the ramifications she faced from the media and liberals.  She just wanted to be true to herself and give an honest answer.  I could identify with her throughout the book and applaud her for taking a stand for what she believed, even if it meant losing. 

 

I liked this book because I only heard bits and pieces about her experience from what I read on some blogs and found it very interesting to get the whole story.  If you don't like her, you probably won't like her book either.  I thought the advice she gives to girls in the last chapter based on lessons she learned along the way was good. 

 

Following are the main points:

1.  Be true to yourself.  Don't let anyone bully you or trick you into doing something that you feel uncomfortable doing.

2.  Never fear that God's standard is the right standard.

3.  Grace turns losses into gains and accidents into your best opportunities.

4.  Seek advice from a "multitude of counsel."

5.  Forgiveness heals.

6.  Don't leave yourself outside of the circle of forgiveness.

7.  Don't let the culture convince you that trying to hold to a high standard is being "too judgmental."

8.  Stand up with courage.

(Karen's review 1/27/10)

Please tell us: What categories of literature do you like? What are you reading now? Who are your top five favorite authors? Have you read this one? What did you think of it?