Shopping was one of the few excursions Mrs. Perlman and her daughter were hard-wired to perform with civility. Almost everything else evoked the white rage of competition. But life got far more complex when Mr. Perlman became fatally ill, and his son's disturbed wife committed suicide. Shopping Lessons, a coming-of-age novel, looks at the price a woman pays for growing into herself. Peller Marion, Ed.D. is author of Searching For The G Spot (Artemis Arts Library, 2004); Crisis Proof Your Career: Finding Job Security in an Insecure Time (Carol Publishing, 1993, hardcover edition); Crisis Proof Your Career: A Planning Guide for Job Security and Satisfaction (Berkley, 1994, paper trade edition); and the editor of The Corporate Transition Newsletter.