The Last Cigarette - Memoir & Manual: A Funny, Moving Little Tale About One Woman's Love Affair with Nicotine

There are about 26 million adult smokers living in the US today - about 31.5% of those smokers live below the poverty line and about 19.6% live above it.  The past few decades have seen a decline in cigarette smoking among all sociodemographic groups and every year 30% to 40% of smokers try to quit, but chances of being successful without help are only 4% to 5%.

Why are so many smokers quitting?  Aside from health reasons, smoking just isn't sexy anymore.  It has become a dirty little habit looked down upon by 'society.'  You can barely smoke in bars and clubs anymore, and some employers are even enforcing strict no smoking policies that prohibit you from smoking on their time and within 25 to 50 feet of their property.

Author Cece Serrant comes from a different time - not so long ago - when smoking on airplanes, in airports, movie theaters, office buildings... at your own cubicle, was perfectly legal, allowed and even welcomed.  Ah yes, being a smoker was much easier in the 80s and early 90s... but that all changed for Cece when she landed her first real job out of college as a publicist in an office made up of mostly Type A non-smokers.

By this time, smokers were being forced outside on the sidewalk with their dirty little habit.  Cece witnessed this transformation firsthand and was one of the first employees to be asked to smoke outside the building rather than at her desk or in a designated indoor smoker's lounge.  And that was just the beginning.  Cece watched her beloved habit go from revered to reviled almost overnight.  And to her horror, she learned that if she wanted to climb the corporate ladder, she had to do it... smoke-free.

The Last Cigarette - Memoir & Manual is about falling in love with nicotine and the steps one woman would take to both love it and leave it.  Through her story, Cece shares the simple yet effective plan that helped her to quit smoking.  Rather than quit cold turkey, her strategy of observe, record, cut, quit, helped her to keep track of and rate each cigarette she smoked and eliminate the lowest rated smokes first.  Cutting from the bottom, taking it a day at a time, until there was nothing left to cut.

We hope you enjoy the book.  And if you're thinking about quitting smoking, relax.  With Cece, quitting smoking just got funny!