Memoir By Jenny Sanford In Book Stores

COLUMBIA, S.C. - The memoir by South Carolina first lady Jenny Sanford is now in book stores and is reportedly selling well. "Staying True" was sold out early Friday morning at Barnes and Noble in Spartanburg, but there were plenty of copies at a Barnes and Noble in Columbia and at Books-A-Million.

"Well for a rainy day and a Friday work day, it's done very well," says Elizabeth Horner, community relations manager for a Barnes and Noble in Columbia. "It's hard to predict because she hasn't written anything else in the past, so we can't go off of past sales to predict what it will do, but we anticipate very good sales."

"Staying True" tells the story of Sanford's marriage to Gov. Mark Sanford and the trying events of the past year. The governor disappeared for five days last June only to return and admit during a tearful Statehouse news conference that he had an affair with an Argentine woman. The dust jacket for the book says in the book, "The first lady of South Carolina reveals the private ordeal behind her very public betrayal."

The book begins when they were dating and ends just after she and their four boys moved out of the governor's mansion and back to their beach home. She filed for divorce in December on the grounds of adultery and he is not contesting the divorce. It's expected to be final later this month.

Toni Bush of Columbia says she made a special trip on a cold, rainy day just because she was so excited to get the book. "I'm just real interested in the story and I kind of like the way she's handled everything. I'm proud of her," she said as she was buying a copy.

A lot of South Carolinians are tired of hearing about the governor's affair, since it has dominated state news, been the subject of countless late-night talk show jokes and gotten even international attention. But Mark Coward of Columbia said he wanted to buy the book anyway. "See what else is in there. I don't think we've gotten the whole story. I don't know that the whole story's in the book, but maybe some more things that we don't know," he said just before he bought a copy.

Even those selling the book plan to crack it open. Horner says, "I would love to read it. You know, we couldn't even open the boxes until this morning, so I haven't had a chance to read it yet. But I know a lot of the booksellers here are anxious to read it."