Chicken in a Strange Way: A SoCal Beach Girl Takes on Communism

by Melanie Thomas Armstrong

In the mid-1990s Czech Republic, no means yes, cows live in houses, and pivo is always a good idea.

Chicken in a Strange A SoCal Beach Girl Takes on Communism is a hilarious fish-out-of-water tale unlike anything you've read before. Melanie Thomas Armstrong, a 25-year-old accountant, arrives in Prague with the noble goal of assisting the country in its economic transition from communism to capitalism. Little can she expect the stark differences in culture and logic that await her. Over the next two years, Melanie undertakes an eye-opening journey as she attempts to understand a system that, through a capitalist lens, simply does not compute.

Packed with witty anecdotes and sharp insights, Melanie's story offers a fresh perspective on life in a newly post-communist country during a moment in history that has gone largely unwritten. Alongside her, you will learn that the truth about communism is not to be found in some abstract textbook but in the accounting ledgers of cement factories deep inside the Czech Republic.

Melanie shows us how two peoples struggled to understand each other after history got in the way. Whether you're a traveler, an expat, a history buff, or someone who loves to laugh, Chicken in a Strange Way might be one of the most playful takes on the clash of capitalism and communism you'll ever read.

478 pages, Paperback

Published February 10, 2026

About the author

I grew up a true southern California beach girl in Manhattan Beach, just south of Los Angeles. It wasn’t like the Hollywood movies. Just worn plastic flip-flops, sandy toes, and walks back from the beach where the setting sun cast long shadows. We slathered ourselves in baby oil and talked about boys and school and clothes and music and boys some more. I was a band nerd, a good student, and in the middle of it all.

After high school, I went on to UCLA where I majored in psychology and then became an accountant. Go figure. My first job was in downtown L.A. at global accounting firm Arthur Andersen. It was there that I volunteered to go work in this somewhat unknown and mysterious place: Czechoslovakia.

There, I came face-to-face with a post-communist society that couldn’t have been more different than the one that I came from. It is these remembrances which became my book, Chicken in a Strange Way: A SoCal Beach Girl Takes on Communism.

Upon my return to the States, I moved to Washington D.C. and became a partner at Arthur Andersen only to see the firm implode in the wake of the Enron scandal. I married, started a family, divorced, and then became a partner, once again, at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Years later, PwC would spin off its government practice making me a top executive at a new firm called Guidehouse. I retired in 2019 after a rewarding career.

It took several years to ground myself after leaving the 24/7 workdays behind. I founded a company called Throughline Consultants, with my distant cousin, where we specialize in forensic genetic genealogy (FGG). We help adoptees find their birth parents, solve family mysteries, and help law enforcement agencies solve cold cases. I’m also on the board of several international not-for-profits including Mercy Corps, Lutheran Social Services National Capital Area, and Leadership Mission International. I'm a proud member of the Travelers Century Club, having traveled to more than 100 countries and territories. I live in Vienna, Virginia with my adorable dogs and have two kids in college who are destined to do amazing things.

I love sarcasm, weird travel destinations, a good cocktail, a well-told story, and the absurdities of life.

Please feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn. In my world, you can never have too many friends.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/melanieta...

Reviews

[Jill Robbertze · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, what an interesting read; I had never thought about how the transition from Communist life to Democratic' would be so difficult for it's people to adjust to. Melanie tells her story of 2 years spent in the Czech Republic during this period of adjustment. What an eye-opener and yet her story makes it understandable.
I was both entertained and educated.
5/5 Stars.

[Christopher Shaffer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Melanie Thomas Armstrong has written a thoroughly compelling book about her two year experience working in post-communist Czech Republic. Employed by Arthur Anderson as an auditor, she got to witness the transition of an economy from communism to capitalism. Through the friendships she made she was able to see the impacts of communism on individuals while also having a front row seat as those same individuals discovered a brave new world of freedom.

[Ronald Mackay · Rating 5 out of 5]

I chuckled as I read how Californian Melanie Thomas Armstrong tells us how, as a 26-year-old, newly- qualified certified public accountant, she is sent by Arthur Anderson, from California to Prague in 1993. Her task? -- to audit businesses established during the Communist regime as the country dived into two states and switches from Communism to Capitalism.

Melanie tells her stories extremely well in short, easy to read, humorous chapters. Twenty-six and all-American, everything is alien to her. But she’s smart, resilient, and tenacious. She possesses common sense, a capacity to read people well and to see the funny side of the countless, ludicrous situations she finds as tyranny and communism are rejected in favour of democracy and capitalism.

I empathised with her, since I lived in both the US (in the mid ‘60s) and in Czechoslovakia (in the early ‘70s) and so appreciate her bewildered amusement.

[Timi David · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a gem for anyone who has ever lived abroad or wondered what culture shock really feels like. Armstrong’s stories are hilarious, but beneath the humor is a thoughtful exploration of how systems, history, and people collide. The anecdotes feel intimate and authentic, making the Czech Republic of the 1990s come vividly alive.