Title: What I Did on My Midlife Crisis Vacation
Author: Debbianne DeRose
Publisher: PiscAquarian Press
Published: February 17, 2012
Format: Paperback
Pages: 252
Source: Received From the author
in exchange for an honest review
Read: November 13-14, 2012
In A Few Words: Laugh Out Loud Funny
My Rating: 5 Stars
Goodreads:Add This To Your TBR Shelf
Goodreads Synopsis:
This saucy memoir is the oh-so-honest and humorous account of the author 's personal journey through a string of compelling adventures and ideologies of the woo-woo kind. Her story begins with confusion and discontentment that catalyzes bold life changes and sends her roaming in search of magic, miracles, and a deeper grasp of the metaphysical nature of reality. In a unique style akin to confessional reporting, she shares with you her keen insights into human behavior as you meet a plethora of colorful characters and occasional charlatans. With some good belly laughs, she effectively sorts out the wheat from the chaff---both within herself and the New Age world she 's romping in. It becomes an inadvertent healing pilgrimage full of expansive revelations, and through the process of en-lightening up she emerges clear-headed and self-empowered with inspiration to spare.
Melissa's Musings:
Let me start out by saying that this book is absolutely fantastic. It's funny, full of information, and the authors' wit and personality permeate this entire book and will make you laugh out loud.
When I first saw this book, I immediately knew I wanted to read it. The title grabbed me first, it's just catchy, and makes you wonder. Then there's the cover. It's got awesome shades of purple-ish blue and stars on it, two of my favorites. So, when Debbianne DeRose emailed me to ask if I would review this book I immediately said yes. I'm so very glad I did!
One of the big focuses of this book is the authors' experiences with a lot of different approaches to energy work and self healing. To some, this might sound like it would be drab or boring or out there, but I promise you, it's not. (Well, some of it is a little out there, but it all depends on your personal beliefs.) There's a little bit of everything. It gives you a wide scope of a lot of different energy working techniques and self improvement information.
That's one of the things that I immediately loved about this book.Yes, there is a lot of information, but it's told with a lot of humor and real life experience mixed in, so it's not drab, or dry. It's all explored in a fun way, and not overly technical. The different methodologies are explained through the author relating her own experiences with each of these different energy/healing techniques, rather than only presenting the technical aspects of it which can really bog down a book. I personally really enjoy books that are written in this more lighthearted way because they are easier to relate to, they feel really natural.
The other thing that I enjoyed is that the author is not out to proselytize anyone. She's only trying to explain how these different modalities can work (or in some cases not work) She doesn't take any of these extremely seriously and is very open minded I didn't sense any particular bias or preference for a certain methodology, they are all given equal time, though, as anyone would, you can tell there are certain methods she prefers over others. You can tell that right off the bat being that the name of the 2nd chapter is "One Way Ticket To Woo-landia" The play on words lies on the fact that a lot of people call energy healing/energy work "woo-woo stuff" or "new agey" ( I'm adopting the same stance as the author here and pointing out that I'm NOT trying to use the term "woo-woo" in any way that could be construed as offensive, rather just as a generalization that other people sometimes use in regards to this subject matter.)
These kinds of witty plays on words and humor are sprinkled throughout the book. For example,
"Clairvoyance literally means "clear-seeing," which might imply that any optician's office would qualify as a clairvoyant training center. But since modern society, for the most part, has decided that auras are invisible or even imaginary, the "seeing" and the "see-ers" are largely relegated to the realm of weirdness at best, crackpotdom at worst." (DeRose, 13)That's only a tiny snippet of the humor that you will find in this book.
There are several different techniques that are mentioned in this book. The author tries her hand at learning to see auras, hypnotherapy, tarot readings, Matrix Energetics, EFT, and bending spoons, among many other things.
Some of these, I've encountered before in other readings, most recently I read about EFT when I read "Stop Eating Your Heart Out by Meryl Hershey Beck. There were a lot of the technical aspects of this technique in that book. Here in What I Did on My Midlife Crisis Vacation it was more about the experience with the technique itself.
In some ways I think that you may have to be more open minded/receptive to these techniques and modalities of energy work to fully appreciate the book and what the author is trying to show through exploring all of these. Even if you're not sure about any of the subject matter though, I promise that you will be able to appreciate it and laugh along. I found myself cracking up and smirking at sarcastic points all throughout the book. Ultimately you may even find a technique you want to try out.
With all the different perspectives and insights the author points out along the course of the book I know that there are certain things that I want to try for myself. This book really made me think about things in different ways. I'm still thinking about the topics discussed, days after reading the book.
One really neat thing that I wanted to point out is this: Have you ever heard someone say to a writer (or anyone) "You write the way that you talk?" I think the same is true of Debbianne DeRose. Even though I have only had email exchanges with her, she kept up the same "voice" within our exchanges and you can also hear it come through in the narration for the book trailer for What I Did On My Midlife Crisis Vacation" This fact makes the book feel all that more genuine, because you can really tell it is the author relating her experiences, not trying to put on a different "voice" to write in. Also, Debbianne was willing to discuss some questions I had after reading the book which really helped me to connect with it even more and think about some of the concepts I read about in new ways.
I'm still thinking about the issues in this book, even now, and this is definitely one I will be reading again.I learned a lot about myself and the kind of work I want to do to improve some situations in my life and this book definitely gives me plenty of options for working on these things. I'd recommend this for anyone who wants an open-minded look at energy work/energy healing.
GIVEAWAY TIME!!
Debbianne has offered to give away one (1) Smashwords coupon for an e-copy of this book!
Giveaway Rules:
This Giveaway is open INTERNATIONALLY
This giveaway will run until 12:01 EST on December 6, 2012
Winners will be notified by email and will have 48 hours to respond to their notification email before another winner is chosen.
You DO NOT have to be a follower of Melissa's Midnight Musings to enter. Anyone who does choose to follow is appreciated. :)
There are no mandatory entries , do as many or as few as you like.
All entries will be verified, any false entries will be removed.
The author NOT Melissa's Midnight Musings is responsible for sending the prize to the winner.
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2 comments:
the book looks really interesting. will have to add it to my TBR list
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