Saturday, October 21, 2017

My Part Time Paris Life: How Running Away Brought Me Home by Lisa Anselmo

This memoir caught my eye at Chapters while I was roaming around near the travel section. The cover is beautiful and the idea of someone actually running away, following their dreams, and doing the crazy unthinkable sounded like the perfect book.

I wasn't sure exactly what her story was before picking up the book, but I was on board for the ride because it had to do with living in Paris. This isn't just about a woman who through caution to the wind and bought property in another country, but about a woman who loses her mother and seeks to find herself now that the centre of her life isn't there anymore.

The book follows Lisa from the death of her mother, to that first crazy thought of moving to Paris, to her actually buying a home and moving there for more than a couple weeks. There are ups and downs along the way, and we get to read about how the experiences changed her and helped her grow.

It's like the books Eat, Pray, Love and Wild in that it deals with a loss and the need to reinvent or even simply to find yourself again, be who you are, and be happy. I appreciate these memoirs so much because they are so honest and real and about every day people.

It was a fairly quick read, simple but enjoyable. It made me smile, it made me tear up, and it was so well written that I felt like I was there too. I highly recommend this book, especially if you are someone who loves reading about the people who take life into their hands and do awesome things in pursuit of themselves.

Recommendation: For the love of memoirs about thought women who take back their lives and just go for it.

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