Book Review: Finding My Badass Self July 7, 2017
Finding My Badass Self: A Year of Truths and Dares
I was given an ‘advance reader copy’ of “Finding My Badass Self: A Year of Truths and Dares” by Sherry Stanfa-Stanley in exchange for an honest review. I do this kind of thing often, mostly because my desire for free books outweighs my desire for, say, oxygen, and, to be honest, more often than not I am disappointed.
Not so here.
The premise is just delightful – Sherry turns 52 and has a bit of a midlife crisis. Her life is peaceful and ordinary, she’s an empty-nester with a solid job she likes. There’s nothing wrong with her life, but it is unsatisfying, somehow. So she sets out to make her life a little less peaceful and more extraordinary. She ‘dares’ herself to do something that pushes her boundaries once a week during her 52nd year. She calls it the 52/52 project. This book is a description of her adventures. 52 chapters for 52 weeks containing 52 adventures in her 52nd year. Each chapter could stand independently as a story, but they work better as a unit.
The adventures range from the truly daring to the relatively mild, and demonstrate a genuine creativity. Her writing style is light and breezy. It feels more like sitting down with a friend over a glass of wine (or a bloody Mary) and hearing her stories than reading a book. Her style is a good bit like mine, I think. If you like my books and my blog, odds are you will like this book. In fact, one of her adventures is a ghost tour. Around the time I was reading this book, but before I got to that chapter, I went on my own ghost tour and wrote about it. Sherry and I used almost exactly the same joke in the closing line, completely independent of each other.
Sherry is a better writer than me, however, in that what she writes has a point and actually makes you think a little. I find myself thinking about her as opportunities present themselves and thinking about the value of pushing one’s own comfortable boundaries.
Highly, highly, highly recommend. To read more, click the handy-dandy Amazon link below.
Related Posts
Lori B. Duff is an award-winning author who practices law on the side. Her latest book, “If You Did What I Asked in the First Place” was awarded the Gold Medal for humor in the Foreword INDIES awards in 2019. You can follow her on Twitter at @LoriBDuff and on Facebook. For more blogs written by Lori, click here. For more information about Lori in general, click here. If you want Lori to do your writing for you, click here. If you want Lori to help you market your book, click here.
Book Review: Finding My Badass Self
3 Comments