Unlike most things in 2020, this book was very appropriately timed. Cait Flanders follow up to her best selling memoir, A Year of Less, is entitled Adventures in Opting Out: A Field Guide to Leading an Intentional Life.
Like many folks this year, Flanders was looking at a different way of living life. In her case, it was travelling nearly full time, mainly in Europe. She chronicles that in this new book, along with highlighting all the steps one could take in 'opting out' from a conventional life, using hiking as an extended (sometimes literal) metaphor.
The book is broken down into sections, labelled as parts of a hike one would encounter: base, viewpoint, valley, slope and summit, and within each of those sections; she gives advice on how creating an intentional life for one's self can be achieved. Whether its literally stopping to breath or adjust the straps on a pack, to taking it slow or looking both ways, the author deftly creates a self help narrative unlike most other books in the self-help section of the bookstore.
Most self help books tout a flourish, if not a quick and/or easy route, with sprinkles of easy Instagrammable options, if one chooses. Flanders, however, acknowledges that she doesn't have the answers, she just has experience opting out of conventional paths in life, including choosing a life of sobriety.
A very timely book and one that had me underlining several paragraphs as I read, it's a worthwhile investment, especially during a year when so many are rethinking their own 'paths' in life.
(Image Credit: Amazon)
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