SUNDAY SHOUT-OUT

Is there ever such a thing as too many books? I don’t think there are too many books to read, but there can definitely be too many to review. Often I’m sent books and, with an already sagging review shelf, these unsolicited books often end being overlooked – I just can’t fit them in to my schedule. Sunday Shout-Out aims to acknowledge these books and the publishers who have sent them to me.

Sunday Shout-Out is bookish meme hosted by Monique of Write Note Reviews. If you’re a book blogger and you want to join in, just:

• Share the title, author, blurb and image from a book (or more than one) you want to acknowledge
• Share the genre, price and link to the publisher so readers can follow up if they like the sound of the book
• Ping back to Write Note Reviews in your post.

Sex, Drugs and Meditation by Mary-Lou Stephens (non-fiction/memoir RRP $32.99) – courtesy of Pan Macmillan Australia:

“I feel like throwing up. Sweat and tears mingle on my cheek. ‘This will pass,’ I try to convince myself. ‘This will pass.’ I have been at the meditation centre for six days. I have four days left to go. I could get up and walk out the door right now. No one would stop me. But then nothing would change. And everything has to change.” Mary-Lou Stephens was lucky to make it into her forties. Therapy and AA helped her recover from her upbringing in an evangelical household; her habit of shoplifting through drama school; her addictions to food, drugs and alcohol; a string of failed love affairs and the break up of several bands. She has landed a dream job as a radio personality. Life is looking good. Except that Mary-Lou has a new boss, a psychopath in a suit. Determined to avoid MORE therapy and desperate to cope with an increasingly toxic work environment, Mary-Lou signs up for a ten-day meditation retreat that requires total silence, endless hours of sitting cross-legged, and a food-as-fuel kind of diet. For a woman who talks for a living, is rarely still and cooks for comfort, this was never going to be an easy task. Darkly funny and beautifully told, Sex, Drugs and Meditation is a tale for those of us who confuse being busy with being happy; the story of a woman who dared herself to stop talking and start living – and loving.

I do plan to read this – it does look funny. I just don’t know when and since I’ve had it for more than six months, I thought I’d better give it a shout-out. Does it sound like something you’d read? Why?