A Beginner's Guide to Paradise - Book Review

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If you've ever had a quarter-life crisis and wanted to escape to a remote island in the Pacific but haven't done it yet, then you might want to read Alex Sheshunoff's book A Beginner's Guide to Paradise. This guy did it and wrote it about it.

It might sound crazy, but Sheshunoff broke up with his girlfriend, left his internet website job, and flew with a one-way ticket to an island called Yap. When Yap wasn't his ideal vision of "paradise", he island-hopped in search of it.

But just what is "paradise"? Is it sitting around and reading all the books you've always wanted to but never have? Is it wearing a loincloth and bringing cigarettes as an offering to the island's elders? Is it meeting a woman and falling instantly in love?

This humorous book is written in a how-to style, but it's really a memoir of what I think was the start of the author's second chapter in life.

And if you're wondering if any of it is true, just go to the author's website for pictures of the people and things he saw while on his sabbatical. Yes, he and the girl and their friends built a house from scratch!

A Beginner's Guide to Paradise is published by NAL, a division of Penguin Random House. I received a free ARC at Book Expo America with no obligation to review.