You can't judge a book by the cover. I loved the title, and the cover is beautiful. However, this book is a passable travelog wherein the writer continually circles back to the two big questions in her life: Where does this life lead? Who are we? In various circumstances in her travels, she contemplates both of those questions and records her stream of consciousness about the answers. I agree with other reviewers: this book isn't really about writing or Zen. I'm interested in writing; Zen, not so much. I didn't really learn anything about writing other than some interesting twists of phrases and nice descriptions. For me, there are bigger questions, so I found her focus rather narrow, sometimes shallow, and even at times a bit irritatingly self-focused. I didn't enjoy reading Jack Kerouac, and this reminded me of his writings a bit. I suppose it's nice that these people can abandon all responsibilities and go travel the world to "find themselves." But that's not my life. I need to find inspiration right where I am, in the trenches of teaching, changing diapers, doing dishes, and running carpool. The fact that the book is a compilation of previously published articles shows in that the chapters are somewhat disjointed, and the book doesn't feel cohesive to me.

I received this book for free from the author, the publishers, and NetGalley in exchange for my unbiased review.