Warms the Cockles of This Writer’s Heart

Off the Leash — it ain’t the money, the possibilities of the future or even the idea that tomorrow can be better; it’s the belief that now is the time to live.

… a tell-all memoir told with beauty and insight, honesty and grit. Her midnight window staring is poetically explained: “When fiery dreams burn up our beds and spring us to our feet ….” She illuminates the common “I can’t do this anymore” as a longing “so deep that to ignore it would be like leaving a baby in the road.” And she occasionally swears like a lumberjack.

Jean Ellen sees even trivial circumstances as a sign of hope, without seeming unrealistically Pollyanna or saccharine, and she does this all while maintaining her very real, very human voice.

You’ll feel yourself considering your own life–the ups and the downs–believing that life is beautiful and it is hard, but always worth living. There were so many times I found myself chocking down tears or laughing at Jean’s raw and attentive view of the world. Read this book.