A book review of Life’s Not Yoga or is it…? Finding Love in the Chaos of Life by Jacqui Burnett
Stars: ****
Sophie Blue Press (2020)
Memoir
352 pages
Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This post contains affiliate links.
Summary: She was born into a perfect family, but by age 16 Jacqui Burnett wants to kill her father. Decades later Jacqui believes she’s left her turbulent past and the trauma of multiple near-death experiences behind her. On the surface, she has everything she’s ever dreamed of – a solid education, success, and a wonderful husband. What Jacqui doesn’t know is that she’s about to lose everything.
She was about to step into a board meeting but instead she slid from her office chair and cowered under her desk, sobbing. As managing director, she was meant to announce a year of outstanding results; instead, she was paralysed.’ In a desperate search for answers, Jacqui travels to America. Alone in the Rocky Mountains, her life starts unravelling and the truth of her chaotic childhood begins to emerge. Amidst confused attempts to find love and meaning, Jacqui has to face death one more time, along with an avalanche of unexpected obstacles, before rising from the ashes to heal.
Life’s Not Yoga or is it…?
You can’t tell from the book title but what makes Jacqui’s life unusual is that she survived eight near-death experiences! Through all this, she finds out about love but not necessarily in the way you expect.
I thought for sure I knew how the book would end but I was completely wrong. Even though this is nonfiction, with memoirs, sometimes near the end you can predict how it all turns out. I thought I knew but I didn’t. This made it more interesting.
Another thing that makes her story different from many other memoirs I’ve read is that she was born in South Africa. She is white and she was a child in the 70s when apartheid was still a thing. So her life was very different from my experiences.
I enjoyed reading Jacqui’s memoir. The book talks about emotional abuse, suicide, trauma, racism, divorce and most importantly, love.
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