REVIEW for the 30 Second Commute

A big thank you goes out to Sarah at ECW Press, one of my favorite Canadian publishing houses!

TITLE: The 30 Second Commute

AUTHOR: Stephanie Dickison

GENRE: Memoir

RATING: 3 Stars

I just went through the 30 Second Commute in a few hours. This book is a fun look at the life of author Stephanie Dickison who decided to quit working "on the outside" to start writing from home.

What I liked about this book was the almost "stream of consciousness" train of thought that she uses. Each chapter depicts a separate event or thought that the author experienced - which includes her variety of roles as book, music and food reviewer. My favorite chapters seemed to be devoted to stories about her experiences as a food reviewer.

While I thought this book was enjoyable, I never got the sense that the author really enjoyed any of the roles she occupied. While she was great at giving us some funny tidbits, I kept asking myself - "gee, you get free meals, books and cds" and somehow you don't sound all that happy about it.

What was also missing in this book was a set up for the "writing from home" scenario. While the author does mention her hubby, we never really get a feeling for his role in her life and the author does not really talk very much about practical things such as working so closely with hubby or how they can afford to financially make this work, etc. While I realize this is not the basis of the book, it would have helped to get us situated a little bit.

I did enjoy the author's honest and down to earth writing style and I did go through this book in its entirety and just a few hours and did enjoy it, it just felt as though there was a little something missing!