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Interviews | November 3, 2009

Sheila A.: IMG On Storytelling: The Powells.com Interview with Donald Miller

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donaldmillerDonald Miller is a Christian writer, but the question that Miller asks with his latest memoir, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, is applicable to... Continue »
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Roll around Heaven: An All-True Accidental Spiritual Adventure

by Jessica Maxwell

Roll around Heaven: An All-True Accidental Spiritual Adventure Cover

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Chronicling nearly two decades of Jessica Maxwell's all-true accidental spiritual adventure and filled with astonishing stories, witty insights, and breathtaking revelations, Roll Around Heaven will surely inspire each reader to embrace the power of the divine in his or her own life.

An adventure writer by trade, Jessica had never given God a second thought until, as she describes it, "He/She/It grabbed me by the ear, marched me into the divine principal's office, and told me to quit goofing off and start paying attention." On her amazing journey, Jessica travels the globe on magazine sporting assignments, only to end up talking about God with Islamic women in Dubai, chasing away evil spirits in a Himalayan hotel, and receiving Celtic revelations on the holy isle of Iona.

Jessica soon learns that her earthbound goals are mere day hikes compared to her soaring ascent to heaven on earth. Spiced with humor, rich with original insight, tart with irreverence, and sweetened with compassion for the modern pilgrim, Roll Around Heaven offers readers a perfect recipe for spiritual success in a chronically baffling world.

Review:

"Successful magazine travel writer Maxwell didn't intend to write a book about spirituality. The author of books on golf, fishing and other nature adventures claimed an 'allergy to religion,' yet spirituality seemed to find her anyway. After stumbling upon a lovable pig farmer/spiritual teacher, the self-proclaimed spiritual klutz finds herself wading through adventures with auras, demons, psychics and Jesus. In this book, Maxwell catalogues 16 years of spiritual experiences. The reader is taken through her quest for peace and understanding as she discovers that, regardless of the path, all religions call for loving others. Maxwell draws on religious symbolism from all world religions and quotes everyone from C.S. Lewis to Ramakrishna; the book is essentially spiritual and syncretistic. Readers who find Maxwell more superstitious than authentic should still appreciate her distinctive writing style. Her training as a nature writer allows her to see an experience from the outside in a way inward-looking spiritual writers often cannot. Her cheeky-to-chaste style is both conversational and controlled. Readers will enjoy watching this 'former spiritual dodo-brain' discover beauty beyond nature." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Review:

"Forget about searching for the divine only in dusty old churches. In Roll Around Heaven, Jessica Maxwell proves you can stumble into a state of grace in a baseball stadium, on a pig farm, or even while lumbering down a freeway." David Oliver Relin, author of Three Cups of Tea

Review:

"After you’ve been there and done that, it's time to figure out what it all means. So Jessica Maxwell, an intrepid traveler with a delightful and amusing style, applies her deceptively light touch to the idea of spiritual seeking. Highly recommended." Tim Cahill, author of Hold the Enlightenment and Lost in My Own Backyard

Review:

"What a fabulous journey! Through Jessica's eyes and voice it is just pure magic!" Taj Mahal, American bluesman

Synopsis:

An all-true accidental spiritual adventure that led one nonbeliever to lunch with Deepak Chopra, dance with Stephen Hawking, heal animals with Yogananda, sing Christmas carols with an enlightened rabbi, banish evil spirits with a Himalayan Rinpoche, talk all night with the daughters of Islam, find true love in a Presbyterian choir, share Celtic visions on the isle of Iona, and learn an abiding respect for all paths to God.

Filled with far-flung settings, polished prose, and travel writer Jessica Maxwell's eye-opening and often humorous experiences, Roll Around Heaven will resonate with seekers and cynics, nature lovers and travel enthusiasts, and readers from all walks of life.

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About the Author

Jessica Maxwell is a nationally acclaimed travel writer and the author of three books. Her work has been included in more than two dozen anthologies, including Bill Bryson's Best American Travel Writing 2000 and Tim Cahill's Best American Travel Writing 2006. She is a regular contributor to AARP The Magazine, Forbes, and Gourmet.
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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 6 comments:
martinjones, November 13, 2009 (view all comments by martinjones)
Jessica Maxwell has discovered the essence of the spiritual life: life is one wondrous spiritual journey -- there is nothing ordinary. Or maybe we are missing the magic in the everyday. Her plain, witty and unaffected style carries readers along her journey as if they were experiencing these life-changing revalations first hand. A great read -- and an inspiration!
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saintambersrose, October 21, 2009 (view all comments by saintambersrose)
Is it possible to be deeply spiritual, highly psychic, and very, very funny at the same time? Jessica Maxwell does it all in her spiritual memoir, Roll Around Heaven. From flying pigs to dancing physicists, Jessica reveals the profound spirituality sparkling through our everyday lives. It'll make you think twice about so-called "coincidences" in your own life--while you're rolling around laughing!
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Valerie Brooks, October 16, 2009 (view all comments by Valerie Brooks)
Full disclosure: I have a bit part in Jessica Maxwell’s comedic spiritual romp Roll Around Heaven, and if that makes a difference to you, then you can skip this and go to the next review. But for those of you who want the full scoop on what it took for Jess to write this book and why you should read it, then continue on.

Years ago, I became Jessica’s witness (besides her tea-drinking buddy) to this Lucille-Ball-Trips-Over-God adventure. Being a former Yankee and at times cynic, I could also be the needle-to-the-balloon buster of this high-flying tale—that is if it weren’t true. But as God is MY witness, Jessica Maxwell, who exhorts people to “suit up and show up” if they want anything positive to happen in their lives was called to “suit up and show up” for an adventure she didn’t expect or sign up for. Fishing the Amazon or riding horses in Mongolia might sound dangerous (she has done both AND she’s allergic to horses), but when she says in the book, “I was afraid to be alone,” she’s talking about a different danger entirely. Fear of being alone is often a call for spiritual help, and even though she’ll make you laugh silly with this memoir, believe me, her adventure was much harder than she lets on. Unlike me, she had no husband to hold her when 9/11 happened. When the market for magazine travel writing dropped like a meteor to earth and she couldn’t pay her mortgage, not one bank would help her, even though she had a long career as an award-winning writer. And don’t even get me started on the “Harrison” character in the book!

So the stage was set. As Lory Misel, the Holy Pig Farmer of Roll Around Heaven says, “Darkness, the deep dark places, those energies can be your best teachers. Yes, yes.”

Yes, yes, indeed, and thank the Supreme Personality those dark places sent Jessica on this journey and eventually to us. Soon her love of science was matched with a love of discovering what the heck the weird floating blobs were that visited her on occasion. Where else have you heard a defense of seeing “spirits” explained like this: “So if some of us are born able to perceive spiritual dimensions others can’t quite yet, does it really make sense to kick the dog for hearing the dog whistle?”

No, not really, as you will soon discover, as I did.

Jessica and I spent many literary lunches talking about what was happening to her, and the more I listened to Jess, the more I started paying attention. That’s what she’ll bring to the world with Roll Around Heaven—how to pay attention (besides how to laugh at and get over yourself at the same time). Her true gift, I suspect, will be the Epilogue of Roll Around Heaven, “What on Earth Does All This Mean for You?” She doesn’t just leave you more alert and tuned in to your own experiences (Coincidences you say? Nah!); she banishes the idea of religions as separate teams where spiritual dogma makes us compete and breaks us down into “us” and “them,” winners and losers. We don’t need that in our world and she knows it. Right now she offers the world not only laughter and an eye-and-heart-opening adventure, but she delivers a ray of blue light that will dispel anyone’s fear of ever being alone again. Because we’re not.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9781582702360
Subtitle:
An All-True Accidental Spiritual Adventure
Author:
Maxwell, Jessica
Publisher:
Beyond Words Publishing
Subject:
Inspiration & Personal Growth
Subject:
Spirituality - General
Subject:
Personal Memoirs
Subject:
Personal Transformation
Subject:
Spiritual biography
Subject:
Maxwell, Jessica
Publication Date:
October 2009
Binding:
Hardcover
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Y
Pages:
274
Dimensions:
9 x 6 in
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