Synopses & Reviews
The true story of how a quarter-life crisis led to adventure, freedom, and love on a tiny island in the Pacific.
From the author of a lot of emails and several facebook posts comes A Beginners Guide to Paradise, a laugh-out-loud, true story that will answer your most pressing escape-from-it-all questions, including:
1. How much, per pound, should you expect to pay a priest to fly you to the outer islands of Yap?
2. Classic slumber party stumper: If you could have just one movie on a remote Pacific island, what would it definitely not be?
3. How do you blend fruity drinks without a blender?
4. Is a free, one-hour class from Home Depot on Flowerbox Construction” sufficient training to build a house?
From Robinson Crusoe to Survivor, Gilligans Island to The Beach, people have fantasized about living on a remote tropical island. But when facing a quarter-life crisis, plucky desk slave Alex Sheshunoff actually did it.
While out in Paradise, he learned a lot. About how to make big choices and big changes. About the less-than-idyllic parts of paradise. About tying a loincloth without exposing the tender bits. Now, Alex shares his incredible story and pretty-hard-won wisdom in a book that will surprise you, make you laugh, take you to such unforgettable islands as Yap and Pig, and perhaps inspire your own move to an island with only two letters in its name.
Answers: 1) $1.14 2) Gas Attack Training Made Simple 3) Crimp a fork in half and insert middle into power drill 4) No.
About the Author
Alex Sheshunoff is a writer-like person whose work has appeared in
National Geographic Adventure, Slate.com,
Marketplace on National Public Radio, and other very prestigious media outlets. Before deciding to call himself a writer, Alex snuck through Yale and started and ran an Internet company in New York called E-The People - a nonpartisan precursor to Moveon.org, which was featured in the
New York Times,
Forbes,
CNN, and elsewhere.
Five years after starting the company, burnt out, and facing a sort of quarter-life crisis, Alex gathered the hundred books he was most embarrassed not to have read in college and moved to a small island in the Pacific. There, he read his books, met a woman hed later marry, and built a house on a remote island with a dozen friends. He later wrote a book about the experiencethis oneand got to rewrite that book while getting a masters degree in creative nonfiction writing from the University of Iowa.
Today, Alex and his wife, Sarah, live in California with their two sons, Ian and Andrew.