Title: A Texan Goes to Nirvana
Author: Kelly Jackson
Narrator: Kelly Jackson
Publication Date: July 9, 2019
Genres: General Fiction, Humor
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A Texan Goes to Nirvana
Kelly Jackson
Kelly Jackson, July 2019
Narrated by Kelly Jackson
Downloaded Unabridged Audiobook
From the author—
Yoga has finally come off her high horse to reveal doubters, sufferers, and cynics. This is the story of one woman’s comic misadventures at the ashram from hell.
Wendy Tate finds herself at a yoga ashram for teacher training, which sounds like a nice, new adventure to her. She’ll have to put on a nicotine patch and give up her daily 5 pm martini. Pish Posh. What could happen? Little does she know, there are characters in and out of the ashram that turn her goals inside out, but she gets to keep her healthy skepticism.
In the mood for a quick read that will have you chortling along the way? A Texan Goes to Nirvana just may be what you’re looking for, especially if you’re going for a healthy (or unhealthy, as the case may be) dose of snark. Now, I am duty-bound to warn you that you’ll probably be kind of offended if ashrams are your thing because Ms. Jackson makes this particular one seem like the very last place a yoga lover might want to be but, I confess, I liked this a lot. I wonder if that might be because I will never set foot in a month-long grown-up camp with bad food and loads of rules but that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy someone else’s dismay 😉
Wendy is a three-time loser at marriage and she’s addicted to the amenities that a financially comfortable life gives her but she’s decided that she wants to be a yoga teacher. That requires being certified, hence her trip to the backwoods of Kentucky so she can tough it out to get the necessary training before moving back home to West Texas. Wendy doesn’t put much stock in what she calls “the cosmic, Sanskrit hooey” that goes along with yoga but, hey, she’s actually pretty good at it so ashram, here she comes…right into the clutches of a bunch of quirky, chanting vegans who have happily taken an exorbitant amount of money from her for the privilege of making her life fairly miserable. As it turns out, Wendy will also get a chance to engage in a bit of FBI shenanigans and discover a few things about herself. Who knew this adventure could be so much fun?
Authors don’t always make the best audio narrators—Stephen King comes to mind despite my devotion to his tales—but Kelly Jackson brings just the right tone to it. In fact, I’d say her vocalizations and comedic skills bring the story to life and I recommend everyone try the audio edition to have a really fun read.
Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, January 2020.
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Purchase Links:
Audible // iTunes
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About the Author
Kelly Jackson is a SAG/AFTRA-affiliated actor and comedienne, and as such, she loves idealizing characters in the books that she narrates. Kelly and her sister are also bloggers known as The Midlife Gals Gone Gray. That’s how this whole thing got started. They choose a topic and then annihilate it through two hilariously disparate points of view. Kelly wrote a book, A Texan Goes to Nirvana, and wanted to narrate it herself. That’s how that got started. When not writing and narrating, Kelly has a ‘death grip on the control panel’ as a Senior Executive Assistant/Girl Friday to CEOs. Although a Texan by birth, Kelly and her sister live in Hawaii and enjoy a regular yoga practice, movies, swimming and oddbody watching at nearby beaches. Aloha! Proud member of SAG/AFTRA.
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Play an excerpt here.
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