Second Journey, The: The Road Back to Yourself (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "It is a glittering September morning, and I am sitting on a deck at the edge of a salt marsh, coffee cup in hand, feet..." (more)
Key Phrases: The Second Journey, Joan Erikson, Cape Cod

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

After the publication of her first book of self-transformation (A Year by the Sea) in 1999, Anderson writes of being consumed by a pressing schedule and a web of family cares that have derailed her from her original trajectory of self-truth. While her first journey consisted of separating herself from a previous life that had defined her as compliant and dependent (a wife and mother), her current journey involves taking stock of the progress and strengths gained in the previous 10 years. She attempted to get back on track by discounting counterfeit journeys (such as illusory ambition), refusing to be blackmailed by her ailing mother and resisting the urge to join her grown children's already-charged households over Christmas. Instead, she found sustenance in weekend seminars with other women; a pilgrimage to Monomoy, Cape Cod; and a magical three-week stint to the island of Iona, Scotland. Self-help platitudes abound, as Anderson quotes her mentor Joan Erikson (The most important thing is to share what you know), and her similes grow tiresome (she compares herself to a tangled, empty lobster trap). For readers eager for more, though, she does drop hints of marital discord and of leaving her journey unfinished. (May)
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Product Description

"Anderson's warm, inviting tone will appeal to women who feel, as she did, that they need time and space to reinvent themselves."
--Publishers Weekly

"Encourages us all to take the breaks that we need to regain our emotional balance . . . a fulfilling chronicle."
--Philadelphia Inquirer

From the bestselling author of A Year by the Sea, this memoir is a coming-of-age story for every woman who has asked herself: "Now what?"

The Second Journey chronicles Anderson's quest to restore equilibrium to her life after the responsibilities of being a mother, wife, grandmother, caretaker, and bestselling author distract her--almost dangerously--from taking care of herself. Suffused with Anderson's characteristic humor and warmth, this book is a permission slip for any woman who seeks to step out of line and create her own destiny. As Joan shares her stories of balancing love, marriage, family, parents, and spirituality, she inspires and instructs readers to find peace and a unique purpose within their own lives. She offers reassurance that the best is yet to come, and empowers other women to come of age in the middle of life. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Voice; 1st ptg edition (April 29, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401303390
• ISBN-13: 978-1401303396
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #172,655 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A self -help book for people who think they hate self-help books, May 11, 2008

By	K. Corn "reviewer" (Indianapolis,, IN United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

I'm not a huge fan of many self-help books because all too often they:

1. Say what people already know and just want affirmed
2. Are light on reflection and heavy on pop psychology or psychology "lite", easy to digest and not very challenging
3. Written by people who come across as experts but impart nothing new or special.

This book is different. As I began to read it, I really enjoyed the way the author, Joan Anderson, shared personal anecdotes about her life to gently lead readers to observe and come up with their own conclusions. Yes, the author does share her own reflections and lessons but it isn't done in a heavy-handed way.

Part of the reason I may have enjoyed this book so much is because I related to the author's life. She wrote of having an aging parent, struggles with writing and success and falling short of people's expectations. However, she does this with such vivid descriptions of her life and activities that I felt like I was right there, in the moment with her.

Basically, this is a book about a woman who has written best-selling books and still struggles to achieve balance. All too often, she overextends herself, gets stressed out and tries to take care of too many people. There are plenty of women in the same boat. I am one of them. This book allowed me to slow down, start to think about what really matters and make some important changes. It did so without being preachy or taking me by the hand and showing me THE WAY. Even if you don't change a thing about your life after reading this, you'll have had the pleasure of having experienced a good writer in top form, vividly recalling parts of her life.

Aimed at women in their midlife (40s, 50s or beyond), I think this book could be read by women of various ages. I wish I'd read it in my 20s. It would have served as a cautionary tale then. Now it was a wake-up call. The author faces a serious crisis and it takes quite a lot for her to face the reality of what is happening to her emotionally.

And that is all I'm going to reveal about this one. Hopefully, that is enough to get you to want to know more.

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Promise Unfulfilled, June 11, 2008

By	Winnie - See all my reviews

I came to The Second Journey with hope that I would gain insight into my own life. I was disappointed in the book. Normally I would not write a negative review of a book that is obviously treasured by many readers, but I feel The Second Journey has serious flaws that need to be expressed, considered by others, and perhaps addressed by Joan Anderson in future books.

Here are my concerns:

1. Escape, rather than integration: The book considers the difficulty of sustaining insights gained in tranquility--such as during the author's Year by the Sea--but The Second Journey veers away from confronting that reality. Anderson's weeks on Iona become a new opportunity to escape from life's ordinary demands.

2. Summary, rather than insight: I enjoyed reading about Iona, yet I didn't find sufficient insight into why the experience was so profound for the author. I more or less had to take her word for it. I would have liked more searching, more wrestling with the factors that struck her so deeply. Then I would have liked to understand what from the experience she has been able to take back with her into her daily routine. Again, I had to take her word for it that she has changed; I wasn't given enough information to understand the nature of that change.

3. Circumstances, rather than solutions: Two of the problems that Anderson does confront--reducing the number of speaking engagements and meeting her mother's needs while also meeting her own--more or less solve themselves, albeit with her resolve to accept fewer appearance requests. Many of us are unable to turn down significant parts of our work.

4. Lack of respect for age, rather than appreciation for all stages of life: I reject the idea (suggested in The Second Journey and more directly stated in a Borders Advice for Living video) that her mother has had her chance for life but it's now Anderson's turn. I believe that whatever solutions we find for our own struggles, they can't be based on deciding someone else's life doesn't count as much as ours does.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Joan Anderson once again is a wayshower on the path, May 2, 2008

By	Heather LaRee Carter (Central Coast, California) - See all my reviews

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Joan Anderson courageously opens up her inner life to herself and then to the reading world baring her humanness - her quirks and questions with deep, introspective writing. Thankfully, for me, Joan has a 10-year lead and I have been amply blessed by her searches and journeys to be true and real to herself and to others as life continues beyond the former roles of "good mom/good wife". Here she shares her ten years after becoming the best-selling author of A YEAR BY THE SEA. As life would have it, we continue to be the same person we were before - working the same challenges in perhaps different venues. I appreciate this woman - this human being so very much for her huge honesty and courage to care enough about herself and care enough about truth for her readers who also search juggling old programming and discovering all the ways we learn about connecting to deep true meaning within and in life. Navigating a long-time marriage and the ever-evolving new chapters as we age, our aging parents, adult kids and their families, who we are in this world as a friend, a writer, a teacher, a student in our 50's and 60's. Anderson generously invites me on adventures to islands I likely will never travel but because she so thoroughly shares her experiences, I benefit. I highly recommend this book and her A YEAR BY THE SEA and if Meryl Streep is reading this -- MAKE THE MOVIE!