Cover Image: Go: One Woman. One Van. A New Beginning.

Go: One Woman. One Van. A New Beginning.

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Reading this book was like a trip down memory lane for me. My husband and I traveled across the country in our 1977 customized van much like the author did. However, those were planned vacation trips and we would return to the comforts of our home. In addition to an account of the author's road trip, this was very much a self-help book on the subject of self-care. I admire the author for her courage in embarking on such a trip by herself. Thanks to NetGalley, BooksGoSocial and the author for a copy to read and review.

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I absolutely loved this book; it was so uplifting and oozed with positivity (after the initial rubbish she had been through).

Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest review.

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Go: One Woman. One Van. A New Beginning is a biographical account of the author's life while getting divorced and moving on. It details the sourcing and converting of her van, and then the journey she made in it to get to her Mum's house in Florida. I liked some sections of it, but found it a bit unbalanced in parts. She takes half a page at one point to detail a parking manoeuvre, then rushes through the details of part of the journey. I would have liked more details on the journey itself and less on the divorce and build up to setting off. Some bits were really interesting but it just felt as though it was missing something. Overall quite good in parts but lacked a bit of soul

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This is a true story told by the author about her drive and stay in a van to find where she would go next after her divorce - her 2nd as it happens.
Initially, she just had the bare van - with nothing in it but some furniture for a sink - with 2 bottles of water - fresh and grey in the cupboard under it and a camping mattress and boxes of her belongings.
She was lucky in that as she travelled from Washington State to Florida in this van, she had friends she could call into to have a night on a real bed and a proper shower rather than any that she could find in a campsite. She did have plenty of experience of camping and van type travelling luckily, even though her van was not tricked out properly. By the end of her journey her van looked more like the one pictured above as she had some building work done and also she and her Dad did some work on it.
What surprised me, being in the UK, was that she had lots of doctor visits before she set off as travelling from state to state on her journey she had no health care insurance if anything happened to her. I am so thankful for our health service and the arrangements we have in Europe too...
One thing I found very interesting, and that made me realise that I needed, was her daily habit of journaling. Gratitude journaling. I had heard about it before but as someone who has survived what could have been an extremely serious illness and is now still unwell and will need to take a lot of care for the rest of my life, I need to work more on gratitude and less on negativity as to what has been taken away from me. Her 8 dimensions of self-care are also interesting as I been told to take more time on my self-care by several health professionals, so it was interesting to see what she means by it.
Stacy lives and talks about her self-care and has a website that she plugs but overall I was disappointed that her van journey was short and whilst she 'explored' on her journey, the places she visited were really obvious tourist sites.
This could have been a better book in my opinion as Stacy really uses it to plug her business and I wonder about her motivation in writing it and whether she had decided to do this before she started the journey. But still the style was good an

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3.5⭐️

Thank you to Netgalley, BooksGoSocial and Stacy Fisher for a gifted copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I enjoyed this one! I appreciate that Stacy not only talked about her hopes and dreams of living can life, but the struggles that went along with it when she actually did it. I think there are many things that are likely not thought of when transitioning to a small home like this and she highlighted some of those very well. Of course there is the tale of what led her to travelling across the US in her van, and that was informative, but I was honestly disappointed her drive was so quick. I did not anticipate her actual driving/van time would be less than 3 weeks. Obviously this is her real life story and it is what it is, I just feel I would have wanted more time to explore and see stuff and I had expectations that would be what she did. She also kept mentioning how she wanted to try to figure things out on her travels from state to state, and while I can appreciate that certain aspects of Van life took up more of her day than it would in a standard home, it didn’t really seem like she tried through this journey TO figure things out.
Alas, it was her journey and I did enjoy following along, I think my expectations of what it would be just ended up being different than the reality. If you are interested in Van life definitely give it a read! It will give you lots to think about!!!!

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I received a copy of this book through the Amazon Vine program in exchange for an honest review.

This book focuses on the author's experience living out of her van.

The first almost third of the book is about Fisher's divorce and how she planned the van. The rest of the book is about her travels and the time she spends in the Pacific Northwest. She shares anecdotes about life on the road and questions people have for her. The book is a fairly easy read that focuses on van life and how she made it happen. Unfortunately, the author also uses a slur referring to the Romani people when telling people about her nomadic life throughout the book. There is some reflection throughout the book, but it's not what I was hoping for.

Overall not the travel memoir for me!

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It seems that these are the times of the Nomads and this book (kind of) goes with that trend. I say "kind of" because we accompany Stacy as her journey begins and it appears as though the nomadic van-life is meant to be a means to travel cross country over a period of weeks, but not as a full time home situation. That's not a complaint, just an observation. However, it also obvious that the van itself it not temporary and that she will be using it for travel and getaways for many years.
I did enjoy "Go". Stacy does speak of self care a lot. A lot!! As I read I began to realize how badly I need care. If I can wish for someone to get an impulsive idea to treat me and nurture me somehow, or I can just do it myself because I know I need it and I know I deserve it. I have started to do that since reading this book. It may sound dorky, but when I think I want to do something and start to talk myself out of it I remember this and say "self care" to myself and let myself have this pleasure, what ever it may be. So, thank you for that Stacy. I also went to Stacy's blog, took the type quiz and saw that I'm a survivor. The description of the survivor type made my eyes well up. So, there is more to this book than van life, travel, safety and how to pee and bathe on the road.
Stacy heals during her journey. Many other women who begin the van life are also on the road to healing and I think the they would enjoy and benefit from this book. I'm going to share my review on a facebook group for such women. #Netgalley #Go:OneWoman.OneVan.ANewBeginning. #StacyFisher

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This book made me cry in some parts as hot hit close to home on an emotional level. That said. I was disappointed to discover that the majority of the book was unnecessary build up to the road trip and the road trip itself was more of a sprint across the country. I felt there was a lot of unnecessary repetition and no real profound ending. This story was ok but could have been turned into something much better and more inspirational.

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The author takes you on an interesting journey to self discovery, proving it’s never too late to take control of your life. Recommended as an uplifting read for anyone who finds themselves at a crossroads in their life.

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I loved:
- branching out and reading a genre (travel/memoir) I'd not been in for some time. Especially during the pandemic, I needed something to take my mind off of life as it is and think about how life could be, used to be (when lockdowns didn't exist), and will be again (in some fashion) post-pandemic.

- that the author had spent so much time in the greater Seattle area, both in life and within the book. Being from the area myself, I got really excited every time I saw a familiar city name (even Lynnwood, like, whaaaat?!) or retailer (Half-Price books for the win! And can I please go stay at Salish Lodge post-pandemic?!).

- that the Bible made the short-list of books the author kept for her journey.

I didn't love:
- the language; it wasn't terrible (certainly could have been worse), but the f-bombs in particular were jarring. Shamanism also played an (albeit small/passing-reference-only) role in the journey. Both felt, to me, at odds with the aforementioned Bible inclusion.

- the repetition. Some of this could have been the nature of the eARC I read, and came out later in a final proofread; I don't know. But sometimes references felt eerily similar to content I'd just read before. Self-care also got a *lot* of screen time--another oft-repeated phrase throughout, likely as it plays a significant role in both her journey and in her personal/professional life.

I received an eARC of the book from the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

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This book was a DNF for me.

For one, it was quite slow-moving. I made my way into 30% of the book, and we literally were still setting up the van. We hadn't even gotten on the road yet. I have little desire, as I'm sure most readers this book is geared towards do not want to read in-depth narration about a trip to Home Depot and setting up a sink and pipes for a camper van. There was just way too much detail.

The author's voice is often complaining, and she is not a very sympathetic character. We meet her just as her marriage is ending. She has been a stay at home wife, for reasons barely touched upon, so obviously she is suffering financially. Unfortunately, as sexist as this may be, it would be more sympathetic if she had children, but there is no real reason given why she just decides to give up on her work.

She makes it seem as if divorce is so foreign, and she is surprised she feels so much support from other women. I would understand this view point if she were in a conservative or religious community, but she isn't. 50% of marriages end in divorce. There is nothing but support between women about their respective divorces.

Perhaps, the book would have picked up had she gotten to her adventures on the road a bit sooner. I do respect her desire and willpower to restart her life. We catch glimpses of her starting a small business and becoming comfortable in her own skin, but as I said, the beginning is just too much of a bummer and sad to continue.

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The story of one woman's journey to recovery after divorce and downsizing her life to fit into a van. Not knowing what she wanted to do next or how to get there the van proved to be the vehicle to move to a new start and a renewal, wherever. Thank you #NetGalley for the copy.

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I really enjoyed Stacy story and it made me what to buy a camper van and going travelling. This story is about loss, separation, spirituality and founding her self.
It was great to read about her experiences on camping in her van . I felt like I was there with her.
It was nice seeing the photos of her trip and the photos of the van when she brought it and when she kept adding things to the van to make it more liveable and comfortable. I think she was a very brave lady travelling on her own. The things she talked about was stuff I was interesting in yoga, nature , beach , massages and spiritual.
Thank you NetGalley for letting me read this book.

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This was brave for Stacy to write about an event in her life that had her re-evaluate her life.
Divorce, separation, loss or the end of anything we value is not an easy thing to talk about more so write in a book- and I love her camping experiences (especially being out solo as a woman, and her fears, how she was approached- security is something most do not talk about, backpacking or being a solo female traveler has it's major concerns).
I loved more so the 24 greatest take-aways she shared in this book, and having to read about her experiences driving her van and allowing herself to feel her emotions.
Thanks Netgalley for the eARC.

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I really like that Stacy's story of going through a divorce, and her concerns and worries (emotional and practical) is being shared. This will be of real support to a lot of people who are going through, or thinking of going through, something similar. It's important to talk about these things!

Stacy included a couple of incidents in which men were either rude or behaving threateningly toward her, which I was glad she included. Camping is not the same for women as it is for men, and it's important to talk about this - I wonder if the man in the bar, who seemed to blame Stacy for her divorce despite knowing nothing about her, would have said the same to a man.

I was really inspired by the descriptions of reducing all of her worldly possessions to so few; it was a real reminder that 'stuff' is not who you are and can actually hold you back, sometimes. This, as well as a whole lot of other lessons in this book, is something I will try and incorporate into my future. It's nice to have these reminders, and I appreciated the 24-point summary of 'lessons learnt' in the final chapter.

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