Light is usually not a word to describe memoir. Neither is funny. Whimsical is also rare. So it's refreshing to read one that makes you laugh-out-loud and lighten up yourself! For our stress-filled lives, what a welcome to cast our eyes on a tale that focuses on the fun of life!

I really enjoyed Chelsea Walker Flagg's memoir about a woman's journey into motherhood and domestic life while along the way discovering her true self and the meaning of the word strength. Flagg ultimately gives up her career aspirations to stay at home with her three daughters and chronicles this journey. Her pages remind me of the memoirists, Anne Lamott, who is known for her dry humor, Elizabeth Gilbert, whose quest for the true path knows no limits, and Kelly Corrigan, who writes so poignantly about domestic life.

Flagg begins with Joseph Campbell, “We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” She then divulges her own sage advice for finding one’s true path, “Regardless of which path you take, if it’s truly your path, you’ll find your super powers there.” Super powers! It made me think of Grey’s Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes’s own funny memoir Year of Yes where she encourages women to go arms akimbo, Wonder Woman-power style when they need a surge of strength.

Flagg doesn't take herself too seriously and is laugh-out-loud funny. She takes the lighthearted approach in her quest for discovering her own strength. We follow her own path to finding the right career, man, house and ultimately her right self. In the end, she discovers the meaning of strength after giving natural childbirth to her daughter Quincy (all women who deliver drug-free in their homes should be crowned “Strong!”). Along the way she also learns how to battle bats, rabies, and kitchen sinks. She even sews, quilts and bakes rhubarb pies from the rhubarb grown in her own vegetable garden. It’s all great fun and Flagg’s take on domestic life makes me think of the playful quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The earth laughs in flowers.” It’s refreshing to enter the world of an author who sees the world in such an enchanting way! ( )

Yes, I wrote this book, so I feel an obligation to give it five stars. But seriously, I would have given it five stars even if somebody else had written it because it's just that awesome. (Pats her own back)

Plus: Bonus for anyone crunched for time - you can read it from cover to cover in just under two hours. Trust me, I did it a dozen times during the editing stages.

And, even after all those read-throughs, I'm still giving it five stars. It's solid. ( )