The Road Called Chaos

by Audrey Thomas

Living with chaos, clutter and confusion? Think a stress-free lifestyle is nothing more than a myth? No matter how disorganized you are (or how disorganized you think you are), you can begin to transform both your surroundings and your life. In this compact, easy-to-follow guidebook, professional organizer Audrey Thomas offers the proven advice you'll need to find your way off the Road Called Chaos. She'll help you first identify and understand the reasons behind your disorganization, then craft a plan for banishing disorder based on your individual personality style. Using real-world examples and common-sense guidance, "Organized Audrey" offers the support and insight you’ll need to take the first steps toward organization—and create a more peaceful environment for you, your coworkers, and your family.

Paperback

Published September 1, 2004

About the author

Audrey Grace Thomas, née Callahan, novelist and short story writer (b at Binghamton, NY 17 Nov 1935). Audrey Thomas was educated at Smith College, Mass, and St Andrews University, Scotland, and then taught in England for a year. In 1959 she moved to Canada and in 1963 earned an MA at the University of British Columbia. From 1964 to 1966 she lived in Ghana, but eventually settled on Galiano Island. She has published more than 15 novels and short story collections, more than 20 radio plays, several broadcast on CBC Radio, and numerous travel articles, some of which featured in Air Canada's in-flight magazine.

Thomas' writing has been described as feminine; her forte is the minutiae of women's lives, and she has claimed to strive "to demonstrate the terrible gap between men and women" and "to give women a sense of their bodies." Her style is characterized by word play; she emphasizes puns, etymologies, euphemisms, words within words, and pointing to the inherent possibilities, ironies and ambiguities of language. This close attention to language highlights the act of writing itself, and the possibilities and impossibilities of communication in human relationships. Her writing is also rich with literary allusion, from Shakespeare to Conrad, and from the Bible to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Audrey Thomas is a multi-award winning author. She has been recognized provincially, winning the Ethel Wilson Prize three times (for Intertidal Life, 1985, Wild Blue Yonder, 1991 and Coming Down from Wa, 1996). She has twice been nominated for the Governor General's Award (1984 and 1985), and has been internationally recognized with the Canada-Scotland Writer's Literary fellowship (1984-6) and the Canada-Australia Literary Prize (1989). In 1987 she won the Marian Engel Award, awarded annually to a female Canadian author for her contribution to Canadian literature. In 2003 Audrey Thomas won the Terasen Lifetime Achievement Award.

(from http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.co...)

Reviews

[Angela]

Short chapters with a good idea in each one for clutter reduction.

[Kay Mcaloney · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. I heard Audrey speak and a training session a few years and decided I really wanted to read her book. I love the steps necessary toward organization. I feel that I am organized, but could always use a few more tips! The case studies made the steps more personal. I would highly recommend this book for the organized or unorganized!

[Leading Edge Organizers (LEO)]

Hey look, it's Audrey again! :)