Making It Home: My year as a middle-aged runaway

by Liz Moore

Have you ever wanted to “run away” for a while? Where would you go? How would you live life differently? In the year she turned 50, Liz Moore acted on a long-time daydream. She loaded up her car and left home for a year. Her goal was to randomly find a nice town far away, move in, get a job, and live life without a plan and away from all things familiar. After a month to two months, it would be time to leave for the next town and a new set of adventures, until she had completed a tour of America. She had not imagined where the roads would lead: to work “in security” at the lip of the Grand Canyon, and fun in the concrete canyons of New York, to sharing a house with a globe-trotting professor, to over-coming chaos in a New England waitressing job. “Making it home” refers to making each town home for the time she was there. “Making it home” also means rushing home to deal with crises, including a devastating betrayal and family tragedy.

ebook

First published January 12, 2011

About the author

While I've been a reader from early childhood, I didn't start writing seriously until the birth of the second of my three girls. My publication credits include several poems, articles, and one novel. I like to read and write about a wide variety of subjects in many genres, depending upon my mood. My current projects include: paranormal romances, a sci-fi thriller, children's books, and a screenplay.

Reviews

[Marianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a quick non-fiction read about a 50 year old woman who decided to take a year and travel the states in her car. She stops in a few towns, gets a job for a month or so, and makes the town home. Life happens along the way. It's kind of interesting .... the concept of letting go of what we know of our routine lives and just deciding things on a day by day basis. I'm a little too structured for that, but I did enjoy the ride.

[Kevin · Rating 1 out of 5]

I love the IDEA behind this book- a woman who sets out to abandon her "known" life and settle, through the course of a year, into various small towns to experience differences in living, having a job versus a career, etc.

The execution of this book, however... Left me slogging through until I reached my arbitrary trial-amount of pages. It's not just that this book sounded like it was merely excerpts from some Great Aunt's Diary... But the writer (never without plenty of adjectives) didn't seem to be able to elaborate on the interesting to make them focal points of the chapter. I found the fact that she gave more words to describe her car's routine oil change (or something like that... I had stopped paying attention) than to her first time seeing the California coast a bit disappointing. There were bits and pieces of reflection and humor... But I was hoping for more. And, as someone who saw the potential In the idea of what she has done, my goal in living vicariously through her writing was not even close to being attained.

So... Yeah... This book was abandoned- but I swear I really have it a shot!

[Froukje · Rating 2 out of 5]

The idea of the story was interesting and the writing style was ok, but after a few chapters it felt quite repetitive and it couldn't really keep my interest. I was around 190 pages in.

[Kristen · Rating 1 out of 5]

The “Other Books By this Author” section seems to be inaccurate. I do not believe this is the same author Liz Moore who wrote Heft, Long Bright River, The Unseen World, God of the Woods. Misleading!

[Karen Bovaird · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was not as exciting as the book jacket promised. Still glad I read it, but I don't think I'd recommend it.

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this was the same author who wrote Heft, which I loved. I kept wanting this book to be more interesting, more illuminating. After all here was a peer, leaving her career behind and off to try on different parts of the country. I kept hoping it would turn a corner, but it didn't and I stopped reading it (49% through as my kindle informs me) My new practice is - life is too short for me to be reading books I don't love.

[Doreen · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was about a middle aged woman who leaves her life behind to set out on an adventure across the United States! The problem was that the book wasn't as exciting as her journey was. It was basically a laundry list of where she went and what she ate. I didn't really feel like finding out what happened next until she became the victim of identity theft.

[Karen Breda · Rating 2 out of 5]

There definitely wasn't enough happening in this book to keep my attention. I just wanted her to find a special friend, find a place to live with a shining halo around it, or find profound happiness. Definitely not a book to bring me out of the winter doldrums.

[Susan M. · Rating 2 out of 5]

The premise appealed to me - something I’ve thought would be a great adventure - but the writing just wasn’t good.