Attain Fish Heads And Duck Skin Depicted By Lindsey Salatka In Brochure

love unsympathetic characters and Tina fits the bill, Her often snarky voice, dark sense of humor, and relentless honesty make this journey to self enlightenment a rewarding trip.
Tina gives up a high powered corporate job where she is deeply unhappy and moves to Shanghai when her husband gets a job there.
Tina suffers from culture shock and cluelessness as she tries to negotiate a new world with two small children.
She still isnt happy, not for a long time but she eventually makes a few friends, This is a fast fun read, via my blog: sitelink wordpress. com/
𝐌𝐲 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐭𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐧 𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐟𝐥𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐭.

Tina Martin works far too hard, life is wearing her down and all she wants is some calm in her life.
Reeled into attending a SIS event with her friend Jennifer, where neighborhood “mompreneurs” inspire one another, sell their wares and network, Tina is encouraged to get a reading from a psychic.
Laughing at the woman, she tempers her hilarity long enough to ask a question, Fresh from her fight with husband Daniel, she wonders if they will be getting a divorce, When the cards are flipped, she discovers that her journey

with Daniel has “only just begun, ” A big choice is about to be made, life altering changes, one that require leaps and bounds, Returning home that night, high on possibilities, she seduces her husband with a vision, What if they moved somewhere exotic, somewhere she could write and he could work with robots or whatever tickled his fancy Their girls could thrive under the love and attention of their mother, finally!

The winds of fate blow in, Daniel is offered a position in Shanghai, China.
The silly, five dollar psychics words begins to come true! Together, they fly to Shanghai where the exotic journey is about to begin.
She just knows in this foreign, mystical land she will reach an inner peace, become a better version of herself, no longer worn down by the demands of the American life.
The flight itself doesnt bode well as she and the girls are seated separately from Daniel, Its not enough to swap turns and trade seats, the girls are unhinged! It goes from bad to worse.
Nothing improves when they land at their destination after a horridhour flight, The culture shock is immediate from the taxi ride to the only hotel their budget affords their little family.


The city is bustling, full of foreign noises, roads full of traffic that will run you down in a split second.
The store has their American treats but then an incident overwhelms Tina, and the universe cant even spare a moment on a patch of grass to allow her to collect her sanity.
Luckily, an Ayi 阿姨 comes to their rescue even if she isnt sure what exactly the grandma does, An Ayi is not a grandma but a nanny referred to as an Aunt as a form of respect.
Nothing comes easy, not even finding a place to live, Learning how to order coffee is yet another learning experience, one where she makes her first friend, How did Tina get them all into this mess In her first email to her friend Jennifer, she unloads with her observations of her host country not even attempting to be generous to the locals.
Her rosy tinted glasses are off, and she regrets this journey already,

Her reactions to the customs of the locals clash with her western views, seeing only the worse.
She admits, “Im too rigid to adapt, ” She feels like a failure already, When an older man helps her daughter Piper off the monkey bars in the park, she doesnt yet know he will become a rock in the days that follow, and a spiritual mentor of sorts.
One she sorely needs as she seems to do everything wrong, leading to no end of personal disasters.
Its a learning experience, at times brutal, but she just may discover her passion, if she can just get her footing right.


Americans often imagine foreign places with our westernized eyes and have a difficult time embracing the differences, instead comparing back home to the place we find ourselves.
That never bodes well. It takes an open mind and flexibility to adjust, So many people want the exotic dream rather than the reality, Tina gets a big wake up call, but in the end she discovers a purpose and that makes the world of difference.
I spent a lot of time laughing at her deflated optimism and enjoyed her daughters the most, They actually behave like children, causing scenes, voicing their endless demands and yet adjusting far better to the new world than the adults.
Tina is often ridiculous, she says herself she is too rigid to adapt, and at times its true.
She is as ignorant as other expats, neglecting to see how bountiful their lives are, It is a different culture, a separate history and events that form us are not shared they cant be, not truly.
Its all in ones perspective, We often can only see through our own experience, Those from the west seem spoiled, but to be fair, we only know our way of living too, based on our own customs and culture.


Its a humorous read with honest reactions and reflections, I have lived overseas, I remember in Japan hearing other Americans shriek in restaurants over seeing a fish fully cooked served with its head still attached.
No big deal for me, but for some reason its a shock to others when food looks like, well what it resembles when its alive.
Poverty is always one of the hardest realities to face, and so many of us are sheltered from it.
Were sheltered from many other things too, but when you travel you have to be open to differences and not judge from your Western beliefs its often easier said than done.
We idealize what a trip, or a move, is going to be like but reality loves to challenge us.
Tina will be challenged and feel like a lame duck, Will she ever find an anchor I sure never had a mentor of my own, would have been a blessing to be sure!

Publication Date: Julyth,

She Writes Press Tina Martin is a burnt out TypeA working mom in America, she knows she should devote more time and attention to her young daughters and her devoted but overtaxed husband Daniel.
But instead the family moves to Shanghai where chaos increases exponentially, Even though this book is unabashedly comical parenting fails, bottomless pit of husband's patience, lots and lots and lots of fecal/vomit gags, etc there were plenty of profound bits that resonate deeply, like all of Tina's friendships whether with longtime BFF Jennifer back home, newfound expat heroines, or Mr Han her quasigrandfatherly tai chi master.


I think this book is more for the uninitiated those with experience living in Asia may find the overthetopness of it all a bit insensitive.
Not to say I didn't laugh my ass off in spite of it!

Thanks to NetGalley and SheWrites for the ARC, release scheduled forJuly,.
This book is worth the journey! I love books that show the messy side of a worthwhile transition.
Without the mess, misconceptions, selfdoubt, even selfrighteousness, the impact of personal growth could never be so profound, This book captures all of that in a realtime transition as the main character shifts away from feeling so out of place in her own world, mind, and roles.
Initially, she fills that discomfort with success that has an everadvancing bar, Realizing that that is not a rewarding or sustainable life, she is brave enough to make the greatest leap outside her comfort zone.
That's when the messy, discordant hilarity begins, Tina is the first person to recognize that she is doing it wrong, but going with the flow is not how she became a successful business woman in the first place.
She is a type A, highproducing control freak in a culture where none of her prior skill set will work.
It's also that personality that makes Tina unwilling to give up on herself, on people and on an unfamiliar culture.
The ride is raucous, painful, rough and full of love, laughter, hope and selfreflection, I feel like I made the journey with Tina, As a lover of travel myself, I understand that salvation sometimes appears as an icecold drink or a clean toilet.
A must read!.