Review for Roll Around Heaven

Amazon.com
Buy it!, December 28, 2009
by S. Lester
“Once I started reading, I couldn't stop. The same goes for the giggles. Once I laughed so hard I didn't think I'd ever stop. Just thinking of the passage gets me into fits again. A great read. Treat yourself or someone else. You won't be disappointed.”

The Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-susan-corso/roll-around-heaven----a-t_b_398470.html

“I could not put this book down.”—Dr. Susan Corso

Amazon.com
A vivid blend of new age and spiritual observation recommended for new age and spiritual libraries alike, December 15, 2009
by Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA)
“ROLL AROUND HEAVEN: AN ALL-TRUE ACCIDENTAL SPIRITUAL ADVENTURE tells of a spiritual awakening that involved author Jessica Maxwell in a journey to personal peace and discovery. From learning how to heal animals and interact with all religions to seeking spiritual authenticity, ROLL AROUND HEAVEN offers a vivid blend of new age and spiritual observation recommended for new age and general spiritual libraries alike.”

Notables: IndieBound.org
http://www.bookweb.org/files/open/pdf/indiebound/nextlist/09Dec.pdf

Footnotes: Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association
http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs018/1101459145215/archive/1102816696616.html

“Jessica Maxwell is a travel and adventure writer who gradually realized that she was on a long and unpredictable spiritual journey for which she most definitely did not buy a ticket. High energy and smart, like Maxwell, Roll Around Heaven: An All-True Accidental Spiritual Adventure is full of fun and fantastic moments. Embrace your own spiritual being! Or just enjoy Maxwell playing tag with hers.”

Grassroots Bookstore
http://www.grassrootsbookstore.com/GRR/GRR_11_19_09Web.html
(Scroll down to "On Our Nightstands")

“Jessica Maxwell, adventure seeker and travel writer, tells of her unexpected spiritual search in true adventure writing fashion. Asking big questions and — with the help of a Holy Pig Farmer — fumbling toward honest answers, Maxwell's book is both insightful and very funny as she journeys to India, to a Yankees game, and toward a relationship with the God who spoke to her on the freeway. An excellent read no matter what you do or do not believe!”

Eugene Register Guard (11/29/09)
http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/web/news/sevendays/23618900-35/story.csp
“There’s a boom — a bubble perhaps — in spiritual writing. The Dali Lama rubs shoulders with Mitch Albom on the charts, while the 16-volume ‘Left Behind’ series reports sales of $65 million.

America seems thirsty for revelation and inspiration. But the quest is not supposed to be hilarious.

Don’t tell that to Jessica Maxwell, Oregon author of the just-released ‘Roll Around Heaven,’ a moving, funny spiritual adventure-memoir, which was, as of Wednesday, the third best-selling book on spirituality at Powell’s City of Books in Portland.

The venturesome environmental author of three earlier books and numerous articles often takes a different, more adventurous path.

‘Roll Around Heaven’ radiates the humor of life’s absurdities, the intrigue and breadth of an accidental globe-circling quest and the energy of a heartfelt prayer. In it, Maxwell knocks the pompous off their pedestals and finds inspiration in unexpected, sometimes terrifying places.”

Huffington Post 2009 Christmas Book List
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-susan-corso/top-10-books-to-give-wome_b_373060.html
“Really fun and funny spiritual memoir by a real, live adventurer and travel writer who was grabbed by the nose and turned onto a spiritual path.”

More.com
http://www.more.com/2053/8700-15-humor-books-that-will#2
“If you want laughs, you don’t usually turn to spiritual memoirs. But Jessica Maxwell’s Roll Around Heaven is so full of LOL moments, it fits the bill. Her adventure starts after her father dies and she sees his face up in the sky, and over the next few years she has one passing strange encounter after another. Think Dave Sedaris meets Eat, Pray, Love. Or Lucille Ball (Maxwell’s also a redhead) meets Tuesdays with Morrie. Maxwell is exuberant, grumpy, skewering, wise and so gosh-darn good-hearted in her quest to understand the universe, I couldn’t help wanting to tag along for the ride—er, roll.”

“I could not set down this book. I am familiar with Ms. Maxwell's adventure writing, which is well-written and funny. In this book she takes things to a higher level (pun intended). You will be amazed at the unbidden physic/spiritual adventures which befall Jessica Maxwell all over the world, each of which is marvelously told with verve, humor and style. Even more important is the message she brings to a world which sorely needs to hear it. We all can experience the Divine. All we have to do is ask and be aware. There are many paths to awareness and one of them is right for each person. Jessica relates her experiences all over the world (India, Bhutan, Scotland, and Oman) and at home in the Pacific Northwest, with persons of all faiths - Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, Muslims, and Presbyterians - to show the reader the many paths to God. She does it by recounting her experiences with great wit and insight, treating them as the greatest of life's adventures. She goes beyond just retelling what has happened to her and gives the reader tools to achieve deeper awareness of the ultimate purpose of life and the oneness of all of creation. Her epilogue, entitled 'What on Earth Does All This Mean to You?,' sets out practical ways and methods for you to Roll Around Heaven in your own life. In this way her book is unlike others of this genre` (Eat, Pray, Love) which tell a good tale but do not leave the reader with any way to apply the story to his/her own life. This book will affect the world for the better. It should have a prominent place on your bookshelf and in your life.”

New Consciousness Review
http://www.ncreview.com/roll-around-heaven-an-all-true-accidental-spiritual-adventure

Booklist
“Seasoned travel and adventure writer Maxwell has penned an irresistible combination memoir, travelogue, and soul-searching odyssey. Initially inspired by a vision of her recently deceased father's face in the sky and spurred on by a spiritual mentor who moonlights as a pig farmer, this self-described nonbeliever embarks upon an unconventional pilgrimage that spans nearly two decades and crosses several continents. Her explorations culminate in a bevy of semi-mystical experiences that include, among others, lunching with Deepak Chopra, dancing with Stephen Hawkin, seeing Celtic visions on the isle of Iona, and trading midnight confidences and theories with the daughters of Islam. Readers who enjoyed Eat, Pray, Love (2007) will hop aboard and enjoy every minute of this rollicking spiritual ride. An inspirational feast for the faithful and enlightening food for thought for the more cynical.”

Publishers Weekly (9/14/2009)
“Successful magazine travel writer Maxwell didn't intend to write a book about spirituality. The author of books on golf, fishing and other nature adventures claimed an “allergy to religion,” yet spirituality seemed to find her anyway. After stumbling upon a lovable pig farmer/spiritual teacher, the self-proclaimed spiritual klutz finds herself wading through adventures with auras, demons, psychics and Jesus. In this book, Maxwell catalogues 16 years of spiritual experiences. The reader is taken through her quest for peace and understanding as she discovers that, regardless of the path, all religions call for loving others. Maxwell draws on religious symbolism from all world religions and quotes everyone from C.S. Lewis to Ramakrishna; the book is essentially spiritual and syncretistic. Readers who find Maxwell more superstitious than authentic should still appreciate her distinctive writing style. Her training as a nature writer allows her to see an experience from the outside in a way inward-looking spiritual writers often cannot. Her cheeky-to-chaste style is both conversational and controlled. Readers will enjoy watching this “former spiritual dodo-brain” discover beauty beyond nature.”
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*"syncretistic" means uniting opposing ideas

Common Ground magazine
http://www.sopdigitaledition.com/commonground/#/40/

Amazon.com
A book that lives all the way up to its wonderful title, October 14, 2009
By Randy Sue Coburn (Seattle)
Not only does "Roll Around Heaven" tell a page-turning story rich with jewels of insight and sensitivity, but Jessica Maxwell's senses of humor and adventure make reading it a flat-out whompin' good time, too. Plus it's the sort of book you finish feeling bigger inside, so it's easier to rearrange mussed-up inner elements into happier configurations. I was lucky enough to get my hands on a couple of advance copies, which I've shared to raves from both from my persnickety, spiritually advanced yoga teacher and my "I don't like religious things" Constant Reader mother. Which speaks, I think, to the broad, big-hearted appeal of "Roll Around Heaven."