Book Recommendation: "Lessons from the Monk I Married"

I’ve been running full steam over the last six months with a new business but finally found some time to read Katherine Jenkins’ new book, Lessons from the Monk I Married, which is also the name of her blog. I “met” Katherine a couple of years ago when she reached out to me. Lessons from the Cockpit had caught her eye on one of the aggregation sites because of the similarity of the first few words to her own blog.

After some email exchanges to get to know one another, we decided to cross-post on each other’s blogs. At the time, Katherine had just found an agent and subsequently sold her memoir to a publisher. Having already enjoyed Katherine’s writing style and inspirational posts on her blog, I expected nothing less from her book.

That said, what a gift, this book. It sailed past my expectations. I know each of us must travel our own paths to learn our own lessons, but the inherently wise among us know when we read of others’ well-written journeys, whether real or fictional, we make those journeys too and learn from them.

Unlike some spiritual quests books I’ve read, Katherine’s writing never calls attention to itself and easily immerses the reader in her journey from a gym staff member in Seattle who wants more out of life, to trekking across the world to teach English in Korea. There, she meets a Buddhist monk with an affinity for bowling. Lessons from the Monk I Married made me smile many times as I read it. From shattered expectations upon her arrival in Korea to the unlikely meeting of the Buddhist monk she eventually fell in love with and married, Katherine’s life and journey quickly became a valued part of my own. I recommend the book to friends and family who are on their own quests as well as those who simply want a good, true story where love wins.