This Is Not The Story You Think It Is... Audiobook By Laura Munson cover art

This Is Not The Story You Think It Is...

A Season of Unlikely Happiness

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This Is Not The Story You Think It Is...

By: Laura Munson
Narrated by: Joyce Bean
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When Laura Munson’s essay appeared in the “Modern Love” column of The New York Times, it created a firestorm. Readers sent it to their friends, therapists gave it to their patients, pastors read it to their congregations. People everywhere were struck by Munson’s wisdom. But how was she able to implement this strategy? How was she able to commit herself to an “End of Suffering” in such a critical time?

Poignant, wise, and often exceedingly funny, This Is Not The Story You Think It Is recounts Munson’s journey. Written as she experiences her crisis, moment by moment, sometimes breath by breath, This Is Not The Story You Think It Is is raw and searingly honest in the very best sense. Munson takes listeners by the hand as they embark, together, on a journey – one in which the outcome is not known. Filled with wisdom, truth, and heart – and a great tomato sauce recipe – it is a candid, powerful, and unforgettable memoir.

©2010 Laura Munson (P)2010 Brilliance Audio, Inc. Divorce & Separation Personal Development Personal Success Relationships Women Funny Heartfelt

Critic reviews

"Laura Munson takes the spiritual stuff and the personal stuff and the love stuff and the pain stuff and she brews them all together in a very fun and touching memoir. I'm a fan. This is a wonderful book." (Marianne Williamson)

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Willa’s Grove Audiobook By Laura Munson cover art
Willa’s Grove By: Laura Munson
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I loved the truthful expression of how Laura’s mind worked through all of this story. It was so relatable, yet helpful to compare vs my own experiences with Laura’s framing and positioning against all she has learned in life thru relationships, therapy, success, failures, kids, relocating, everything.. great read!

Inner workings in a challenging time

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Though I found the "I'm an author, why aren't I more successful?" parts annoying I was genuinely interested in the story of a wife living through her husband's mid-life crisis and attempts of divorce and separation educational. It does explore that "for worse" part of the marriage vows and I would recommend this book for those about to marry so they can ask themselves, if your spouse announced that they no longer loved you, what would you do.

Living through a man's mid life crisis

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Listen to this book and hear its truth. You can’t change anybody else, just yourself. If you work on accepting others, releasing judgment of yourself & others, when you indeed embody love, then love is what comes back to you.

Beautiful. Thanks 🙏🏼

Just what I needed to hear

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I loved this book. The author wrote about her experience in taking a road less traveled. In the past it was shameful to leave a marriage, nowadays it's shameful to stay. In this story the author stays with her husband as he deals with financial issues and mid-life blues. He's not very nice to her, or loving and he wants to leave the marriage, yet She holds on tight and navigates the storm, and she keeps her marriage and family from capsizing. I loved this women's determination to keep her marriage and at the same time maintain her dignity. Most books on this topic do not advocate what the author has done, which makes this book a good read to see how to look at the situation differently. I was going through similar issues with my marriage when I read this book. Some days I felt like it was just me and the author fighting this battle, and I survived. I thank Laura Munson for her words and for the courage to write this personal tale. It certainly helped me and my family. I highly recommend this story.

A must read before you end relationship

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It started slowly. I was just about ready to stop listening when it kicked in. The beginning is like stream of consciousness writing she needed to get out of the way in order to get to her story. But, like Willa’s Grove, it touched me right in the feels!

This author has the gift!

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This audiobook was a waste of a credit. Listening to this book is like listening to one of your girlfriends ramble on and on and on and then on again about her husband, what didn't work, how she wished it had worked, all the things that did work over and over and then over again, you just wish at some point she would talk about something else........anything else!!!!

skip it

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Poor little white rich kids who inhale sushi and worry about paying their therapy bills. Ugh. I had to stop listening to such dreck.

Tone deaf

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I have never given a book a one star rating in all my years of reading, and yet, if I could give this one zero stars I would. The title is absolutely apt, this is not the story you think it is, especially if you picked it up looking for something enlightening, genuine and/or helpful in any way.

I’m not sure what book other reviewers had read, but I am certain that the positive reviews I read before purchasing this piece of tripe could not have been written about this book. Had I not purchased it as an audiobook, I have no doubt I would never have finished it, but as I had already invested so much time listening, I saw it through to the end just hoping it would somehow redeem itself. It did not.

Please do not follow this woman’s lead if you want to be in any sort of healthy relationship, or walk through any crisis with your head held high. There were tenets of spirituality interwoven, but it was glaringly obvious that the author had not followed any of them within her heart. Her tactics with her husband were calculated, manipulative and totally unhealthy, and her mindset, while presented as centered and seeking non-suffering, was stunningly self-centered and agenda driven.

Please, please, please! Do not read or listen to this text hoping to find a healthy and genuinely loving way through ANY crisis in your life. It breaks my heart that anyone desperately seeking guidance and peace would take the author’s manipulation and self-serving motives as a path to recovery and self respect.

Rubbish and Tripe

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I can’t believe how bad this is. This ‘book’ is just the disjointed ramblings of a neurotic housewife with too much time on her hands. This is someone’s diary, nothing more. Not even an edited version.
I bought this because I enjoyed the Modern Love piece. Either that was highly edited by the NY Times editors or this author can only stay focused long enough to get a short essay out.

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