Reviews

“She Took a Turn is a riveting memoir that fearlessly explores the journey of self-discovery and transformation. From challenging her conservative roots in Alabama to embracing life as a wife and mother, Kristi Smith’s candid narrative resonates with raw honesty and unwavering determination. Reminiscent of Glennon Doyle and Elizabeth Gilbert, Kristi’s writing inspires and empowers readers to embark on their own paths toward personal growth and societal change.”

“On the increasingly crowded shelf of memoirs, Kristi’s words constitute a tonic: bracing, honest, unflinching, and curative.”

“In the delicate dance of hope and fear, this book stands as a profound testament to the power of vulnerability. The narrative moves with the rhythm of a life lived in earnest search for truth, courage, and understanding. And this is not just a recount of personal evolution, but an invitation to all of us to ponder our place and our voice within the chorus of humanity. In a world that often pressures us to conform, Smith’s generous, authentic, and heartfelt writing encourages and empowers us to cherish our accents—both literal and metaphorical—and to use them to sing our own unique songs of self, community, and change.”

“She Took a Turn is penned by author Kristi J Smith in the memoir, spirituality, and inspirational writing genres. In this heartfelt work with plenty of honesty and heart, the author recounts her journey from a prescribed life of conformity as a devout Christian and obedient daughter to finding her true path through self-reflection and courageous choices. What results is a poignant and honest exploration of the self that we can all relate to on our own journeys of discovery. The author has crafted an enlightening and inspiring memoir as she fearlessly shares her personal odyssey of self-discovery. Through her candid storytelling, she invites readers into the complexities of her upbringing and the pivotal moments that led her to question societal norms and embrace authenticity.

The construction of the timeline is relevant and relatable, and the author has a great sense of self to see how small moments add up to bigger realizations later on down the line. Kristi J Smith’s narrative is both entertaining and thought-provoking, filled with colorful characters and insightful reflections on personal, professional, and spiritual growth. I adored the genuine warmth of her words that made you feel as though you were chatting with a close friend. As she navigates through challenges and triumphs, Smith’s journey serves as a beacon of hope and empowerment, encouraging readers to embark on their own quest for authenticity and fulfillment. Overall, She Took a Turn is a heartfelt invitation to embrace change, celebrate individuality, and chart a course toward a more authentic life, and I would certainly recommend it to anyone needing a change.”

A memoir of one woman’s journey as she navigates life, love, and learning to be her authentic self. Smith reflects on growing up in a conservative, religious Southern family and following certain familial expectations without question. She maintained a loving but complicated relationship with her parents (especially her mother) as they attempted to guide her down what they believed was the “right path,” including a pre-med track at Princeton. But as she explored more of the world, the author began wrestling with her own dreams and ideas of right and wrong. From falling for a boy who didn’t share her Christian faith and her stint at Teach for America in North Carolina to the complexity of becoming a wife and a mother, Smith’s journey toward personal and professional fulfillment was anything but straightforward. As the author discusses the experiences that had a profound effect on who she is today, she draws strong parallels between the past and present, and between herself and others. When she compares her son’s inability to recognize hunger cues with her own inability to relax until she’s made herself physically ill, her astute reflections invite readers to ruminate on their own idiosyncrasies (she clearly carries a lot of empathy for those around her). Smith’s warm, introspective (and occasionally self-deprecating) narrative voice is one that readers will likely find utterly compelling. This proves especially true in her recollections from childhood, many of which contain delightfully entertaining moments of wry amusement: “I actually remember praying privately to God (in Jesus’s name) the night before the state tournament basketball games—not for victory, not for strength to handle whatever happened…but that He would please delay His second coming until after the championship because I really wanted to win this thing before the apocalypse hit.”

An authentic, compassionate memoir full of impressive insight.

About shedding blinders to see the world in more realistic terms, She Took a Turn is an enlightening memoir.

Kristi J. Smith’s charming memoir She Took a Turn is about her work toward self-discovery.

Smith’s life was mapped out at birth: she would be a perfect young lady from Alabama and would also break glass ceilings by being a doctor. She’d be the perfect evangelical Christian who would settle down with a Christian man and move back to the South to raise their children. But Smith wasn’t sure she wanted to cooperate: her interests didn’t lie in medicine, and although she identified as Christian, she wasn’t set on a specific denomination. She quit medical school and fell in love with teaching, following her heart wherever it led her.

The book is written in a meandering style, going back and forth in time and foreshadowing important events in Smith’s life before returning to them later. Its tone is colloquial, and its prose is thick with metaphors: Smith compares herself to wet cement in her mother’s mind and dry cement in her own to explain their relationship and its early challenges. Further, much of the book’s work is self-reflective and internal, with Smith questioning who she is throughout. It turns over her life story to explore how each individual event contributed to shaping who she became, from the triumph of leaving medical school to the affirmation of a young student saying she was the best teacher ever. Challenges like a breast cancer diagnosis are included as well.

Relationships are another major focus of the memoir—between Smith and her parents at first, then with her sister, and finally with her husband and children. The book explores how these different relationships, and even the most ephemeral relationships (as with that formed via a single conversation with a man who sold flowers outside of her medical school), affected Smith’s life. The more significant relationships, like the one she had with her mother, were the blueprint for her personality, even though it took the women decades to find common ground.

In addition to its personal stories, the book’s topics are diverse. Smith’s interactions with the world around her are a frequent point of focus, as with notes on how she shed her blinders and began to see the world around her in more realistic terms. There are anecdotes about shedding a belief in a meritocracy and about growing from being “color-blind” to becoming aware of systemic racism and her part in it. Such growth is illustrated through stories, as of Smith asking students of color what the United States would be like without the civil rights movement—and then realizing that the students she queried still dealt with living racism. Anecdotes from Smith’s time as a history teacher are also used to comment on systemic issues: she saw an excellent student expelled from school, for example, because he lived outside the school district. Such varied but edifying moments come together in the book’s lesson-filled conclusion, which reflects upon Smith’s life events once more to answer the questions of personal identity that are present throughout the pages.

She Took a Turn is an enlightening memoir about a woman growing into herself and outgrowing other people’s expectations.”

From her birth, Smith’s family expected she would grow up to be “a wealthy, conservative, Christian, medical doctor who trained up North” but returned to Alabama, where her debutante training would “attract a White male of appropriate social and financial standing.” As the title of her debut memoir suggests, Smith chose her own path, sometimes frustrating those who preferred her to be the “equivalent of wet cement—able to be molded.” With graceful prose and hard-won insight, Smith explores the roots of a mid-life crisis and lack of satisfaction. Smith eventually wills herself to “figure out what I learned from each ghost that haunts me,” finding both comfort and challenges in her Christian faith, and seeking a way to live a life of “radical generosity and meaning,” a desire that sometimes jolts those she loves most.

Smith’s own brilliant mother left work and schooling behind to become a traditional Southern woman and mother—and then seemed to expect to live vicariously through her daughter. Smith’s father, an orthopedic surgeon, provided a life of privilege—“The word my family uses is ‘blessed,’” Smith notes. She contemplates this with a sense of awareness and responsibility as she reflects on a life spent “always moving toward something”: pursuing a career in teaching instead of medicine; missionary work in Nigeria; tough but rewarding time teaching in Boston’s Southie neighborhood. But Smith still sought the source of her angst, even after marriage and becoming a mother to four children. After a breast cancer diagnosis at age 43, Smith turns to writing to answer core questions about who she is.

Readers who, like Smith, found guidance and wisdom in the works of Glennon Doyle and Elizabeth Gilbert will enjoy this journey and its inviting life lessons as Smith learns which dreams to keep, which to let go, and how to learn from the past and accept people for who they are.

Takeaway: Searching memoir of finding one’s own path and living for something more.

Comparable Titles: Glennon Doyle’s Untamed, Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love.

Production grades

Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A-