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My (Part-Time) Paris Life:
How Running Away Brought Me Home
Memoir/Nonfiction by Lisa Anselmo
 My (Part-Time) Paris Life: How Running Away Brought Me Home by Lisa Anselmo
Enjoyable. Inspiring—Publishers Weekly
Poignant…a fresh voice—Booklist
The city is more than a backdrop for her own narrative—it's an active character that contributed to her personal growth—Travel & Leisure.
Lisa Anselmo wrapped her entire life around her mother, a strong woman who was a defining force in Lisa’s life?maybe too defining. When her mother dies from breast cancer, Lisa realizes she hadn’t built a life of her own and struggles to find her purpose. Who is she without her mother?and her mother’s expectations?
Desperate for answers, she turns to her favorite city?Paris?and impulsively buys a small apartment, refusing to play it safe for the first time. What starts out as an act of survival sets Lisa on a course that reshapes her life in ways she never could have imagined. Suddenly, she’s living like a local in a city she thought she knew, but her high school French, while fine for buying bread at the corner boulangerie, goes only so far when Paris gives her a strong dose of real life. From dating to home ownership in a foreign country, Lisa quickly learns it’s not all picnics on the Seine, and starts to doubt herself?and her love of the city. But she came to Paris to be happy, and she can’t give up now. Isn’t happiness worth fighting for?
In the vein of Eat, Pray, Love and Wild, My (Part-time) Paris Life a story is for anyone who’s ever felt lost or hopeless, but still dreams of something more. This candid memoir explores one woman’s search for peace and meaning, and how the ups and downs of expat life in Paris taught her to let go of fear, find self-worth, and create real, lasting happiness in the City of Light.
Reviews
“A poignant meditation on self-love, maternal loss—and the restorative force that is Paris—Jennifer Coburn, author of We’ll Always Have Paris
Lisa Anselmo’s tale of striving and self-discovery is proof of the magical magnetism of the City of Light. She might have entitled it “Getting to Paris," where a new life can begin—David Downie, author of A Passion for Paris: Romanticism and Romance in the City of Light
“Charming. This book feels as if Lisa Anselmo is telling you her Paris story over coffee at a café. An intimate account of learning to grieve the loss of a parent while, at the same time, striving to live your dreams—Janice MacLeod, New York Times-bestselling author of Paris Letters
Leading with her heart, Lisa takes us inside the “real”Paris: the Paris of intermittent ecstasy and agony, triumph and frustration, magic and dysfunction. Her honesty, vulnerability and simple joie de vivre through the journey make it a pleasurable trip indeed—Amy Thomas, author of Paris My Sweet: A Year in the City of Light (and Dark Chocolate)
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