Two books came into my office from a local Calgary writer Connie Jakab. I’m a fan of Connie cause somehow through the power of the interweb we got to know each other over Starbucks. I should rephrase that, it was mostly over watching her kids ransack the toy section at Starbucks.

I was going to remark about how ‘anybody’ could write a book but then realized how ridiculous that sounded. In reality, Connie had (has) a vision, that included entering the foray of writing, and has pursued that dream to fruition.

Admittedly, Culture Rebel was somewhat lost on me, being outside of the target female audience. My wife had more, “ugh, listen to this, that’s so me,” moments. So how transformative is Culture Rebel?

Connie is impressing change onto her readers taking them on her own journey of unbridled consumerism to repentant penny pincher. Well maybe not quite. But the story is simple yet sometimes embarrassingly relatable–we’re victims of a consumer culture and that ‘beauty’ is ugly.

I was hoping for a greater in depth examination as to how this struggle and trasformation occurred. That might be the analytical male in me, but I do think there’s another level in her writing as she grows as an author. I’m pretty sure Culture Rebel is in fact a planned series on a number of topics which is great since a) Connie continues to blog regularly, and b) she offers up a unique and sobering perspective especially geared to women and more specifically moms.

It’s easy to feel isolated as a mom. To sense that your dreams have been crushed by the monsters running around in the living room. But the reality is motherhood isn’t a shackle to stay at home, nor is it a badge of honor that only invites overachievers. Rather, it’s a pursuit of big dreams acted out in small ways, something Connie is practicing and hopefully inspires others to follow as well.