Monkey Mind

Expressive and immensely entertaining, Paul Michael Garcia's narration captures every nuance in the author's witty take on the many faces of anxiety. It's a performance that propels the mission of this carefully drawn memoir--to liberate anxiety's beleaguered, overly serious victims and make them laugh while they consider their lives. With appealing first-person writing, the author achieves his goal superbly by describing how one lifelong anxiety sufferer (complete with nutty family) learned how to unravel his symptoms' origins, understand adult love and responsibility, and consider the contradictory anxiety remedies offered to him. As a memoir, it's certainly more cathartic and evocative than prescriptive, but because of the author's sensibilities and Garcia's extraordinary performance, this is an audio that will inspire a lot of productive reflection on how to live with an anxiety disorder. T.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine

May 7, 2012
Anxiety is no laughing matter, yet afflicted journalist and editor Smith uses humor (such as his use of maxi pads to stem his profuse armpit sweat) as he explains the excess of thought and emotion also known as “Monkey Mind” in Buddhism. He traces its roots to his psychotherapist mother, a woman whose life is riddled with attacks she actively works to overcome in her 40s. Smith’s attacks are exacerbated by the loss of his virginity in a ménage à trois with two predatory older women whose advances he’s too angst-ridden to rebuff. Smith also reflects on college, where the abundance of freedom and absence of personal space induces frequent tear-choked calls home. After graduation, he embarks on his first romance and lands a fact-checking job at the Atlantic. There, he writes his first article, which results in a libel lawsuit. When his two-year relationship falls apart, he steps out of his stress-addled head long enough to heed the advice of his therapist. Reading the harsh comments posted online about his article and tracking his thoughts and behavior for triggers helps him reroute his psychological circuitry and win his ex back. Smith does a skillful job of dissecting the mechanics of anxiety as well as placing the reader in his fitful shoes. Agent, Melanie Jackson.

December 1, 2012

Smith, author of Muses, Madmen, and Prophets and a contributor to various publications including American Scholar, Atlantic, the New York Times Magazine, and Slate, explores what it means both to be momentarily anxious and to suffer from long-term anxiety. He understands that the same impulse that causes humans to run from wolves can also cause them--and those surrounding them--immense pain. Read by Paul Michael Garcia, the audiobook is by turns somber and hilarious. Smith, whose insights are hard-won, has written an intelligent and amusing memoir that traces anxiety's intellectual history and its influence on contemporary America. VERDICT Recommended for fans of self-help and memoir.--Pam Kingsbury, Univ. of North Alabama, Florence

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