My Unexpected Life

Finding Balance Beyond My Diagnosis

Jennifer Gasner

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English

Acorn Publishing
07 September 2023

Autobiography: general; Memoirs; Coping with disability; Mind, Body, Spirit: thought & practice

"""A refreshing coming-of-age memoir exploring young love, college, and careers while navigating a progressing disability.""-Independent Book Review

Jennifer Gasner is seventeen when her dreams are shattered overnight.

Receiving a diagnosis of Friedreich's ataxia, a rare genetic neuromuscular disease, means she must prepare herself for a life of loss. When she starts college, she can still walk on her own, but as her disease progresses, she spirals further into sadness, denial, and alienation. She turns to alcohol and a toxic relationship to distract her from what she refuses to accept-that her body, her self-esteem, and her hope for her future are failing.

When Jennifer develops a friendship with rock star Dave Matthews, her outlook changes. She begins to understand that using a wheelchair doesn't mean her life is over. In fact, when she discovers disability culture, she realizes it's not her body that needs to be fixed but her assumptions about being disabled.

In her captivating memoir, My Unexpected Life: Finding Balance Beyond My Diagnosis,

Jennifer invites you into her world, where she must learn to view her changing body with compassion and choose gratitude over anger as she finds strength and acceptance in a whole new way of moving through life.

Hollywood Book Festival Awards Honorable Mention for biography/autobiography

Notable 100 Book, 2023 Shelf Unbound Best Indie Book Competition

Gold Book Award, Literary Titan

April 2024 Author of the Month, San Diego Central Library

Red Ribbon, The Wishing Shelf Book Awards"

By: Jennifer Gasner
Imprint: Acorn Publishing
Dimensions: Height: 216mm, Width: 140mm, Spine: 17mm
Weight: 386g
ISBN: 9798885280310
Pages: 304
Publication Date: 07 September 2023
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Jennifer Gasner received her BA in English from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville and her MS in recreation from Western Illinois University. Her work with Independent Living Centers enabled her to learn about various disability programs throughout the country and ignited her passion for disability culture. She relocated to San Diego, California, on her own at the age of twenty-eight. As a mentor for What's Next, a program for youths with disabilities, and as co-chair of UC San Diego's Staff Association for staff with disabilities, Jennifer solidified her role in the San Diego disability community. In 2020, Jennifer became an ambassador for the Friedreich's Ataxia Research Alliance (FARA), raising awareness about Friedreich's ataxia (FA). She participated in Rare Across America, meeting with legislators to discuss laws affecting more than 25 million Americans living with one or more rare diseases. Jennifer is a member of the International Memoir Writers Association, and her writing has been published in Shaking the Tree, volumes 3 and 4. In her free time, she enjoys yoga, movies, and traveling. She lives with her boyfriend Gregory and their dog. My Unexpected Life: Finding Balance Beyond My Diagnosis is her first book.

Reviews for My Unexpected Life: Finding Balance Beyond My Diagnosis

"""Jennifer Gasner's memoir My Unexpected Life: Finding Balance Beyond My Diagnosis is an amazing tour de force!"" -NetGalley ""Rousing account of navigating life with Friedreich's ataxia.""-BookLife Reviews ""The truth that [Gasner] delivers in these pages is sad at times, but she also relates it with humor. Throughout the memoir, she always grounds her account with a tone of authenticity that reveals both her frustrations and her considerable strength. The story [she] tells is a moving and revealing one."" -Kirkus Reviews ""Gasner's writing is as inspiring as it is emotionally powerful, peppered with transparent anecdotes on how the disease impacted her motor skills, created fear about the future, and stymied her college plans. Though harrowing, her story is ultimately one of overcoming."" -BookLife Reviews ""A refreshing coming-of-age memoir exploring young love, college, and careers while navigating a progressing disability.""-Independent Book Review ""My Unexpected Life is a testament to the human spirit's capacity to overcome adversity and find balance and happiness in unexpected places, and I would certainly recommend it to anyone undergoing sudden medical change who seeks to find joy and peace."" -K.C. Finn for Readers' Favorite ""With a lot of 1990s nostalgia, Gasner's writings alter the view of the general population on what it means to be 'normal.' As far as I am concerned, she has achieved all of it with me and opened my eyes to much, much more."" -Jamie Michele for Readers' Favorite ""The honesty is refreshing, and the college experience, as it turns out, is pretty universal! It's nice to put a smile on a story, and I am grateful that Jennifer Gasner has given us both. Very highly recommended."" -Asher Syed for Readers' Favorite"