Book Review & Giveaway - The Ice Cream Theory by Steff Deschenes

If Forrest Gump thinks 'Life is like a box of chocolates' and Charles Schultz thinks "Life is like a ten-speed bicycle.  Most of us have gears we never use" then Steff Deschenes must think that Life is like a Baskin Robbins...


From the Publisher: 


With its upbeat, conversational tone and broad appeal, The Ice Cream Theory is not a typical self-help book. The book strives to use that all-comfortable, all-inclusive, all-relatable dessert, ice cream, as the non-threatening medium to share insight to life when it comes to friendships, hardships and overcoming obstacles.

The Ice Cream Theory is Steff Deschenes’s charming exploration of the parallels between human personalities and ice-cream flavors, a tongue-in-cheek celebration of the variety inherent in a well-lived life. This book utilizes humor and satire to encourage the reader to enjoy life, the people around it, and that nothing is by accident—everything happens for a reason.



My review:
The Ice Cream Theory is a great, fun read that combines a passion for ice cream with insights into human nature and blends them together in a sweet and slightly irreverent way.  The first thing that I thought of when I read the blurb about this book on Pump Up Your Book's website is 'What flavor would I be?'  


I love how she got started on the road to writing this book - "When Steff Deschenes was a teenager, dealing with her first heartache, her parents offered her a distraction: a challenge of sorts, to try every flavor of ice cream made by a local company, with a reward of visiting the ice-cream factory afterwards.  Thirty-six flavors and ten pounds later, a love-affair with ice cream and the beginnings of a lifelong social experiment began." 


One of my favorite chapters was chapter 10 - Pina Colada... the very phrase takes me to a beach, cabanas and little paper umbrellas, but Steff has a point... Pina Colada ice cream isn't nearly as good as the drink... 


The Ice Cream:


"Pina Colada ice cream to me, is, well, milky.  Phlegmy-milky.  The kind of stuff that you can hock a think, white-colored loogie from.  If an ice cream leaves a funky, tangy, unnatural tasting film all over the inside of your mouth, leaving you wanting to claw the taste out with your own stubby, grimy fingernails, well, you gotta know that something's wrong."


She elaborates from there, but I think she paints a pretty strong image, just from the opening paragraph...


The Person:


"We all have those 'friends' who aren't necessarily our first choices - they're our backup friends.  They aren't part of the 'inner circle' - that core group of friends we always associate with.  We call on back up friends only when everyone else we want has proven to be unavailable or backed out on us at the last minute.  We whip our mobiles out and scroll through our contacts until we find a suitable substitution.


'Hey!... How're ya?!... Yeah, it has been a long time! Y'know I was thinking about you the other day, and thought that we really oughta get together sometime!... Absolutely, the sooner the better.  Hey, as a matter of fact, what're you doing tonight?'"


I just love the way she describes it, don't you?


Overall:


There are 22 different chapters, detailing everything from Birthday Cake Ice Cream to "Exploding Chocolate Extraordinaire", each one that brings insights, life lessons and a great read!


If you didn't get a chance to check out Steff's guest post here yesterday, you really should click here.


You can win your own copy of Steff Dechesnes book, The Ice Cream Theory, here on Acting Balanced - click on this link for the entry form - your initial entry requires nothing more than entering, the giveaway ends September 28th!

Additional chances to win (please use the entry form for each entry type - I will automatically credit you for the (bonus) entries but you must compete one per type :


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Disclaimer: I was sent a copy of this book in order to complete my review.  All opinions are my own and were not influenced in any way.