Shannon Olson, the heroine of this humorous fictional debut by the author of the same name, is a miserable 25-year-old Accounts and Services Representative at a dwindling software company at the beginning of this account of her five-year quest for inner peace. Complete with a loser boyfriend, inflated credit card bills, and a serious junk food addiction, Shannon`s life has reached rock bottom by the time she decides to move back home to her parents` house in a suburb of Minneapolis. Once there, however, Shannon begins her upward climb; she eventually quits her job, enters graduate school, and has her first meaningful relationship. With help from her inconspicuously wise mother, Flo, and her assertively astute counselor, Shannon also learns some valuable lessons about herself, her family, and the virtues of independence.