Having gone through a career break some months ago, this book comes as a fitting read. In a way, a career break puts things in perspective, and helps with a deeper understanding of our own self.
If you 
long for a break, but do not have the conditions to do it, how about reading this book “One Year Off” by David Cohen?
The “One Year Off” of David Cohen is more than a career break. It is a break from his job as a successful editor, his home and his friends. It starts with how he feels about life at forty years old – “Shortly after my fortieth birthday, I began to experience vague twinges of spiritual uneasiness. I suppose you could call it a mid-life crisis”. He quietly starts to dislike his home, his belongings and dissatisfies with his own production of books; he longed for a big adventure travel.
This is the book that describes how he actions this uneasiness into selling his home, breaking from his publishing job, and taking a year off travelling around the world visiting over fifteen countries. If this does not sound easy, he adds to the challenge as he does it with his wife, his three children at age 9, 8 and 2 years old.
For readers who expect something of a life changing spiritual experience, they could be disappointed. Even though the author “leaving it all behind for a Round-the-World Journey with Our Children”, he and his family returns home with rich memories and experience of the family travelling together for a year. It feels more like that he comes home to pick things where he leaves off with subtle life style adjustment, than a total life transformation. 
He chronicles his year of “freedom” as he visits countries in Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia. His travel log is light, engaging and entertaining. There are dramatic moments too, like how he almost loses his daughter as they go surfing in Australia; or their hospital experience as his children encounter injuries. The book has a bit of everything, from humor to romance, from petty family life to drama, from typical travel to adventures and dangers. His good sense of humor is in good display with the flight from Johannesburg to Port Elizabeth, where after six flights, twelve hours later, and multiple failed attempts to land at Port Elizabeth, they are back to where they start. There is also romantic moments as they tour through Istanbul of Turkey; there is moment of danger in the wild of Africa with the Hippo Attack; and his thoughts about life in the Buddha caves in Laos.
In as much as the book is enjoyable to read, my biggest impression remains with how David and his wife pull this “stunt” off, with three young children; and enjoys so much their adventure. What a travelling family!
oliviatamccue 