How to Be an Adult: A Musician's Guide to Navigating your Twenties - Softcover

Nerissa Nields has been a member of the band The Nields since 1991. She has toured North America, been on major labels, played to tens of thousands from stages all across the continent and has passionate fans all over the world. Between the Nields and her duo with sister Katryna Nields, she has recorded and released sixteen CDs. Her first novel, Plastic Angel, was published by Scholastic Press in 2005. She is the author of How to Be an Adult: A Musician’s Guide to Navigating One’s 20s (Leveller’s Press/Mercy House 2008 and 2013). With Katryna, she wrote All Together Singing in the Kitchen: The Musical Family, on Roost Books (Shambhala) which came out in September 2011. She is currently working on her second novel, The Big Idea, the story of a rock band who is also a family. She maintains three blogs: May Day Café (www.nerissanields.blogspot.com), Singing in the Kitchen (www.nields.wordpress.com)) and How to Be an Adult (http://nerissa-howtobeanadult.blogspot.com/). She is a cum laude graduate of Yale University and holds a BA with honors in English. She has taught creative writing, songwriting and the art of living well for her entire adult life. Trained as a life coach by Martha Beck, she runs writing workshops and retreats out of her home in Northampton, Massachusetts where she lives with her husband and children. For more information, visit www.nerissanields.com.

A friend of mine once said, In college I studied Shakespeare, calculus, molecular biology. What I really wish I had learned was: How long do eggs keep in the refrigerator? How to be an Adult [set in italics] is packed with information required to make it in the real world where a person needs to rent an apartment, vote, set up a 401(K) and buy those eggs. If you know anyone who is graduating soon, buy them a copy of this book. It might be more useful than a car. --Gay Daly

Spend LESS time on the mundane stuff, using Nerissa s beautifully written how-to guide, while spending MORE time experiencing the FABULOUS world of all-the-way-grown-up life-- and make no mistake, being grown up IS a blast; Nerissa has some vital words to add there, too! ---- Dar Williams, singer-songwriter

This is a magical book-- I wish I d had it when I graduated from college! Nerissa Nields manages to combine the essence of Hints from Heloise with a spiritual wisdom reminiscent of Sharon Salzburg or Byron Katie, leavened with the humor of Anne Lamott. Even if you have no street smarts, and have spent the past ten years living under the North Pole, you will be ready for adult life with this engaging earth manual. Whether telling you how to pay taxes, change a flat tire, navigate a relationship with a house-mate, or stop beating yourself up with the club of perfectionism, Nields is amusing, smart, lively, and full of surprises. She is at her best when discussing psychological self-care, conscious living, self-acceptance, and the search for meaning. Every twenty-something (and many 40- or 50-year-olds, as well) should own and read How to Be an Adult. -- --Judith Hooper

Spend LESS time on the mundane stuff, using Nerissa s beautifully written how-to guide, while spending MORE time experiencing the FABULOUS world of all-the-way-grown-up life-- and make no mistake, being grown up IS a blast; Nerissa has some vital words to add there, too! ---- Dar Williams, singer-songwriter

A friend of mine once said, In college I studied Shakespeare, calculus, molecular biology. What I really wish I had learned was: How long do eggs keep in the refrigerator? How to be an Adult [set in italics] is packed with information required to make it in the real world where a person needs to rent an apartment, vote, set up a 401(K) and buy those eggs. If you know anyone who is graduating soon, buy them a copy of this book. It might be more useful than a car. --Gay Daly