Lost & Found: Reflections on Travel, Career, Love and Family

collection of personal essays

A writer uses the same adventurous spirit that took him all over the world to look inward and embark on a journey of self-discovery.

If there was one thing Dustin Grinnell craved, it was adventure. From running the Paris marathon, to bungee jumping in New Zealand, to watching the sunrise at the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, Grinnell spent his twenties and thirties traveling across the globe in search of new experiences. But as he indulged his wanderlust, he noticed he seldom looked inward to explore himself: What did he want, and where was he really going?

In this insightful collection of twenty-five memoir essays, Grinnell discovers amazing places—and bit by bit, himself. Whether he’s exploring his relationship with his father, trying to find satisfaction in Corporate America, or searching for love, Grinnell’s essays offer readers a window into the complexities of human relationships and the natural world, with insights that are both deeply personal and universally resonant.  

“Captures the deepest moments of introspection, doubt, and, ultimately, perseverance and acceptance.” 

Reviews

– Trevor (T.H.) Paul, author of The Legacy Chronicle series

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AWARDS

WHAT PEOPLE SAY

  • “Dustin Grinnell’s series of essays explores how to live. He presents the unvarnished truth of his ‘evolution from magical to critical thinker’ in vivid, precise language that left me hungry to keep reading. I jogged beside him through a tunnel during the Paris marathon and felt the lurch of a bungee cord in New Zealand. Although a marketing writer for many years, there’s no crafting of the best possible image here. His subjects lead him to inspect how he came to his beliefs and his actions. Dustin reads deeply, to study traditions across culture and setting, and then to examine his life through the lens of philosophers, artists, adventurers, and psychotherapists. You will want his reading list. This is a thoughtful and rich collection that inspires, challenges, and ultimately satisfies.”

    —Penny Kittle, founder of the Book Love Foundation and author of The Greatest Catch: A Life in Teaching

  • “Few writers have Grinnell’s ability to tell a great story while imparting sociopolitical insights.”

    Bruce E. Levine, PhD, clinical psychologist and author of Resisting Illegitimate Authority

  • “Lost & Found is a poignant, dark, and moving work that captures the deepest moments of introspection, doubt, and, ultimately, perseverance and acceptance. Dustin Grinnell has opened up his own skepticism about who and what he, and perhaps all of us, really are and what we each wish to pursue. The essay collection raises the question of what will become of us if we simply forge onward, ignoring the whips and scorns of our lived experience in the blind pursuit of some undefined progress. It demands instead that we reflect on the most challenging portions of our lives so we can find, through that rockiness, a sense of who and what we truly are.”

    —Trevor (T.H.) Paul, author of The Legacy Chronicle series

  • “This collection of essays, written by the author over the course of a decade, highlights his journey to leave behind a career as a copywriter, to travel the world in search of inspiration and new experiences, and to navigate the same modern human experiences as so many others. Through marathon races and reluctant therapy, self-actualization and reflection find their way to the forefront in many intended and unexpected ways in this volume of more than two dozen published essays.”

    —Michael Radon, The US Review of Books

  • “Complex, engaging, and deeply layered.”

    EJ Colen, Nonfiction Editor of Tupelo Press