Happy new year, and welcome to 2014. How’d those resolutions from last year turn out? Not so great? Maybe this year, instead of vowing to eat better, get in shape, save money, or organize our kitchen drawers, we promise ourselves we’ll do something we want to do, something that is not just good for us, but actually kinda sorta a little bit fun. For inspiration, check out these memoirs by folks who’ve chucked it all for months, a year, or a lifetime, abandoning their ruts to follow their bliss. (Blisses?) Incidentally, all happen to have been best-sellers, so if "write a hugely successful memoir, sell the rights to Hollywood, quit my job, and watch Julia Roberts/Diane Lane/Reese Witherspoon portray me on the big screen" is at the top of your resolutions for the coming year, consider starting your research here.

Wild by Cheryl Strayed

Strayed tried everything to alleviate the pain of the death of her mother, including ending her marriage and developing a heroin habit. But it turned out what she really needed was more pain, in the form of an over-stuffed backpack and a pair of ill-fitting boots. Outfitted thusly, Strayed set off to hike the Pacific Crest Trail -- despite being not that athletic, and having no wilderness experience. In this memoir, which mixes heartache with joy, Strayed writes about the walk on the "wild" side that changed her life.

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Facing the end of her marriage and at a loss about what to do next, Elizabeth Gilbert came up with a plan that could generously be described as unique -- she would spend the next year visiting three countries, all starting with the letter I. Off she flew to Italy, where she ate, then India, where she prayed, and finally Indonesia, where, in spite her of her efforts to avoid another relationship, she fell in love. Her journey of self-discovery may inspire, but it is her frank, funny voice that will endear her to you, and make her quest sound not at all unusual.

Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes

A successful poet and novelist, Mayes thought she was satisfied with her life until she saw Bramasole, a 200-year-old farmhouse in the Tuscan countryside. She bought it, and embarked on the ever-larger, ever-more-complicated process of renovating it, along the way learning about her neighbors, the Italian countryside, the seasons, the orchards, home repair, and, of course, herself. This book, which includes recipes for the sumptuous meals she cooked when not ripping out floorboards or plastering ceilings, proved irresistible to all who dreamed of moving to Italy and living a life of food, wine, flowers, and long afternoon naps.

A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle

Before Mayes popularized Tuscany, Mayle conquered -- or attempted to conquer -- the picturesque, charming, baffling, maddening Provencal region of France. Seizing the chance to make his lifelong dream of living in the French countryside a reality, Mayle moves his family to a stone farmhouse that has all the charm of his dreams, and none of the comforts, namely, central heating, which he discovers once the frigid January winds begin to blow. Wry and self-deprecating, Mayle describes the process by which a fantasy becomes a reality, and how his idealized longing for Provence grew into genuine, hard-earned love.

Me Talk Pretty One Day by Davd Sedaris

If your get-out-of-town fantasies tend more towards the urban than provincial, there’s no more glamorous destination to pine for than the city of lights. Or so thought humorist Sedaris, until he had the chance to actually move there. In Paris, Sedaris struggles to learn French, which he attempts to employ for simple transactions like taking the metro or buying groceries, with the predictably absurdist and hilarious results. Sedaris’s Paris is a town of arbitrary rules, incomprehensible customs, ridiculous bureaucracy and citizens as idiosyncratic, crotchety, and cockeyed as he is. Of course he eventually feels right at home, if not quite mastering the language and etiquette, then reveling in his ability to pique the French with his well-meaning attempts.