No Finer Place: A Memoir of DNA, Deception, and Duality

Hyper-competent and hard-charging, Michelle is one of those "I don't know how she does it" women-the kind you don't know whether to envy or pity. But when a seismic DNA surprise at midlife loosens her white-knuckle grip on life, she learns the hard way that checklists don't heal and the only way forward is inward.

Ever unflappable, Michelle treats the discovery of identity-shattering family secrets as just another project to manage, thinking she can fool herself and others that she's not falling apart. She travels from the craggy coast of Maine to the South Carolina Lowcountry, Atlanta, Savannah, and Louisiana's bayous and Bible Belt, tracing her parents' coming of age against a backdrop of the Great Depression, World War II, racial segregation, and homophobia. Michelle expects answers to unfurl like Spanish moss off a live oak or float to the surface of a Sazerac but instead finds she's searching for all the wrong things in all the wrong places. No Finer Place: A Memoir of DNA, Deception, and Duality explores the universal longing to belong and our capacity to grow whole after life nearly breaks us.

Michelle Tullier ("too-lee-yay") is obsessed with dogs, alphabetized spice racks, and the futile pursuit of understanding human behavior, especially her own. She is the author of nine self-help books, including The Complete Idiot's Guide to Overcoming Procrastination, 2nd ed., (Penguin, 2012). No Finer Place (Gatekeeper Press, 2026) is her first memoir, which she sees as putting her self in self-help.

Michelle holds a BA from Wellesley College and PhD in counseling psychology from UCLA and studied creative writing at Emory University. She is a frequent speaker and podcast guest in the global community of those with MPEs (misattributed parentage experiences) and DNA surprises. Michelle works as a developmental editor and ghostwriter for major publishing houses and self-publishing authors.

A native Atlantan, Michelle loves her snowy island home in Maine and spending spring mud season on a sailboat in the Bahamas.