For most of her life, Georgine Hodgkinson did everything by the book. She built a successful career as a college professor, raised four daughters, embraced structure and stability, and believed careful planning was the surest path to a secure future.
It was a philosophy shaped by a childhood marked by poverty and substance abuse, experiences that convinced her the safest life was one built on predictability.
But when the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the routines that had defined her life, Hodgkinson found herself making an unexpected move from California to Puerto Rico—a decision that would eventually become the foundation of her debut memoir, Crypto Island, scheduled for release Sept. 22 through She Writes Press and distributed nationally by Simon & Schuster.
Now splitting her time between Dorado, Puerto Rico, and Folsom with her husband, Mark, Hodgkinson has transformed that unlikely chapter of her life into a deeply personal memoir that explores far more than cryptocurrency.
Instead, Crypto Island examines identity, resilience, second chances and the lifelong process of confronting the past while embracing an uncertain future.
“What happens when a risk-averse college professor, wife and mother of four leaves behind a carefully controlled life and lands in one of the world’s most controversial cryptocurrency communities?” asks the book’s opening premise.
The answer, Hodgkinson discovered, had very little to do with digital currency and everything to do with understanding herself.
For readers expecting a technical guide to cryptocurrency investing, Hodgkinson’s memoir instead delivers an intimate story about transformation. The world of crypto serves as the backdrop for a much more personal journey—one that forces her to revisit painful memories of an adolescence overshadowed by financial instability, addiction and poverty.
As she immersed herself in Puerto Rico’s unique political landscape and internationally recognized cryptocurrency community, Hodgkinson found herself questioning long-held assumptions about money, success and security. The deeper she explored the world around her, the more she realized the greatest risks she faced weren’t financial at all. They were emotional, rooted in unresolved experiences that had shaped her life long before she ever heard the word cryptocurrency.
The memoir traces how those discoveries gradually dismantled decades of carefully constructed emotional walls, leading her toward healing, self-acceptance and a new understanding of freedom.
For Hodgkinson, the move to Puerto Rico represented far more than a change of scenery. It became an opportunity to rewrite a personal narrative that had been shaped by fear for much of her adult life.
The memoir examines the often-complicated relationship between risk and reward, not simply in financial decisions but in relationships, personal growth and the willingness to confront difficult truths. While cryptocurrency provides the setting, the heart of Crypto Island is the universal challenge of reinvention. Readers who have experienced career changes, family transitions, relocation or simply questioned whether life can begin again in middle age may find familiar themes throughout its pages.
Advance readers from the literary and memoir community have praised Crypto Island for its honesty, emotional depth and exploration of reinvention.
Bridey Thelen-Heidel, author of Bright Eyes, called the memoir “vulnerable and unrestrained about the realities of reinvention,” adding that Crypto Island “might be the how-to manual—or treasure map—midlife mavericks who dream of trading security for a sandy beach have been searching for.”
Dr. Linda Joy Myers, founder of the National Association of Memoir Writers, praised the emotional depth of the story.
“The joy of reading this memoir is discovering the healing power of how Georgine faced fear … and ultimately encountered a new relationship with herself, something all of us hope for in midlife,” Myers wrote.
Author Rita M. Gardner described the memoir as “both a cautionary saga and an awakening to adventure,” adding that Hodgkinson “faces a reckoning of the past and navigates her way through to an innovative future.”
The story also reflects Hodgkinson’s professional life.
She serves as a professor of communication studies at Cosumnes River College, where she previously coordinated the Re-Emerging Scholars Program, an initiative supporting formerly incarcerated students pursuing higher education.
Throughout her academic career, Hodgkinson has published scholarship examining politics, gender and spirituality through book chapters, journal articles and essays. Her work as an educator and researcher has consistently centered on communication, resilience and personal transformation—subjects that naturally carry into her memoir.
In 2025, Hodgkinson was recognized as the People’s Choice Winner of the Amy MacRae International Memoir Award, further establishing herself as an emerging voice in nonfiction storytelling.
Outside the classroom, Hodgkinson is a certified yoga instructor who enjoys running and playing pickleball, pursuits that complement her interests in mindfulness, personal growth and healthy living.
While Crypto Island marks her first full-length memoir, it arrives after years of academic writing and personal reflection. Published by She Writes Press, the 360-page memoir targets readers who appreciate honest, emotionally driven nonfiction in the tradition of authors Stephanie Land and Glennon Doyle.
Rather than offering easy answers, Hodgkinson invites readers into the complexities of rebuilding a life, confronting old wounds and discovering that personal growth rarely follows a predictable path. The memoir ultimately argues that reinvention is not reserved for youth. Instead, it suggests some of life’s most meaningful transformations begin only after people are willing to question the stories they’ve spent decades telling themselves.
For Hodgkinson, that journey unexpectedly began thousands of miles from Folsom on a Caribbean island known for attracting entrepreneurs, investors and innovators from around the world.
Yet despite its unusual setting, Crypto Island remains grounded in experiences familiar to many readers: overcoming hardship, redefining success, healing from the past and discovering that the greatest investment people can make may not be financial at all, but in themselves.
Crypto Island will be released Sept. 22 by She Writes Press and distributed nationally through Simon & Schuster. The memoir spans 360 pages and carries ISBN-13: 9798896361480. It will be available through major booksellers in hardcover, ebook and audiobook formats.
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