In this unique offering, Ronda Beaman tells her story in a series of letters, written but never sent.

Beaman is an author, business school professor, and chief creative officer for the global research and solution firm PEAK Learning. Many people and things have influenced her in her life, some of whom she wanted to reach out to but never did.

This book is a series of letters she wrote to those people and things but never sent. As such, they form an engaging memoir, starting with Mrs. Pierce, Beaman’s first grade teacher, who was “wonderful and welcoming to every student who passed through your door.” There are letters to other teachers, some laudatory, some critical. Letters to friends. To enemies. To Brian Wilson, lead singer of the Beach Boys. To Packy, an elephant at the Oregon Zoo. To the disease multiple sclerosis.

She explains their purpose in an introduction: “The idea for this book came from an article I read about Swedish death cleaning. The main point was to clear out your stuff before your kids have to do it when you die.” These letters are a type of death-cleaning, a purging of emotional clutter.

Beaman’s style runs the gamut. Some letters are light-hearted, some confessional, some combative. They often display her endearing humor. For example, in a letter to a cruel teacher, she writes: “I’m not holding a grudge. I, 100 percent, hold a deep and abiding loathing.” She confronts the small jealousies, yearnings and childhood crushes we can all relate to and, in fact, embraces them.

There’s an artifice in some letters: If Beaman were actually writing to producers of television’s The Wallace and Ladmo Show, she wouldn’t need to include “As you know…[your show] was the highest rated and most watched program in Phoenix.” Statements like this are for the benefit of readers.

This is sometimes unavoidable, however, and doesn’t seriously detract from this original, delightful, and provocative memoir.