An intriguing story that colorfully illustrates one couple’s spiritual journey and the path we all must take to find our way.
In their first novel, Dojeiji and Agraso take readers through the story of their fascinating pilgrimage while offering a glimpse of their unique spiritual, physical and emotional journey.
Dojeiji and Agraso’s book details their walking journey for peace from Rome to Jerusalem. But instead of proclaiming world peace, as one might expect, Dojeiji and Agraso offer their personal pursuits for inner peace and spiritual discovery. The trip also entertains when featuring the daily grind of walking every day for more than a year and the people and places the couple sees. Dojeiji, as narrator, tells of her tales with her friend-turned-boyfriend-turned-fiancé, Agraso, and the trails and countries they walked through, the monasteries and churches they slept in as well as the draining emotional and physical demands that eventually made their walk less pleasant. The budding romance that develops between Dojeiji and Agraso keeps the story even more intriguing. Although the walk is entertaining, the spiritual journey is also deep, complex and unique. The journey takes the two far from common spiritual thought; readers are given insight into Dojeiji and Agraso’s thoughts as they come to believe in the power within themselves and the power to change circumstances through positive thinking and energy. For those not familiar with free-thinking religion—which includes Agraso taking up wizardry and Dojeiji struggling to find her place—it may be difficult to comprehend. Although their exact thoughts on God and Jesus Christ are occasionally hard to pinpoint, the message in the book is clear. Through their long walk from Rome to Jerusalem, the two discover that peace starts within each person.
An intriguing story that colorfully illustrates one couple’s spiritual journey and the path we all must take to find our way.Pub Date: Oct. 30, 2011
ISBN: 978-1614347101
Page Count: 292
Publisher: Booklocker.com, Inc.
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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