Offers general, timeworn advice.
A cross between a self-help book, a call to action and a sermon, Gwaltney’s Christian-themed book recounts how she turned her life around through her acceptance of Jesus Christ.
In this slim volume full of advice, Gwaltney targets those who come from poor backgrounds. She does not believe that one has to be a victim of modest means; the disadvantaged can find fulfillment by turning to the church and God. Gwaltney states, “If he cleaned me up, I know that God can do the same for you, because he is the potter and we are the clay.” Despite the conversational tone of the book, at times it sounds a bit preachy. The spiritual advice ultimately centers on one common, conventional concept: become surrounded by God. The author suggests reading the Bible daily, choosing entertainment that has substance, turning to God during confusing times and becoming a soldier for the Lord. Gwaltney is most compelling when she tells her own story. For the first 27 years of her life, she says, “I devoted 85 percent of my time enjoying the things in the world and 15 percent in recognizing God as the source of my life.” She lived for the night life of discos. Two major events changed her trajectory: a foot injury that landed her in the hospital and a robbery. During her time in the hospital, Gwaltney realized the depths of her sins, but it wasn’t until she was robbed that she recognized that God had always been with her. From there, Gwaltney submitted to her true calling, began ministering to others and entered Bible school. In more practical ways, Gwaltney offers faith-based tips on jobs and marriage. Using her own failed marriage as an example, the author notes that God should be at the center of every marriage if it’s to be successful. For those open to instilling God more fully in their lives, Gwaltney’s book may give some inspiration.
Offers general, timeworn advice.Pub Date: April 26, 2011
ISBN: 978-1456761219
Page Count: 80
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: July 10, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.
A teacher and scholar of Buddhism offers a formally varied account of the available rewards of solitude.
“As Mother Ayahuasca takes me in her arms, I realize that last night I vomited up my attachment to Buddhism. In passing out, I died. In coming to, I was, so to speak, reborn. I no longer have to fight these battles, I repeat to myself. I am no longer a combatant in the dharma wars. It feels as if the course of my life has shifted onto another vector, like a train shunted off its familiar track onto a new trajectory.” Readers of Batchelor’s previous books (Secular Buddhism: Imagining the Dharma in an Uncertain World, 2017, etc.) will recognize in this passage the culmination of his decadeslong shift away from the religious commitments of Buddhism toward an ecumenical and homegrown philosophy of life. Writing in a variety of modes—memoir, history, collage, essay, biography, and meditation instruction—the author doesn’t argue for his approach to solitude as much as offer it for contemplation. Essentially, Batchelor implies that if you read what Buddha said here and what Montaigne said there, and if you consider something the author has noticed, and if you reflect on your own experience, you have the possibility to improve the quality of your life. For introspective readers, it’s easy to hear in this approach a direct response to Pascal’s claim that “all of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Batchelor wants to relieve us of this inability by offering his example of how to do just that. “Solitude is an art. Mental training is needed to refine and stabilize it,” he writes. “When you practice solitude, you dedicate yourself to the care of the soul.” Whatever a soul is, the author goes a long way toward soothing it.
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-300-25093-0
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
A marvelously tender memoir on suicide and loss.
An essayist and novelist turns her attention to the heartache of a friend’s suicide.
Crosley’s memoir is not only a joy to read, but also a respectful and philosophical work about a colleague’s recent suicide. “All burglaries are alike, but every burglary is uninsured in its own way,” she begins, in reference to the thief who stole the jewelry from her New York apartment in 2019. Among the stolen items was her grandmother’s “green dome cocktail ring with tiers of tourmaline (think kryptonite, think dish soap).” She wrote those words two months after the burglary and “one month since the violent death of my dearest friend.” That friend was Russell Perreault, referred to only by his first name, her boss when she was a publicist at Vintage Books. Russell, who loved “cheap trinkets” from flea markets, had “the timeless charm of a movie star, the competitive edge of a Spartan,” and—one of many marvelous details—a “thatch of salt-and-pepper hair, seemingly scalped from the roof of an English country house.” Over the years, the two became more than boss and subordinate, teasing one another at work, sharing dinners, enjoying “idyllic scenes” at his Connecticut country home, “a modest farmhouse with peeling paint and fragile plumbing…the house that Windex forgot.” It was in the barn at that house that Russell took his own life. Despite the obvious difference in the severity of robbery and suicide, Crosley fashions a sharp narrative that finds commonality in the dislocation brought on by these events. The book is no hagiography—she notes harassment complaints against Russell for thoughtlessly tossed-off comments, plus critiques of the “deeply antiquated and often backward” publishing industry—but the result is a warm remembrance sure to resonate with anyone who has experienced loss.
A marvelously tender memoir on suicide and loss.Pub Date: Feb. 27, 2024
ISBN: 9780374609849
Page Count: 208
Publisher: MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2023
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