FROM FEAR TO PEACE

A woman recounts her path to personal renewal in this debut manual.

As she relates in this visually stunning guide, Franklin seemed to hit rock bottom six years ago. An internet scam artist had defrauded her to such an extent that she was in enormous debt and on the brink of losing her house. In addition, she was dealing with a near-crippling mysterious illness that often left her unable to walk for more than a few steps. The way out of this debilitating downward spiral came in an unlikely form. The author met a woman named Amy and her troubled dog, Frizz, and the three became close enough friends for Franklin to move in with them and give some serious consideration to rethinking her life. Her brief book attempts to distill the lessons she learned, starting with two: Personal change is free and is ultimately the responsibility of each individual. Drawing on her own experiences and a handful of well-known self-help books and authors, Franklin lays out a series of simple strategies and maxims that will be very familiar to readers of self-improvement literature. She tells her readers to relax, to concentrate on the positives in life, to love themselves, and to devote some conscious effort to loving others. Start every morning, she advises, by asking “How can I serve you?” to “God, the universe, Buddha, or whatever”—the work is pleasingly nondenominational in its optimism— because, among other things, this can clarify how each person can improve the day of somebody else. These and other tenets may be clichés, but Franklin offers them with a winning sincerity that’s enhanced by her manual’s beautiful page design and the colorful images from Getty. Readers looking for a quick emotional pick-me-up will appreciate having these reminders.

A simple and upbeat, if familiar, guide to finding the positive in life.