Self-help meets memoir in this mishmash of influences offering spiritual direction and practical habits for healthier living.
Attar’s essays on self-fulfillment and creative exploration blend lessons from pop-psychology and spirituality.
In her debut memoir/self-help guide, the author borrows from religious and spiritual customs from India, Syria, Mexico, and the U.S., incorporates the work of Freud and Jung and other self-help texts, and recommends the basics—a good diet, exercise, and proper sleep hygiene. Various types of meditation in the traditions of both Buddhism and Christianity are explored, and the author notes that prayer, with its ritualistic repetition, is remarkably similar to meditation in its practice. Like many self-help authors, she urges readers to stay positive; by revisiting good experiences, positive thoughts can be enhanced and even replace self-defeating ones. The concept of the personal myth, or the “stories that explain and give meaning to the unique, individual events of our lives,” is introduced late in the work and encapsulates the author’s approach: Attar cherry-picks aspects from her many, and sometimes disparate, areas of interest to create a guiding credo. Eastern and Western philosophies and religions, modern psychology, Greek mythology, even tarot and other forms of fortunetelling are used as examples not just to teach and challenge readers, but also to frame the author’s own experiences alongside the text’s lessons. This meandering guide is a grab bag of exercises for mindfulness and exploration of the self that offers scientific evidence for the benefits of such practices, drawing from Andrew Newberg’s work on the study of religious experiences and behavior on the brain. The text cites other self-help resources, such as Tom Rath’s Eat Move Sleep and Gary Chapman’s The 5 Love Languages, giving interested readers further areas of study. The sheer breadth of influences is at times overwhelming. Taken individually, the essays are concise and offer useful questions that aid self-exploration and can be revisited in any order.
Self-help meets memoir in this mishmash of influences offering spiritual direction and practical habits for healthier living.Pub Date: March 6, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9864225-0-8
Page Count: 149
Publisher: Largeheart Publishing
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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