A spiritual instruction manual that’s too overtly sectarian to have wide appeal.
An instructional guide that aims to help readers achieve their inner, divine purposes.
Robert (His Beauty for My Ashes, 2012), a pastor and preacher in Cambodia, believes that God has a plan for everyone. He likens this to a child growing inside each person, waiting to be nourished. There are numerous reasons, he says, why one might be unaware of this potential—ignorance of Scripture, a general lack of spiritual awareness, or even simple defiance. Sometimes, he says, this lack of awareness falsely leads people to believe that God is neglecting them. But, according to the author, God provides each person with the necessary tools to unearth their purpose and bring it to full fruition. Robert avers that humans experience two different kinds of emptiness: a purely negative kind that manifests as low self-esteem and another, more positive version that’s a desire to be closer to God. Building one’s relationship with God through scriptural study and prayerful self-reflection, he says, can provide everyone with a clearer sense of his plan. The author discusses a number of practical ideas on combatting stress and recognizing the consequences of fear and anxiety as well as the potentially negative influence of one’s peers. He often recounts his own experiences as references, but the true focal point of his study is the Bible, which he characterizes as the authoritative guide for this “divine program.” Robert’s prose is consistently clear and sometimes even poetically elegant: “There is a fire in every person….When the fire is lit but untended, it is a gift in hibernation and it is not going to benefit or warm others in need but rather will produce a tearful smoke.” Overall, this will be a helpful guide to some readers looking for encouragement and advice about deepening their spiritual practice. However, the author’s view is so pervasively Christian that it will only resonate with other Christians, and some of them may find it too broad. The instructions can be overly general even in sections that appear to promise more concrete, practical tips, such as “Recipes for Successful Birthing.”
A spiritual instruction manual that’s too overtly sectarian to have wide appeal.Pub Date: July 12, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5049-1967-8
Page Count: 198
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Doyle offers another lucid, inspiring chronicle of female empowerment and the rewards of self-awareness and renewal.
More life reflections from the bestselling author on themes of societal captivity and the catharsis of personal freedom.
In her third book, Doyle (Love Warrior, 2016, etc.) begins with a life-changing event. “Four years ago,” she writes, “married to the father of my three children, I fell in love with a woman.” That woman, Abby Wambach, would become her wife. Emblematically arranged into three sections—“Caged,” “Keys,” “Freedom”—the narrative offers, among other elements, vignettes about the soulful author’s girlhood, when she was bulimic and felt like a zoo animal, a “caged girl made for wide-open skies.” She followed the path that seemed right and appropriate based on her Catholic upbringing and adolescent conditioning. After a downward spiral into “drinking, drugging, and purging,” Doyle found sobriety and the authentic self she’d been suppressing. Still, there was trouble: Straining an already troubled marriage was her husband’s infidelity, which eventually led to life-altering choices and the discovery of a love she’d never experienced before. Throughout the book, Doyle remains open and candid, whether she’s admitting to rigging a high school homecoming court election or denouncing the doting perfectionism of “cream cheese parenting,” which is about “giving your children the best of everything.” The author’s fears and concerns are often mirrored by real-world issues: gender roles and bias, white privilege, racism, and religion-fueled homophobia and hypocrisy. Some stories merely skim the surface of larger issues, but Doyle revisits them in later sections and digs deeper, using friends and familial references to personify their impact on her life, both past and present. Shorter pieces, some only a page in length, manage to effectively translate an emotional gut punch, as when Doyle’s therapist called her blooming extramarital lesbian love a “dangerous distraction.” Ultimately, the narrative is an in-depth look at a courageous woman eager to share the wealth of her experiences by embracing vulnerability and reclaiming her inner strength and resiliency.
Doyle offers another lucid, inspiring chronicle of female empowerment and the rewards of self-awareness and renewal.Pub Date: March 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0125-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
PROFILES
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
One of the NBA’s 50 greatest players scores another basket—a deeply personal one.
A basketball legend reflects on his life in the game and a life lived in the “nightmare of endlessly repetitive and constant pain, agony, and guilt.”
Walton (Nothing but Net, 1994, etc.) begins this memoir on the floor—literally: “I have been living on the floor for most of the last two and a half years, unable to move.” In 2008, he suffered a catastrophic spinal collapse. “My spine will no longer hold me,” he writes. Thirty-seven orthopedic injuries, stemming from the fact that he had malformed feet, led to an endless string of stress fractures. As he notes, Walton is “the most injured athlete in the history of sports.” Over the years, he had ground his lower extremities “down to dust.” Walton’s memoir is two interwoven stories. The first is about his lifelong love of basketball, the second, his lifelong battle with injuries and pain. He had his first operation when he was 14, for a knee hurt in a basketball game. As he chronicles his distinguished career in the game, from high school to college to the NBA, he punctuates that story with a parallel one that chronicles at each juncture the injuries he suffered and overcame until he could no longer play, eventually turning to a successful broadcasting career (which helped his stuttering problem). Thanks to successful experimental spinal fusion surgery, he’s now pain-free. And then there’s the music he loves, especially the Grateful Dead’s; it accompanies both stories like a soundtrack playing off in the distance. Walton tends to get long-winded at times, but that won’t be news to anyone who watches his broadcasts, and those who have been afflicted with lifelong injuries will find the book uplifting and inspirational. Basketball fans will relish Walton’s acumen and insights into the game as well as his stories about players, coaches (especially John Wooden), and games, all told in Walton’s fervent, witty style.
One of the NBA’s 50 greatest players scores another basket—a deeply personal one.Pub Date: March 8, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4767-1686-2
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
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