This earnest, if meandering, account of a mystical connection offers much for readers to uncover.
A spiritual work looks at a near-death experience.
Two men, who remain nameless throughout this book by Anonymous, sit down for a conversation. The topic is how one of those men had a near-death experience that had him “deeply connecting with a Multidimensional Being.” The experience with this being, whom he refers to as “Omega,” was an immense one. The conversation spans the course of a weekend. The goal is to explore this interaction with Omega in fine detail. After his ordeal, the man finds he has a greater sensitivity toward the world; he is less worried about dying; and he’s even eating better. But these personal changes are merely the beginning of what he has to say. The interaction with Omega was not just a one-time deal. Enter into the account something called “bridging sessions.” Omega is still contacted by the man during events that involve “inflowing information and understandings.” What does all this multidimensional interaction amount to? The book delves into various takeaways. Consider the idea that this three-dimensional universe is part of a much grander “4D multiverse.” Or that a future world could involve older people choosing a “voluntary life completion” option to make Earth more tenable for others. Or that death is not the end it is often understood to be. Some notions are clearer than others. A sentence like “Dissolving into the Silent Reverence of the Deep indivisible Peace that passes all understanding” may take a few passes to fully unpack. Yet the intriguing and engrossing volume is notable for not shying away from challenging concepts. From the tangible (a potential future fraught with environmental problems) to the abstract (what it means to connect with something well beyond human understanding), the discoveries flow freely. Although some rambling occurs (“Let me just kind of take a step back and swing my bat a few times, and spit in the dirt, and then step back up to the plate”), there is an overall sense of authenticity. It is, after all, a conversation between two ordinary people. One of them just happens to have had an experience that is not so easy to explain.
This earnest, if meandering, account of a mystical connection offers much for readers to uncover.Pub Date: July 5, 2021
ISBN: 979-8-51-115407-7
Page Count: 582
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
A frank and funny but uneven essay collection about neurodiversity.
An experimental, illustrated essay collection that questions neurotypical definitions of what is normal.
From a young age, writer and comedian Myers has been different. In addition to coping with obsessive compulsive disorder and panic attacks, she struggled to read basic social cues. During a round of seven minutes in heaven—a game in which two players spend seven minutes in a closet and are expected to kiss—Myers misread the romantic advances of her best friend and longtime crush, Marley. In Paris, she accidentally invited a sex worker to join her friends for “board games and beer,” thinking he was simply a random stranger who happened to be hitting on her. In community college, a stranger’s request for a pen spiraled her into a panic attack but resulted in a tentative friendship. When the author moved to Australia, she began taking notes on her colleagues in an effort to know them better. As the author says to her co-worker, Tabitha, “there are unspoken social contracts within a workplace that—by some miracle—everyone else already understands, and I don’t….When things Go Without Saying, they Never Get Said, and sometimes people need you to Say Those Things So They Understand What The Hell Is Going On.” At its best, Myers’ prose is vulnerable and humorous, capturing characterization in small but consequential life moments, and her illustrations beautifully complement the text. Unfortunately, the author’s tendency toward unnecessary capitalization and experimental forms is often unsuccessful, breaking the book’s otherwise steady rhythm.
A frank and funny but uneven essay collection about neurodiversity.Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9780063381308
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
