by Bud Megargee ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 18, 2017
A series of often entertaining spirit-conversations that yields an attractive personal philosophy of mindfulness and...
A memoir of spiritual exploration in the form of dialogues.
“If I could architecturally design my life with an absolute end,” asks Megargee (Dirt, Truth, Music, and Bungee Cords, 2015) in this punchy, fast-paced work of nonfiction, “what should my objective be?” It’s these kinds of deep questions—who am I, where did I come from?—that drive this self-described “unconventional memoir.” The author’s six-year journey to deeper self-awareness takes him from Buddhist monks in Virginia to “an ageless oracle in Pennsylvania” to extended conversations with an otherworldly, disembodied “soul guide” whom he calls “Laz.” In a series of dialogues, Megargee quizzes Laz on all kinds of subjects. Throughout the book, the author depicts Laz as offering animated answers to his questions. Asked about the drastic effects of climate change, for instance, Laz says that the air is upset at being polluted and that “fire gets angry because it is not treated properly.” Most of these responses seem grounded in a crude kind of animism, in which the world is composed of the traditional “four elements,” which are sentient and entirely human in their emotional responses. As a result, massive storms are explained by the elements being angry or stressed, and a burst water main is said to occur because water is upset by the negative energies of nearby humans. Megargee somewhat counteracts these decidedly unscientific sections, though, with stronger, deeper discourses about forgiveness and “soul sins” that arise “when you taint something that is pure, good, and positive and place it in the dark.” In this respect, the book effectively dovetails with its predecessor, stressing an extremely personal element of self-help.
A series of often entertaining spirit-conversations that yields an attractive personal philosophy of mindfulness and compassion.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5403-2389-7
Page Count: 200
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955
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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developed by Ludwig Bemelmans ; illustrated by Steven Salerno
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by Ludwig Bemelmans ; illustrated by Steven Salerno
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by Charlayne Hunter-Gault ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1992
From the national correspondent for PBS's MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour: a moving memoir of her youth in the Deep South and her role in desegregating the Univ. of Georgia. The eldest daughter of an army chaplain, Hunter-Gault was born in what she calls the ``first of many places that I would call `my place' ''—the small village of Due West, tucked away in a remote little corner of South Carolina. While her father served in Korea, Hunter-Gault and her mother moved first to Covington, Georgia, and then to Atlanta. In ``L.A.'' (lovely Atlanta), surrounded by her loving family and a close-knit black community, the author enjoyed a happy childhood participating in activities at church and at school, where her intellectual and leadership abilities soon were noticed by both faculty and peers. In high school, Hunter-Gault found herself studying the ``comic-strip character Brenda Starr as I might have studied a journalism textbook, had there been one.'' Determined to be a journalist, she applied to several colleges—all outside of Georgia, for ``to discourage the possibility that a black student would even think of applying to one of those white schools, the state provided money for black students'' to study out of state. Accepted at Michigan's Wayne State, the author was encouraged by local civil-rights leaders to apply, along with another classmate, to the Univ. of Georgia as well. Her application became a test of changing racial attitudes, as well as of the growing strength of the civil-rights movement in the South, and Gault became a national figure as she braved an onslaught of hostilities and harassment to become the first black woman to attend the university. A remarkably generous, fair-minded account of overcoming some of the biggest, and most intractable, obstacles ever deployed by southern racists. (Photographs—not seen.)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-374-17563-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1992
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