A well-written handbook on a range of topics relevant to New Age spirituality.
Macapinlac presents a guidebook to realizing one’s connection to the universe.
Since the 1600s, the Latin term vade mecum (literally, “go with me”) has referred to “a guidebook that you physically carry with you, often in a deep pocket, for reference.” It’s an obscure term that rarely enters into 21st-century conversations. Sixteen years ago, however, the term seemed to haunt the author and her best friend, Anne—the two had long shared their mutual experiences with the paranormal. Macapinlac first discovered the word when Anne described a dream she had in which a man reached out to her with a symbol on his palm while saying “vade mecum.” Months later, Anne came across a homeless man who “was mostly muttering nonsense” and asked her if she knew what vade mecum meant. The term would soon thereafter appear in Macapinlac’s inbox as the “Word of the Day.” The author began to see “patterns connecting my stories,” believing them to be the universe’s directive for her to follow a new, divine path in her life. In recent years, the author has become a reiki master, intuitive guide, and energy and sound healer (indeed, in addition to retelling her and Anne’s experiences with vade mecum, this text doubles as a guidebook for readers looking to break free of the “mundane routines” that shape their daily lives). Blending elements of memoir, self-help, and New Age spirituality, this book offers readers insights on topics that range from interpreting dreams and synchronicity to divination and energy healing. The book’s background on topics like clairvoyance and clairempathy (the ability to experience other’s emotions as your own) come from both the author’s firsthand experiences as well as a decade of research. For believers in Macapinlac’s New Age brand of spirituality, this is an ideal primer that succinctly covers a wide breadth of topics in fewer than 200 pages. For skeptics, the book offers a solid introduction to dozens of intriguing topics without proselytizing.
A well-written handbook on a range of topics relevant to New Age spirituality.Pub Date: March 24, 2021
ISBN: 9781982263706
Page Count: 204
Publisher: BalboaPress
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An incisive, urgently relevant analysis of—and call to action on—America’s foundational ideal.
An examination of how the U.S. can revitalize its commitment to freedom.
In this ambitious study, Snyder, author of On Tyranny, The Road to Unfreedom, and other books, explores how American freedom might be reconceived not simply in negative terms—as freedom from coercion, especially by the state—but positive ones: the freedom to develop our human potential within sustaining communal structures. The author blends extensive personal reflections on his own evolving understanding of liberty with definitions of the concept by a range of philosophers, historians, politicians, and social activists. Americans, he explains, often wrongly assume that freedom simply means the removal of some barrier: “An individual is free, we think, when the government is out of the way. Negative freedom is our common sense.” In his careful and impassioned description of the profound implications of this conceptual limitation, Snyder provides a compelling account of the circumstances necessary for the realization of positive freedom, along with a set of detailed recommendations for specific sociopolitical reforms and policy initiatives. “We have to see freedom as positive, as beginning from virtues, as shared among people, and as built into institutions,” he writes. The author argues that it’s absurd to think of government as the enemy of freedom; instead, we ought to reimagine how a strong government might focus on creating the appropriate conditions for human flourishing and genuine liberty. Another essential and overlooked element of freedom is the fostering of a culture of solidarity, in which an awareness of and concern for the disadvantaged becomes a guiding virtue. Particularly striking and persuasive are the sections devoted to eviscerating the false promises of libertarianism, exposing the brutal injustices of the nation’s penitentiaries, and documenting the wide-ranging pathologies that flow from a tax system favoring the ultrawealthy.
An incisive, urgently relevant analysis of—and call to action on—America’s foundational ideal.Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2024
ISBN: 9780593728727
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: June 25, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024
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
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