A sharp, stirring account with emotionally and spiritually informative writing.
A wife and mother with a career in finance recounts turning to yoga when her life began to fall apart in this debut memoir.
In the opening of her book, Ferris describes her husband, Jim, waking her to watch the sunrise with their children on New Year’s Day. The author, a successful financial saleswoman with a condo on the Jersey shore, had what appeared to many to be a perfect existence. Yet Ferris acknowledges that she had a “spiritual hole” in her life left by the death of her preacher father some 30 years ago. Her marriage also was strained, a result of “years of misconnection.” When a friend suggested a yoga retreat in the Berkshires, the author was skeptical, anxious that all the attendees would be “thinner and hipper” than she was and that reiki and crystal yoga classes were a little “woo woo” for her tastes. Yet during one yoga session, Ferris experienced an “in-and-out-of-body experience” that made her rethink her preconceptions. The author’s life was then thrown into turmoil when she discovered her husband had been cheating on her. The memoir charts Ferris’ facing divorce proceedings, coping with parenthood, reentering the dating world, and coming to terms with the verbal and physical abuse she had faced as a child at the hands of her mother. The book is also about finding new love, dealing with loss, and recognizing the many ways the universe reconnects people to those with whom they share a bond. Ferris recalls her spiritual journey, including entering yoga teacher training, in her quest for inner peace.
The author has a keen descriptive eye that allows her to vividly capture her heightening sense of awareness: “When she cued us to stand in mountain pose, my gaze drifted outside. The sun was rising. Large feathery flakes fell through treebranch veins. It was mesmerizing. Had snow always looked like this?” But her writing rarely lingers on the abstract and can be cutting when necessary: “Her spicy perfume gave me an instant headache.” The frank memoir adopts a thoughtful four-part structure––opening with Avidya, the Sanskrit word for Ignorance, and moving through Bhakti (Love), Duhkha (Pain), and, finally, Shanti (Peace) to represent Ferris’ odyssey. She cleverly opens and closes the book with a sunrise, encouraging readers to reflect on how the significance of the event changed through the passage of time and experience. The volume often includes flashbacks to the author’s childhood, such as observing her father at the pulpit as a 4-year-old girl. These passages are too short, and the shift between past and present can feel unnecessarily erratic and distracting. Yet this minor flaw does not largely detract from a well-crafted memoir that shares pithy wisdom about yoga that sticks in the mind: “If we want to make changes in our lives, the mat is the place to practice. It is where transformation begins.” Written from the perspective of a former reiki skeptic, Ferris’ journey is an enlightening one that may offer hope and inspiration to those facing similar challenges.
A sharp, stirring account with emotionally and spiritually informative writing.Pub Date: Nov. 26, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-73675-790-1
Page Count: 299
Publisher: Bowker
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The choir is sure to enjoy this impassioned preaching on familiar progressive themes.
Essays on current political topics by a high-profile actor and activist.
Milano explains in an introduction that she began writing this uneven collection while dealing with a severe case of Covid-19 and suffering from "persistent brain fog.” In the first essay, "On Being Unapologetically Fucked Up,” the author begins by fuming over a February 2019 incident in which she compared MAGA caps worn by high school kids to KKK hoods. She then runs through a grab bag of flash-point news items (police shootings, border crimes, sexual predators in government), deploying the F-bomb with abandon and concluding, "What I know is that fucked up is as fundamental a state of the world as night and day. But I know there is better. I know that ‘less fucked up’ is a state we can live in.” The second essay, "Believe Women," discusses Milano’s seminal role in the MeToo movement; unfortunately, it is similarly conversational in tone and predictable in content. One of the few truly personal essays, "David," about the author's marriage, refutes the old saw about love meaning never having to say you're sorry, replacing it with "Love means you can suggest a national sex strike and your husband doesn't run away screaming." Milano assumes, perhaps rightly, that her audience is composed of followers and fans; perhaps these readers will know what she is talking about in the seemingly allegorical "By Any Other Name," about her bad experience with a certain rosebush. "Holy shit, giving birth sucked," begins one essay. "Words are weird, right?" begins the next. "Welp, this is going to piss some of you off. Hang in there," opens a screed about cancel culture—though she’s entirely correct that “it’s childish, divisive, conceited, and Trumpian to its core.” By the end, however, Milano's intelligence, compassion, integrity, and endurance somewhat compensate for her lack of literary polish.
The choir is sure to enjoy this impassioned preaching on familiar progressive themes.Pub Date: Oct. 26, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-18329-8
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
A fascinating and funny look at the life of a famous actor who found further fulfillment through giving back.
The actor discusses his career on the stage and in film, and his life focusing on the value of art and public service.
Now 66, Stern, perhaps best known for his roles in Home Alone and City Slickers, is no longer "the precocious teenager who moved to New York as a seventeen-year-old, at least ten years younger than all of my friends, the youngest dad at all my kids’ school events.” As he discusses his childhood in Maryland, his introduction to the theater, and writing a musical version of Lord of the Flies, the author's love of the work shows through on every page—as does his family’s legacy of a strong work ethic (his mother told him, “I don’t care what you do but you are out of this house when you turn eighteen”). Realizing that “academics were not going to get me anywhere,” he committed to acting. After some early stage work, he began working in films, appearing in a number of critically successful projects in the late 1970s and early ’80s, including Breaking Away and Diner. Stern analyzes key moments in the development of his craft, as well as the twists and turns of a very public life, which included work with the USO and the experience of being sued for $25 million over a TV show. Although readers may pick up the book to learn more about Hollywood, his focus on his work-life balance brings some of the most memorable passages, from his narration and directing work in the TV series The Wonder Years (which included no on-screen billing), which helped him overcome his childhood dyslexia, to his experience working with the Boys & Girls Club and his lifelong focus on public service.
A fascinating and funny look at the life of a famous actor who found further fulfillment through giving back.Pub Date: May 21, 2024
ISBN: 9781632280930
Page Count: 300
Publisher: Viva Editions
Review Posted Online: Jan. 30, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
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