A wide-ranging guide stuffed with wellness tips that even explores quantum theory.
Various scientific and spiritual resources come together in this basic primer on the connections between physical and mental health and spiritual well-being.
What does it mean to treat one’s health holistically? Debut author Birnbaum first became interested in various means of holistic wellness when looking for books about “hands-on healing.” What started as an interest in reiki became a journey to learn various techniques and theories about how to balance physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. Divided into four sections, the author sets out to share her research and experiences in those three areas of well-being and her understanding of all the components as “The Bigger Picture.” Physical health includes information about food allergies (“A person may test negative for celiac…but be sensitive to gluten”), the benefits of exercise, and an explanation of alternative medicine. The subsequent chapter on mental health explores ideas of thriving relationships, the challenges that come with parenting, and the power of meditation. This leads to the spiritual section that begins with religion (“I consider prayer to be profound communication with our source”) and ends with examples and ideas about mediums and “channeled information.” The final part offers a deft interpretation of quantum theory in the hope that it illustrates that “we are all connected.” Birnbaum’s writing is most effective when sharing her vivid personal experiences as a learner, parent, and spiritual seeker. Each chapter incorporates a number of useful resources, from Thich Nhat Hanh to Marianne Williamson to Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (the impressive bibliography at the end is seven pages long). While the informal writing style doesn’t always invoke confidence (“I saw a documentary on television about aging”), it is accessible for those new to or well-versed in wellness. But some readers may find that it doesn’t do enough to bridge the gap between basic concepts and an appreciation of quantum theory.
A wide-ranging guide stuffed with wellness tips that even explores quantum theory.Pub Date: June 15, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5043-8171-0
Page Count: 203
Publisher: BalboaPress
Review Posted Online: Nov. 14, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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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