Complex, mystical, and helpful, if occasionally obscure, musings on spirituality.
In this autobiographical work, a real estate broker recounts working in the elite Hamptons market on Long Island and following a path to enlightenment, offering tips to those interested in taking a similar journey.
When she was young, Barbaria dabbled in witchcraft and magic. For years, she chose to follow her dark side to achieve success until she realized she had been accumulating numerous enemies along the way. Combining her personal sense of mysticism with Buddhist teachings, she began tuning in to the more benevolent side of her psyche—her “good witch” persona. “It was not until I got slammed over and over and finally brought to my knees that I realized I was in a partnership with a power way higher than my own earthly self,” she writes. “I call this higher power the Divine Spirit.” The author takes readers down the tumultuous road that ultimately led her to enlightenment by intertwining short vignettes, some of which are quite amusing, with long, philosophical passages. At one point, she wrote the names of each person who had wronged her on individual pieces of paper, putting them in containers filled with water that were then placed in her freezer: “I was freezing bad energy yet still there was always more bad energy arriving as I had not yet frozen my own.” Barbaria is a self-described empath, sensitive to the energy fields around her, whether they emanate from people or places. It is a valuable asset in her real estate business. Houses and buildings, she tells readers, have karma. They carry energy that must be respected or trouble will ensue. Writing with a love for linguistic musicality, the author frequently composes lengthy, intricate sentences, and there is often a beauty in their flow. But she also has a fondness for cryptic constructions that seem to be crafted more for style than elucidation: “My out-of-bounds consciousness harmonizes me with rituals around letting down and perusing what my psyche needs to thrive on.” Nonetheless, Barbaria provides useful suggestions for learning to access one’s kinder, more enlightened nature and to establish balance between the light and dark energies of the psyche.
Complex, mystical, and helpful, if occasionally obscure, musings on spirituality.Pub Date: Dec. 30, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-9794143-3-6
Page Count: 303
Publisher: My Abracadabra
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
An uplifting ode to the power of taking small steps to make big changes.
Manbeck offers direction for life’s journeys in his children’s book debut.
Using just one or two pithy sentences per page, the text encourages readers to bravely forge their own paths in the world. Whatever one hopes to accomplish or whatever one’s destination in life, the starting point is “here,” a point of view that suggests that there is power and wisdom in embracing the present moment. Manbeck assures readers that “you can go anywhere!” and includes all-caps imperatives on almost every double-page spread: “Begin”; “Take your time”; “Keep going”; “Be patient”; etc. A major thrust of the narrative is the futility of comparing oneself to others since every person is unique and there is no one-size-fits-all formula for how life should unfold. The whimsical illustrations, rendered in gouache and mixed media with digital editing, show sprightly children and their childlike anthropomorphic animal companions romping on giant fantastical play structures that recall Rube Goldberg machines. Some spreads feature a montage of the characters adventurously exploring a range of fun activities: butterfly watching, rollerblading, riding a penny-farthing, etc. Flowers and butterflies—with their associated meanings of transformation, hope, courage, success, and new beginnings—are used liberally as motifs throughout the colorful artwork. The characters have various skin tones, and one of them uses a wheelchair. Many wear party hats, conveying a mood of celebration; indeed, this book would make a good baby-shower or graduation gift.
An uplifting ode to the power of taking small steps to make big changes. (Gift book. 0-5, adult)Pub Date: May 10, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-79721-010-0
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A personal view of karma, likely to appeal mainly to readers curious about reincarnation and related topics.
A semiautobiographical guide to the dynamics of karma in everyday life.
A Los Angeles–based shaman and “spiritual empath,” Dunblazier stays faithful to the spirit of her earlier books, which include Heal Your Soul History (2017). She sees karma as “the accumulation of the energy of all your actions and the responses to them over time and space”—in both your past and present lives—and says that in her past lives, she’s been an African tribal leader from around 1000 BCE and a French American from the 1900s. Each of the five parts of her book begins with a parable from one of her past lives and goes on to cover a range of everyday challenges from time management to how to handle feeling attracted to someone already in a relationship. At the end of each section, the author suggests a self-help ritual that can help you achieve a goal, such as “Free Yourself from the Opinion of Others.” Dunblazier keeps her message positive, reflecting her belief that “regardless of your circumstances right now, your patterns do not obligate you to continue them if they no longer serve you,” and she packs an extensive amount of material into 325 pages. Not everyone will buy her views on subjects like demons or telepathy, and Penn’s bold illustration of a concentration camp prisoner, in an image that also shows a crowd of smiling, well-dressed people around a table bearing a vast amount of food, will strike some as insensitive. Nevertheless, even readers skeptical of whether they are reading the words of a reincarnated Chief Running Bear may be intrigued by her information on how people make use of concepts like totem animals. For most readers, this book will provide different ways of looking at things. And who wouldn’t want to believe, as the author does, that in the end “you are the master of your universe”?
A personal view of karma, likely to appeal mainly to readers curious about reincarnation and related topics. (notes, bibliography)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-9963907-6-7
Page Count: 324
Publisher: GoTracee Publishing
Review Posted Online: June 11, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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