by Michael Angelo Le Houx ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 25, 2013
Generally splendid reading and potentially life-changing for readers willing to go beyond the normal.
A journey from ego to spirit and from fear to love, described with humility by a debut author who’s still on the path.
This is a wonderful book about what really matters; the rest is nit-picking. Le Houx—an accountant, former finance director and recovering alcoholic—contritely spills his guts about his train wreck of a former life, but in a restrained way and without all the messy details. His intent is not autobiographical per se, but rather, for the benefit of his readers, to relate his own spiritual discoveries and the spiritual science behind them as he rose from his personal nadir. In seven sections, mirroring the seven chakras he might have once dismissed as nonsense, the narrative ascends from the science-based basics to the apex of pure spirituality. Never overly directive (except to prescribe regular meditation as essential to spiritual growth) or sectarian (God isn’t mentioned until Chapter 57 of 68), he suggests that all human beings have the choice to take a spiritual path of their own devising; given what he considers to be the evermore clearly emerging true facts of existence, we would be wise to do so. Le Houx is broadly well-informed, current, and able to outline difficult scientific theories and esoteric beliefs in understandable fashion. Still, he makes arguably too liberal use of repetition as mortar, and his frequent use of quips, clichés, truisms and double entendre can border on tiresome. Here and there, he reveals a somewhat limited understanding, as when in Chapter 40 he describes the law of karma without reference to reincarnation. But he excels throughout in making a case for undertaking the struggle to overcome the fear-driven ego and to quiet the mind so that the spirit, love and true understanding can begin to shine through. And not in many books does one find a description of the mid-brain pineal gland as both the seat of the mystical third eye and quite possibly the “Wi-Fi connection point to the unified field.” As the author notes, using a venerable British expression, “The penny drops when ancient wisdom slots perfectly into a modern scientific framework.”
Generally splendid reading and potentially life-changing for readers willing to go beyond the normal.Pub Date: Nov. 25, 2013
ISBN: 978-1452584881
Page Count: 360
Publisher: BalboaPress
Review Posted Online: Feb. 21, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Oprah Winfrey ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 2, 2014
Honest messages from one of America's best known women.
A compilation of advice from the Queen of All Media.
After writing a column for 14 years titled “What I Know For Sure” for O, The Oprah Winfrey Magazine, Winfrey brings together the highlights into one gift-ready collection. Grouped into themes like Joy, Resilience, Connection, Gratitude, Possibility, Awe, Clarity and Power, each short essay is the distilled thought of a woman who has taken the time to contemplate her life’s journey thus far. Whether she is discussing traveling across the country with her good friend, Gayle, the life she shares with her dogs or building a fire in the fireplace, Winfrey takes each moment and finds the good in it, takes pride in having lived it and embraces the message she’s received from that particular time. Through her actions and her words, she shows readers how she's turned potentially negative moments into life-enhancing experiences, how she's found bliss in simple pleasures like a perfectly ripe peach, and how she's overcome social anxiety to become part of a bigger community. She discusses the yo-yo dieting, exercise and calorie counting she endured for almost two decades as she tried to modify her physical body into something it was not meant to be, and how one day she decided she needed to be grateful for each and every body part: "This is the body you've been given—love what you've got." Since all of the sections are brief and many of the essays are only a couple paragraphs long—and many members of the target audience will have already read them in the magazine—they are best digested in short segments in order to absorb Winfrey's positive and joyful but repetitive message. The book also features a new introduction by the author.
Honest messages from one of America's best known women.Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2014
ISBN: 978-1250054050
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Flatiron View Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 22, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2014
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by Jessica Simpson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 4, 2020
An eye-opening glimpse into the attempted self-unmaking of one of Hollywood’s most recognizable talents.
Awards & Accolades
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New York Times Bestseller
IndieBound Bestseller
Rolling Stone & Kirkus' Best Music Books of 2020
The debut memoir from the pop and fashion star.
Early on, Simpson describes the book she didn’t write: “a motivational manual telling you how to live your best life.” Though having committed to the lucrative deal years before, she “walked away,” fearing any sort of self-help advice she might give would be hypocritical. Outwardly, Simpson was at the peak of her success, with her fashion line generating “one billion dollars in annual sales.” However, anxiety was getting the better of her, and she admits she’d become a “feelings addict,” just needing “enough noise to distract me from the pain I’d been avoiding since childhood. The demons of traumatic abuse that refused to let me sleep at night—Tylenol PM at age twelve, red wine and Ambien as a grown, scared woman. Those same demons who perched on my shoulder, and when they saw a man as dark as them, leaned in to my ear to whisper, ‘Just give him your light. See if it saves him…’ ” On Halloween 2017, Simpson hit rock bottom, and, with the intervention of her devoted friends and husband, began to address her addictions and underlying fears. In this readable but overlong narrative, the author traces her childhood as a Baptist preacher’s daughter moving 18 times before she “hit fifth grade,” and follows her remarkable rise to fame as a singer. She reveals the psychological trauma resulting from years of sexual abuse by a family friend, experiences that drew her repeatedly into bad relationships with men, most publicly with ex-husband Nick Lachey. Admitting that she was attracted to the validating power of an audience, Simpson analyzes how her failings and triumphs have enabled her to take control of her life, even as she was hounded by the press and various music and movie executives about her weight. Simpson’s memoir contains plenty of personal and professional moments for fans to savor. One of Kirkus and Rolling Stone’s Best Music Books of 2020.
An eye-opening glimpse into the attempted self-unmaking of one of Hollywood’s most recognizable talents.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-289996-5
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2020
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