An engaging read for both spiritual seekers and fans of travel memoirs.
In this debut memoir, a former business executive shares her spiritual journey.
Two decades ago, Montella jettisoned a burgeoning career in travel technology to become an international educator, motivational speaker, and self-described “happiness expert.” She’d started attending breathing and meditation workshops, where she learned about Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, to whom the book is dedicated. The spiritual leader from India (not to be confused with the similarly named musician) became Montella’s inspiration and lifelong teacher. Indeed, the guru, who’s informally known as “Gurudev,” is a central character in this memoir. After participating in Shankar’s extensive program in India in 1998, she says, she was “all-in.” She quit her job, packed her suitcase, and traveled the world with Shankar. This catapulted her into what she calls a “Ph.D. program of spirituality.” In a poignant, compelling prose style, she shares her path to “becoming unshakable,” which she defines as the freedom of knowing that one can handle whatever life dishes out. She offers passages by Shankar that illustrate the underlying principles of this way of life. Still, Montella honestly reveals moments that made her doubt her commitment. Her experiences were wide-ranging; for example, she traveled the world to counsel Hurricane Katrina survivors and the families of victims of the 9/11 terror attacks. Along the way, she stayed in ashrams, fine hotels, and hovels. Other life coaches, most notably Tony Robbins, have written books in other contexts about being “unshakable,” but this one goes deeper. Readers experience the author’s journey right alongside her, and emerge with her clear, down-to-earth understanding of Eastern spiritualism. As such, the book might be useful as supplementary reading for university courses on relevant subjects.
An engaging read for both spiritual seekers and fans of travel memoirs.Pub Date: June 20, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5445-0430-8
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Lioncrest Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
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