A rich, insightful New-Age narrative about the author’s holistic development.
In this debut account of losing a beloved family member, a woman finds hope and joy in profound moments of spiritual connection.
When Austill-Clausen lost her beloved brother to AIDS in 1995, she embarked on a journey of grief—one that she says eventually brought her to a form of enlightenment. Through her connection with nature and animals, she says, she began to discover her own connection to the spirit of her brother—and to those of others, as well. An encounter with a manatee and a spiritual epiphany while riding her horse led her to contact a spiritual teacher, Nancy Arael, who showed her the power of her chakras and meditation. In this touching narrative, Austill-Clausen intimately describes her progress toward spiritual awakening, as well as her experience of sharing it with other members of her family. In one vivid scene, she tells of a moment one morning in 1996, when she connected deeply with the rocks, ice, trees, and other elements of a secluded landscape: “I realized all stones were alive, and each had its own power. I thought about all the times I had casually picked up a rock and flung it away without asking its permission.” An occupational therapist by trade, she writes in clear, conversational prose that skips no details about her meditation experiences and visions. As a result, what begins as a sad story of grief develops into a story of a world of fairies, spirits, love, and light. Readers who are interested in chakra healing, meditation, shamanism, energy crystals, and spiritual development in general will enjoy the rich, journalistic quality of Austill-Clausen’s book, and perhaps even feel prompted to follow in her footsteps.
A rich, insightful New-Age narrative about the author’s holistic development.Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-63152-130-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: She Writes Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 30, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
An engrossing, intense, and highly descriptive narrative chronicling the ghastly conditions three pregnant women suffered...
The incredible true story of three Jewish women who survived the Holocaust.
Priska, Rachel, and Anka were married Jewish women in their early 20s when the Nazis took control of Europe. Like millions of other Jews, they were forced to give up their normal lives, all of their belongings, and their homes. Shuttled into ghettos and then off to one of the most notorious camps, Auschwitz II-Birkenau, they suffered through the Nazis’ increasing atrocities. But these three women all held a secret: they were pregnant. They were moved from Auschwitz and ended up in Mauthausen, another notorious death camp. With facing the most horrible conditions imaginable, all three gave birth right before the Allies accepted Germany’s surrender. In this meticulously detailed account, Holden (Haatchi & Little B: The Inspiring True Story of One Boy and His Dog, 2014, etc.) compiles an enormous amount of information from interviews, letters, historical records, and personal visits to the sites where this story unfolded. The graphic history places readers in the moment and provides a sense of the enduring power of love that Priska, Rachel, and Anka had for their unborn children and for the husbands they so desperately hoped to see after the war. Even though it occurred more than 70 years ago, the story’s truth is so chillingly portrayed that it seems as if it could have happened recently. These three women and their infants survived in the face of death, and, Holden writes, “their babies went on to have babies of their own and create a second and then a third generation, all of whom continue to live their lives in defiance of Hitler’s plan to erase them from history and from memory.”
An engrossing, intense, and highly descriptive narrative chronicling the ghastly conditions three pregnant women suffered through at the hands of the Nazis.Pub Date: May 5, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-237025-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2015
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