A former Olympian explores the sacred feminine.
In this debut self-help book, Claire shares her story of competing as an elite athlete and finding fulfillment through developing a spirituality that encompasses psychic awareness and an engagement with the female divine. In this guide, “W.I.T.C.H.” is an acronym that stands for “woman in total conscious healing,” a term the author applies to herself and other women who have embraced a holistic spirituality and taken control of their lives. Claire combines her personal story—growing up in a Scottish Irish family in Germany, fencing in the Olympics, immigrating to the United States—with advice for readers on developing their spiritual sides and finding happiness. Themed chapters move seamlessly between the two threads as the author uses her experience as an example, then offers a series of questions designed to encourage readers to explore each topic as it relates to their own lives. The book looks at how femininity has been represented and rejected in spiritual traditions, how a solid spiritual practice can lead to a sense of purpose, and how readers can build authentic and honest relationships. Claire is an engaging narrator with a fascinating and unique background, which makes the book intriguing and often compelling. She makes it clear from the opening pages that the volume’s target audience is women and addresses them exclusively. But it is not a guide for skeptics; readers should be prepared for frequent references to energy, vibrations, karma, and astrology, which are fundamental to the author’s experience of the world. Readers who are on their own mystical paths, particularly outside the bounds of mainstream religions, will find the manual useful, particularly when it addresses some of the challenges of incorporating spirituality into everyday life and the hazards of using spiritual engagement as a way to avoid dealing with underlying problems. While it is not a work for all readers, those who are part of its defined audience are likely to find it fits well on their shelves next to books by Gabrielle Bernstein and Marianne Williamson.
A well-written and thoughtful exploration of spirituality from a distinctly female perspective.Pub Date: March 8, 2023
ISBN: 9798986394305
Page Count: 204
Publisher: Siobhan Claire Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 8, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Categories: BODY, MIND & SPIRIT | SELF-HELP | GENERAL NONFICTION
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A conversational, pleasurable look into McConaughey’s life and thought.
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All right, all right, all right: The affable, laconic actor delivers a combination of memoir and self-help book.
“This is an approach book,” writes McConaughey, adding that it contains “philosophies that can be objectively understood, and if you choose, subjectively adopted, by either changing your reality, or changing how you see it. This is a playbook, based on adventures in my life.” Some of those philosophies come in the form of apothegms: “When you can design your own weather, blow in the breeze”; “Simplify, focus, conserve to liberate.” Others come in the form of sometimes rambling stories that never take the shortest route from point A to point B, as when he recounts a dream-spurred, challenging visit to the Malian musician Ali Farka Touré, who offered a significant lesson in how disagreement can be expressed politely and without rancor. Fans of McConaughey will enjoy his memories—which line up squarely with other accounts in Melissa Maerz’s recent oral history, Alright, Alright, Alright—of his debut in Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused, to which he contributed not just that signature phrase, but also a kind of too-cool-for-school hipness that dissolves a bit upon realizing that he’s an older guy on the prowl for teenage girls. McConaughey’s prep to settle into the role of Wooderson involved inhabiting the mind of a dude who digs cars, rock ’n’ roll, and “chicks,” and he ran with it, reminding readers that the film originally had only three scripted scenes for his character. The lesson: “Do one thing well, then another. Once, then once more.” It’s clear that the author is a thoughtful man, even an intellectual of sorts, though without the earnestness of Ethan Hawke or James Franco. Though some of the sentiments are greeting card–ish, this book is entertaining and full of good lessons.
A conversational, pleasurable look into McConaughey’s life and thought.Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-13913-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
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Doyle offers another lucid, inspiring chronicle of female empowerment and the rewards of self-awareness and renewal.
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More life reflections from the bestselling author on themes of societal captivity and the catharsis of personal freedom.
In her third book, Doyle (Love Warrior, 2016, etc.) begins with a life-changing event. “Four years ago,” she writes, “married to the father of my three children, I fell in love with a woman.” That woman, Abby Wambach, would become her wife. Emblematically arranged into three sections—“Caged,” “Keys,” “Freedom”—the narrative offers, among other elements, vignettes about the soulful author’s girlhood, when she was bulimic and felt like a zoo animal, a “caged girl made for wide-open skies.” She followed the path that seemed right and appropriate based on her Catholic upbringing and adolescent conditioning. After a downward spiral into “drinking, drugging, and purging,” Doyle found sobriety and the authentic self she’d been suppressing. Still, there was trouble: Straining an already troubled marriage was her husband’s infidelity, which eventually led to life-altering choices and the discovery of a love she’d never experienced before. Throughout the book, Doyle remains open and candid, whether she’s admitting to rigging a high school homecoming court election or denouncing the doting perfectionism of “cream cheese parenting,” which is about “giving your children the best of everything.” The author’s fears and concerns are often mirrored by real-world issues: gender roles and bias, white privilege, racism, and religion-fueled homophobia and hypocrisy. Some stories merely skim the surface of larger issues, but Doyle revisits them in later sections and digs deeper, using friends and familial references to personify their impact on her life, both past and present. Shorter pieces, some only a page in length, manage to effectively translate an emotional gut punch, as when Doyle’s therapist called her blooming extramarital lesbian love a “dangerous distraction.” Ultimately, the narrative is an in-depth look at a courageous woman eager to share the wealth of her experiences by embracing vulnerability and reclaiming her inner strength and resiliency.
Doyle offers another lucid, inspiring chronicle of female empowerment and the rewards of self-awareness and renewal.Pub Date: March 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0125-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
Categories: GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | SELF-HELP
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