LIFE: WITHOUT THE ROSE TINTED GLASSES

A short self-help manual about “Life, Love, People and The Universe.”

Sellaway wisely acknowledges in his pithy nonfiction debut that most people don’t take direct criticism well; often, he says, the best course of action is to make sure that people know their options and then let them make their own decisions. Drawing on self-improvement gurus, such as Deepak Chopra, as well as such thinkers as Albert Einstein and Richard Dawkins, Sellaway takes readers on a brisk tour of religion and spirituality while also addressing worry, self-doubt, and the possibility of determining one’s path in “the Life Experience.” In the author’s conception, this experience leads people through increasing levels of self-awareness, from “courage” to “acceptance” to “love” and, eventually, to an “enlightenment” that comes from within. Sellaway is insistent that readers are their own best allies in their quests for peace and fulfillment, and this and other sentiments are tinted with strains of popular Eastern mysticism (“We then begin to see that since we are all One, when we hurt or belittle another, we are actually hurting our Self”). Along the way, he peppers his text with numerous quotations. Some of these seem patently nonsensical without further explanation (Bruce H. Lipton’s “We can control our lives by controlling our perceptions,” for instance), and there’s no firm evidence that Einstein ever said, “If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself.” But all the quotations adhere to the same optimistic, uplifting line of thought that animates the book as a whole. “You…are the creator of your existence,” Sellaway writes, and that focus on personal agency will undoubtedly appeal to many readers.

A heavily allusive guide to life makes up in accessibility what it lacks in length.