3 edition of Religion Is Magic Sanctioned by Authority found in the catalog.
December 30, 2005
by Kessinger Publishing
|The Physical Object|
|Number of Pages||48|
The relationship between magic and religion has been debated by anthropologists dating back to the 19th Century but a decision is yet to be reached as to whether there exists a fixed boundary between the two. E.B. Tylor and J. G. Frazer both conducted research into the separate nature of the two belief systems and came to the general conclusion that ‘magic was not a false religion, but a. "Religion is Magic sanctioned by authority. The Wise understand what true religion is—the eternal necessity that is. For debased souls, religion is a yoke imposed by the vagaries of fear and the follies of hope. For exalted souls, religion is a force, springing .
in the 19th century___, author of one of the most widely read anthropological books of all time, The Golden Bough, made a strong distinction between religion and magic animism ___is typical of peoples who see themselves as a part of nature rather than superior to it. A Study of Authority in Religion Gene TaylorPreface Since Jesus is the author of eternal salvation (Hebrews ) and possesses all authority (Matthew ), one must look to Him and His gospel for all that is done when pursuing salvation. If a person is.
"Authority as such is, from the nature of the case, dumb in the presence of argument" (p. ). Newman makes a kindred distinction between authority in revealed religion and conscience in natural religion, although he does not assign as wide a sphere to authority, . Many religions involve ideas or rituals that could be described as “magical” and the relationship between religion and magic is complex. In his book A General Theory of Magic (), Marcel Mauss suggested that religion and magic were two opposite poles on a spectrum of spiritual beliefs. Magic was at one end of the spectrum; it was private.
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Religion Is Magic Sanctioned By Authority [Levi, Eliphas] on *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Religion Is Magic Sanctioned By AuthorityAuthor: Eliphas Levi. Paradox 1 Religion is Magic Sanctioned by Authority. Esta página en español. MAGIC is the divinity of man conquered by science in union with faith; the true Magi are Men-Gods, in virtue of their intimate union with the divine principle.
Even the word "magic" comes from religion; it is derived from "magi", the Persian astrologer-priests. (The word is translated as "wise men" in some versions of The Bible.). The Bible began to split the two concepts apart — it mentions followers of "false gods" being able to perform magic, usually in contrast to much more impressive miracles (though this can be said to be a type of magic.
Religion and magic became conceptually separated with the development of western monotheism, where the distinction arose between supernatural events sanctioned by mainstream religious doctrine (“miracles”) and mere magic rooted in folk belief or occult speculation.
Magical thinking in various forms is a cultural universal and an important aspect of is prevalent in all societies, regardless of whether they have organized religion or more general systems of animism or on and magic became conceptually separated with the development of western monotheism, where the distinction arose between supernatural events sanctioned by.
In his book A General Theory of Magic (), Marcel Mauss suggested that religion and magic were two opposite poles on a spectrum of spiritual beliefs.
Magic was at one end of the spectrum; it was private, secret, and individual. Religion was at the opposite end of the spectrum; it was public and oriented toward bringing the community together. Now my Charmes are all ore-throwne, And what strength I haue's mine owne.
Which is most faint —William Shakespeare, The Tempest You might think from the title of Religion and the Decline of Magic that there is going to be some causal relationship between the two noun phrases: that this is a story of how religion grew as magic diminished. But that is not at all the story being told in this /5.
The Paradoxes: I. Religion is magic, sanctioned by authority; II. Liberty is obedience to the Law; III. Love is the realisation of the impossible; IV. Knowledge is the ignorance or negation of Evil; V.
Reason is. Religion and Magic in Ancient Egypt Paperback – Novem by Rosalie David (Author) out of 5 stars 14 ratings. See all 5 formats and editions Hide other formats and Cited by: MAGIC: MAGIC IN EAST ASIA Magic and mantic arts are endemic in Chinese life and prominent in the religions of China, both in popular religion and in Buddhism and Daoism.
The same is true of Korea and Japan, where indigenous beliefs have been overlaid by the cultural influence of China. The magical practices of China found ready acceptance in Korea and Japan.
Rethinking Religion, Magic and Witchcraft in South Africa 25 society there was little to no debate on what constituted ‘right’ religion that was, for the most part, a closed and coherent category, quite rigid in terms of what beliefs and practices could be included and which were unquestionably excluded.
The Paradoxes of the Highest Science first appeared in in Calcutta as a pamphlet in the Theosophical Miscellanies series.
In it, LÃ©vi makes an appeal for a balance between science and religion by addressing seven paradoxical statements including "Religion is magic sanctioned by authority," "liberty is obedience to the Law," and "reason.
The magic/religion distinction was enlightening at the very least. Just read the titular essay, albeit slowly. Old sociology rarely ages well because it comes to be so /5.
Religion and magic became conceptually separated with the development of western monotheism, where the distinction arose between supernatural events sanctioned by mainstream religious doctrine ("miracles") and mere magic rooted in folk belief or occult speculation.
In pre-monotheistic religious traditions, there is no fundamental distinction. The ultimate authority in religion is God as He reigns in men's hearts.
But both the experience itself and the expression and interpretation of it vary with each individual. A religious authority to be real and effective must win the response of the human spirit, and in that personal relation of Spirit with spirit lie the conditions of variation.
To some extent, Bailey’s definition is a variant on the functionalist approach to “magic” associated with Marcel Mauss and Émile Durkheim. They both sought to distance “magic”—a secretive, isolated practice—from “religion”: a collective, organized endeavor.
"Magic" and "Religion" Over the years, there have been many attempts to delineate the boundary between magic and religion, but this cannot be done. It was once a common practice among scholars writing about "magic" to distinguish it from "religion" and to. Astrology, witchcraft, magical healing, divination, ancient prophecies, ghosts, and fairies were taken very seriously by people at all social and economic levels in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England.
Helplessness in the face of disease and human disaster helped to perpetuate this belief in magic and the supernatural.
As Keith Thomas shows, England during these years resembled in many 4/5(9). The Urantia Book. Paper The Real Nature of Religion. () RELIGION, as a human experience, ranges from the primitive fear slavery of the evolving savage up to the sublime and magnificent faith liberty of those civilized mortals who are superbly conscious of sonship with the eternal God.
() Religion is the ancestor of the advanced ethics and morals of progressive. The Ryukyuan religion (琉球信仰), Ryukyu Shintō (琉球神道), Nirai Kanai Shinkō (ニライカナイ信仰), or Utaki Shinkō (御嶽信仰) is the indigenous belief system of the Ryukyu specific legends and traditions may vary slightly from place to place and island to island, the Ryukyuan religion is generally characterized by ancestor worship (more accurately termed.
Just a couple of days ago, I published a hub on some of the weirdest religions in the world. Today, I am publishing a hub on some of the religions that use magic spells actively.
Or at least they are notorious and known by their supposedly “black magic spells”.For most people who don’t know about my tastes, I am a person whose hobbies also include researching religions, occult sciences Reviews: Wicca (English: / ˈ w ɪ k ə /), also termed Pagan Witchcraft, is a modern Pagan religion.
Scholars of religion categorise it as both a new religious movement and as part of the occultist stream of Western was developed in England during the first half of the 20th century and was introduced to the public in by Gerald Gardner, a retired British civil servant. Every aspect of ancient Egyptian society-from education and law to medicine, birth, and death-was permeated by religion and magic, and dominated by divine life forces of the sun and the Nile.
In this fascinating work, Rosalie David reveals the complex and intriguing world of gods and goddesses, Brand: Penguin UK.


None of the files shown here are hosted or transmitted by this server. The links are provided solely by this site's users. The administrator of this site view- cannot be held responsible for what its users post, or any other actions of its users. Thanos, arrabbiato, distrugge il servitore della Morte e lascia la stanza piangendo e chiedendosi come avrebbe potuto sapere che diventare un dio sarebbe stata una vittoria vana. Collegamenti esterni. EN The Thanos Quest, in Comic Book Database. Thanos Quest Pdf. Read Now Lim in: Comics T, Comic Lists, September 1990 Volume Debut, Thanos Comic Books Share Some of the links below are affiliate links meaning, at no additional cost to you, Fandom will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. Thanos Quest I - Free download as PDF File.pdf or read online for free. Thanos Quest I.
23/02/2018 · Hello Guyzz I am shocked when i saw my Youtube status all strikes are removed so we are continuing share comics and Changed my channel name to Comics Collect. Read The Thanos Quest Issue 2 comic online free and high quality. Unique reading type: All pages - just need to scroll to read next page. Thanos Quest Vol 1: 1990-1990 left Back to title selection: Comics T: Thanos Quest Vol 1 Thanos Quest 1 "Schemes and Dreams" September, 1990 Thanos Quest 2 "Games and Prizes" October, 1990 Add a photo to this gallery See Also: Full list of comics from this series that are in the. is the source for Marvel comics, digital comics, comic strips, and more featuring Iron Man, Spider-Man, Hulk, X-Men and all your favorite superheroes. The Thanos Quest is a two-issue comic book limited series published in September and October 1990 by Marvel Comics. The series was written by Jim Starlin, and drawn by Ron Lim. The storyline is a continuation of events involving resurrected Starlin-character Thanos, featured in the title Silver Surfer.
26/06/2012 · Thanos debe cumplir los deseos de su amada Muerte, quien le ordeno matar a la mitad del universo para recuperar el balance entre vivos y muertos. Para esto,. En T hanos Quest vimos la travesía del Titan Loco para reunir las 6 Gemas del Infinito. None of the files shown here are hosted or transmitted by this server. The links are provided solely by this site's users. The administrator of this site read- cannot be held responsible for what its users post, or any other actions of its users. Read The Thanos Quest comic online free and high quality. Fast loading speed, unique reading type: All pages - just need to scroll to read next page. Thanos embarks on the ultimate quest of love and all-consuming destruction! Notes. Thanos persuades Death to allow him to search the Soul Gems. However, he hides his real reasons from Death. Thanos states, that the six Soul Gems should be called the Infinity Gems.
26/05/2015 · Thanos Quest, miniserie de dos partes y publicada en 1990, presenta el origen de la busqueda del titan Thanos por las Gemas del Infinito y es el inicio de un arco argumental mucho mayor e importante del universo Marvel que continúa en "Infinity Gauntlet", "Infinity War" y "Infinity Crusade". Download Silver Surfer Epic Collection Thanos Quest in PDF and EPUB Formats for free. Silver Surfer Epic Collection Thanos Quest Book also available for. Thanos Quest [Español] [Cómic] [Mega] Thanos, semidios alienígena que nació hace milenios en una de las lunas de Saturno: Titán. Nació siendo un niño deforme entre una raza donde la perfección física era la norma, y pronto quedaría demostrado que las malformaciones del hijo del rey de Titán, el benévolo Mentor, no sólo eran superficiales. 23/06/2012 · This is Part 1 of 2 in the story of how Thanos acquires the Infinity Stones. The Thanos Quest is the precursor to the Infinity Gauntlet. The trade I own combines both Parts 1 & 2 into one volume, but that volume didn't exist on Goodreads. So for simplicity, I'll review both Parts. 3.0 stars. Part 1. 05/09/2012 · I've read Thanos quest in 2017 as part of the excellent Infinity Gauntlet Omnibus, and Thanos Quest blew me away with its sly tricks, fantastic characterization and trippy artwork. I did not force you to fight me. I gave you the chance to surrender the gem. You forced me into doing what I.
silver surfer epic collection thanos quest Download Book Silver Surfer Epic Collection Thanos Quest in PDF format. You can Read Online Silver Surfer Epic Collection Thanos Quest here in PDF. The Thanos Quest last edited by pikahyper on 05/28/18 05:15PM View full history The precursor to the Infinity Gauntlet story arc. Thanos has gained the permission of Death to obtain the Infinity Gems. They already are in the possession of some of the universe's greatest powers. SILVER-SURFER-EPIC-COLLECTION-THANOS-QUEST Download Silver-surfer-epic-collection-thanos-quest ebook PDF or Read Online books in PDF, EPUB, and Mobi Format. Click Download or Read Online button to SILVER-SURFER-EPIC-COLLECTION-THANOS-QUEST book pdf for free now.
Download Full Silver Surfer Epic Collection Thanos Quest Book in PDF, EPUB, Mobi and All Ebook Format. You also can read online Silver Surfer Epic Collection Thanos Quest. 01/07/1990 · The Thanos Quest 1 - Schemes And Dreams by cyclonus_the_warrior on November 30, 2014. Originally written 8-28-10After being resurrected by the cosmic entity Death, Thanos of Titan is given the mission to wipe out half the population of the universe. Although his powers have been greatly augmented, he still thirsts for more power.
So Thanos offers to give him a lift, in return for his Soul Gem. Champion agrees, saying that the gem "never functioned anyway". Thanos is not surprisingly kind of dickish, transporting Champion to another world but dumping him high up above the planet so that he's got a long way to fall. Thanos-Quest-1.pdf - Free download as PDF File.pdf or read online for free. Scribd es red social de lectura y publicación más importante del mundo. Buscar Buscar. Cerrar sugerencias. Cargar. es Change Language Cambiar idioma. Iniciar sesión. Unirse. Thanos Quest 1 by Jim Starlin Free PDF d0wnl0ad, audio books, books to read, good books to read, cheap books, good books, online books, books online, book reviews epub, read books online, books to read online, online library, greatbooks to read, PDF best books to read, top books to read Thanos Quest 1 by Jim Starlin books to read online. 13/04/2015 · Picked up a few copies & unsure how to tell the difference between a 1st & 2nd print. Didnt see anything mentioning a 2nd print in the publisher info. Any Thanos fans know differences off. Read Online Silver Surfer Epic Collection Thanos Quest and Download Silver Surfer Epic Collection Thanos Quest book full in PDF formats.
Thanos the Mad Titan has been resurrected by the entity known as Death. Resurrected and given a dark mission. In order to accomplish this mission, Thanos will seek ultimate power - the Soul Gems! Individually, they contain power beyond comprehension. Together, they could destroy a universe. And Thanos must have them all.
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Top 10 Horror Books Of All Time
If you love to read horror Stories here, for your horrifying pleasure, are some of the Scariest Books or novels ever written in English language. As I have read all the books given here except the newest ones, I can say without a doubt that they are all great stories. So whether you’re just getting into the horror genre, looking for a quick read, or looking for something to scare the daylights out of yourself with, I highly encourage everybody to must read these Top 10 Horror Books Of All Time. These are one of the very best horror books you will read in your lifetime.
Browse through the Top 10 Horror Books Of All Time list and maybe you pick up a book or two that you haven’t read yet and are scarier than almost any movie you could be watching.
Top 10 Horror Books Of All Time
The Light at the End by John Skipp and Craig Spector:
The Light at the End is a vampire tale that is violent, brutal, hilarious, and boundary-breaking in its way. It was written by John Skipp & Craig Spector in year 1986 which became a New York Times bestseller and is often recognized as the book that initiated the splatterpunk movement. It is defining moment within a subgenre which would later change into the hardcore horror of today. The story follows the transformation and final destruction of the street punk night crawler, Rudy Pasko. Absent are the romantic ideals of vampirism. Rudy was a leach on society long before he became a vampire. He is both victim and villain, lurking deep within New York City’s subway tunnels. No matter how dark and dreadful things get, there is always a light at the end
Swan Song by Robert McCammon:
Swan Song is a 1987 horror novel by American novelist Robert R. McCammon. He started his career writing firewalling horror books and now is writing historical fiction. He makes you care intensely about his characters, takes huge risks, and writes with a ton of heart. It is a work of post-apocalyptic fiction telling the aftermath of a nuclear war that incites an evolution in humankind.
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson:
The Haunting of Hill House is a novel written by author Shirley Jackson, one of the most intriguing writers of the 20th century. It is widely considered as one of the best literary ghost stories published in the year 1959. Also it has been made into two feature films and a play. It is the winner of the National Book Award. This novel relies on terror rather than horror to extract emotion by the reader, developing multifarious relationships between the strange events in the house and the characters’ psyches.
Last Days by Brian Evenson:
Brian Evenson is known as an American academic writer of both literary fiction and popular fiction. His fiction, often described as literary minimalism which makes common use of dark humor and often features characters struggling with the limits and consequences of knowledge. Last Days is a hardboiled horror novel about a mutilate detective, Kline, who is recruited to solve a mystery in a bizarre religious cult. The cult believes that mutilation is holy, and creates a religious hierarchy based on the number of amputations members have.
The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum:
The Girl Next Door was written by author Jack Ketchum in 1989. It is based on the true story of the murder of Sylvia Likens, who in 1965, brutally tortured, mutilated, and humiliated for months at the hands of her caregiver in Indianapolis, Indiana. The Girl Next Door is a real-life horror, so believable and psychologically wise it might just change you in an intense way.
The Damnation Game by Clive Barker:
The Damnation Game is the first novel written by author Clive Barker, published in 1985. Joseph Whitehead is one of the wealthiest men in the world. He hired a personal bodyguard for him, Marty Strauss, a gambling addict recently released from prison who knows the job isn’t going to be easy. But what he finds surpasses his wildest nightmares–someone is coming to collect the soul of his employer as payment for an old and terrible debt; someone who can animate the dead and co-opt the spirit of the young girl Marty has come to love; someone who counts off the years of his existence in centuries and the evils he has done in infinities; someone who will not rest until all the love and goodness have been banished from the world . . .
The Devil in Silver by Victor LaValle:
The Devil in Silver might be his best book, a story about a man who gets improperly placed in a mental institution. He’s not mentally ill. He is accused of a crime he can’t quite square with his memory. The Devil in Silver intensely brings together the influential themes that spark all of Victor LaValle’s radiant fiction: trust, race, class, madness, and our relationship with the unseen and the strange. It’s an enthralling suspenseful work of literary horror about friendship, love, and the courage to kill our own demons.
Geek Love by Katherine Dunn –
Geek Love is a novel written by Katherine Dunn written in 1989. This book is always seen on a lot of “best of” lists, perhaps. It’s not straightforward horror like some of the other books here. It’s horrific, but it’s the horror of a certain kind of familial love. There are books that create a world and pull you in and it’s like slipping underwater: you’re deeply entrenched with those characters, that story, until the book ends and you can surface for air. Geek Love is one of those rare books and I hope you’ll love this novel. It was a finalist for the National Book Award.
Enter Night by Michael Rowe:
Michael Rowe is an award-winning Canadian writer, journalist, novelist and anthologist who published the novel, Enter Night. Rowe draws the reader in slowly and uses his remote Canadian setting to great effect. There is nothing gory or outrageous on display—Rowe wants to scare the reader, that is clearly his express mandate, and he is so well-versed in the trappings of fear, the slow accumulation of dread, that you will likely have to take breaks while reading this to unlink your tensed-up muscles.
Enter Night, a vampire story set in Northern Ontario in 1972 and was published in 2011 by ChiZine Publications. On April 13, 2012, Enter, Night was declared finalist for Canada’s prestigious Prix Aurora Awards in the English Language Novel category. The Prix Aurora Awards are awarded annually to celebrate the best in Canadian speculative fiction. “Enter, Night” was also selected for the Sunburst Award.
Ghost Story by Peter Straub:
Ghost Story was published on January 1, 1979 is a horror novel written by Peter Straub. this book was also adapted into a film in the same year. The story takes place in the fictional town of Milburn, New York, and is told from the alternating points of view of four men in their old age. The protagonist, lifelong friends who call themselves the “Chowder Society,” gather sometimes to talk about and share ghost stories. When one of the four dies suddenly, the three survivors find themselves obsessed by dreams in which they also die. As the story unfolds, the four men’s past is discovered to hold a murder from their youth, and they begin to terror that the young woman they killed has come back to take revenge upon them.
If there are any of the best scariest novels which appeal to you, then you can sit back knowing that you have chosen one of the best and that you will enjoy a really good read and when you get to the end, leave a comment below about your favorite scary stories.
I hope you enjoy these tales of horror..!!
You May Also Like To Check This Section:
|Top 10 Horror Movies||Top 10 Scariest Things in the World|
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"I like awfully unfashionable things - and people. I like sitting on doorsteps, and talking to the old woman who brings quinces, and going for picnics in a jolting little wagon, and listen to the kind of music they play on public gardens on warm evenings, and in fact, to all kinds of people in all kinds of places. But what a fatal sentence to begin with. One could spend a whole life finishing it."
Katherine Mansfield, from a letter dated 21 November 1921.


Book Review: INK AND BONE by Lisa Unger - Touchstone Books
Publication June 7, 2016
Ink and Bone is a special blend of psychological thriller, supernatural horror, and domestic drama. Finley Montgomery, age 21, has left her hometown of Seattle and settled with her beloved grandmother Eloise in The Hollows, a small town in upstate New York. Finley is attending a local college and studying abnormal psychology, particularly Carl Jung. Her life has been atypical. She has been seeing spirits and having visions since she was a small child. Finley came east so that Eloise, who is a renowned psychic, and Eloise's own mentor Agatha can aid and instruct Finley about how to master, hone and live with her abilities. Eloise works with local private investigator Jones Cooper on missing persons cases. Eloise knows that her granddaughter has extraordinary gifts, and, from her own experience, knows that such gifts often come with a price. The Hollows, the setting for earlier novels by Unger, is like many small communities, and yet it is a uniquely strange place.
"The negative energy of The Hollows could not be denied. It was no secret to Finley, who felt it constantly. The Hollows boasted an anomalous number of missing persons, of miscarriages, of accidents and unexplained events. Throughout its history, there had been brutal murders, witch burnings, and horrible mining accidents. There's a powerful energy here, Eloise had said more than once. It's not always positive, it's not always negative, but it always demands something from people like us."
Jones brings a case to Eloise. Merri Gleason wants them to look into the disappearance of her eight-year-old daughter which happened ten months ago. Merri and her husband, a successful couple from Manhattan, had rented a lakeside cabin near The Hollows the previous summer. While Merri napped, Wolf took their thirteen-year-old son and their daughter on a nature hike. Two men appeared, shot Wolf in the leg, then shot his son, and abducted the little girl. The Gleason family have been in torment since then, and Merri believes Eloise is her last chance to locate her daughter.
Finley has been having auditory hallucinations which Eloise believes is related to the girl's disappearance. Eloise tells Jones and Finley that this case requires Finley's gifts. As soon as Finley and Jones visit the trail where the girl was abducted, Finley has a vision from the perspective of a person who was there when the abduction occurred. These visions continue and, combined with Jones's own detective work and some other leads, bring Finley and Jones closer to the truth about where the girl was taken and why. This truth, and The Hollows, may require a sacrifice from Finley.
Lisa Unger is an exceptional psychological thriller writer. Her writing is engaging and cinematic, the plotting is seamless, and the characters are vivid and realistic. Each character's psyche, motivation, and actions are thoroughly examined and explained, the mark of a true psychological thriller. She uses supernatural elements--psychic abilities, ghosts, the setting of The Hollows--to disclose the all-too-real horror of a child abduction. By doing so, Unger is able to raise an essential question: What is a "normal" life? To Finley, seeing spirits and having visions is part of daily existence. Merri has spent nearly a year not knowing whether or not her daughter is dead or alive, and while that is unimaginable, it has become her reality. A little girl is using her wiles to stay alive while being held captive by evil people who masquerade as small town folks. Furthermore, Unger shows a true understanding of how trauma affects people. Some people are devastated by traumatic events, while others have resilience and not only recover but discover they have gained skills and a capacity for survival they would not otherwise possess.
Ink and Bone is a riveting and thought-provoking thriller which is sure to be a popular and ideal "summer read," providing readers with chills and excitement. I look forward to spending more time in The Hollows and getting to know its residents better in Lisa Unger's next outing.
Thank you, Touchstone Books, for providing me with an advance reading copy through NetGalley.


I recently started doing live graphic recording using Procreate and have been appreciating the multitude of people sharing tools and resources so I can learn. Here’s a few of my favorites.
Intro to Procreate - Bardot Brush
Procreate for Beginners - Every Tuesday
Tutorials, drawing, and brushes - Bardot Brush
A variety of Procreate tutorials - iPad Calligraphy
Malgosia’s top 8 tips video - part of the IFVP Digital Scribing Series
Malgosia’s PDF guide to the top eight features of Procreate - part of the IFVP Digital Scribing Series
Using Grid Builder Brushes to create lettering compositions - iPad Calligraphy
How to create a brush in Procreate - Teela Cunningham
How to make a stamp in Procreate - Naptime Alternative on YouTube
How have you learned Procreate? Any great resources I should add to the list?


Feeling Low? Tired by your procrastinating habit? Wanna Build new changes?
Then Why WAIT, When You are Already LATE!
Books are meant to complete a human with knowledge, education and life transforming lessons. Once imbibed in them, they completely transform people into good minds. Let’s explore some of the best books by the great authors.
“When we love, we always strive to become better than we are. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.”By Paulo Coelho
One of the finest lines by Paulo Coelho from the book THE ALCHEMIST. Paulo Coelho is known as the best novelist, not only famous in writing books but also a very well singer and lyricist.
Alchemist is one of the best motivational books. It has inspired a lot of people to bring better and best changes in life. Every quote in the novel gives deep lessons. Many people have reviewed this book as an excellent one and the book has sold its 65 million copies.
“Just keep your conscious mind busy with expectation of the best”
“Think good and good follows. Think evil and evil follows. You are what you think all day long.”By Joseph Murphy
Joseph Murphy has deeply awaken the strength of subconscious mind in the minds of people which has helped them to understand and acknowledge the power of mind and how our perception about surroundings impact our current life. There is nothing that can limit you to live your life to the fullest.
This is one of the most encouraging books in today’s era. It builds your inner confidence to boost up your success, peace and happiness. It is a therapy which directs you to a happy zone, counsels you for achieving success and advices the best out of everything.
” The moment. Stop regretting the past and fearing the future. Today is all you have. Make the most of it. Make it worth remembering.”By Hector Garcia
Hector Gracia’s famous book Ikigai is a Japanese Famous secret book to a long and happy life. It has teachings for everyday life which makes your life better each day and helps function in a smooth way. This is not just a book of sentences, but is a book full of learnings.
Ikigai has personally taught many things such as smiling more often, rather than thinking of the past or the future, learning to live in the moment i.e., the PRESENT. Reconnecting oneself with nature and it’s beauty. Rightly manifesting your potential and following your passion too, as we all know success is only attained when you follow your heart and passions , and not the one delegated by others.
“Good investing is not necessarily about making good decisions. It’s about consistently not screwing up.”By Morgan Housel.
Morgan Housel has briefed us about money and how we acknowledge it in our life. The way people take money into a serious note, how they adapt the greed of money for fulfilling their wishes made decades ago and have also conversed about happiness.
It as clearly described the vital lessons to avail that in our life especially while planning for finances. He teaches us to take wiser decisions in financial planning. Housel’s book has inspired many youngsters as well as adults in conveying the crucial phase of saving and investing more and playing our money game without getting caught up.
“Every action you take is a vote for the person you wish to become”By James Clear
Atomic habits, the name itself says tiny changes a day cultivates our consistency into a habit which delivers ourselves the best each day as the role of being ideal that we have dreamt of throughout the years.
They are so many things that I have personally learnt from the book Atomic habits such as changing your identity to change your habits as old identity doesn’t help you to reform with your new 2.0 version. So you have to profoundly mould yourself by reshaping to the needs of your current desires.
Books are just another name of reforming people. It motivates us to an extent where we learn so many new things just by reading. Reading book a day helps our mind to bring that glory of freshness and lives into our souls. It marks best thoughts within a person which help be a good human being in terms of the lessons and learnings taught by books. They are a miracle in everyone’s life. These top 5 books helps you for a better survival , by taking these books into consideration you will make a huge impact in your life.


Take a look back at your year of nonfiction and reflect on the following questions – What was your favorite nonfiction read of the year? What nonfiction book have you recommended the most? What is one topic or type of nonfiction you haven’t read enough of yet? What are you hoping to get out of participating in Nonfiction November?
So that’s 44 nonfiction books since January.
28 male authors and 17 female authors (Yes, one book had 2 authors.) Turns out I read way more male-authored nonfiction than I do male-authored fiction.
I read the most memoirs — about 25 depending on how you define that. The topics are all so different that is hard to pick I favorite. I enjoyed them all.
I’ve recommended If At Birth You Don’t Succeed and Born a Crime the most. But seriously, there isn’t a single book on this list that I would steer anyone away from. It has been a really good nonfiction year for me.
There isn’t a type of nonfiction that I’m looking to read more often. I do like to find books set in parts of the world that I haven’t read a lot about before. That’s why there are 2 South American books in October. I picked them based on setting and they are both lovely. The Wonder Trail also has a lot of other book suggestions too.
The thing I love best about Nonfiction November is getting so many recommendations. I can’t wait to see what everyone else is reading.
“In 2009, New York Times bestselling author Eloisa James took a leap that many people dream about: she sold her house, took a sabbatical from her job as a Shakespeare professor, and moved her family to Paris. With no classes to teach, no committee meetings to attend, no lawn to mow or cars to park, Eloisa revels in the ordinary pleasures of life—discovering corner museums that tourists overlook, chronicling Frenchwomen’s sartorial triumphs, walking from one end of Paris to another. She copes with her Italian husband’s notions of quality time; her two hilarious children, ages eleven and fifteen, as they navigate schools—not to mention puberty—in a foreign language; and her mother-in-law Marina’s raised eyebrow in the kitchen (even as Marina overfeeds Milo, the family dog). “
This is her memoir about her family’s year in Paris. It was developed from her Facebook posts so it contains mainly short snippets of information about her days interspersed with longer essays.
She is an American who is married to an Italian man. They live in New Jersey and have 2 kids. They move to Paris and enroll the kids in an Italian language school because they are fluent. Her son is taking classes like architectural drawing that he isn’t interested in so he doesn’t do the work. Her daughter is now a child who is well acquainted with principals’ offices on two continents. Eloisa walks around the city sampling the food and getting mad that her husband is losing weight as fast as she is gaining it.
“I asked if Alessandro would pick up some of the spectacular chocolate mousse made by a patisserie on the nearby rue Richer. His response: “I thought you were on a diet.” These seven words rank among the more imprudent things he has said to me in the long years of our marriage.”
The Saga of Milo
Background – They had a Chihuahua named Milo. He used to fly back and forth from the U.S. to Italy with them when they visited her husband’s family. But Milo got fat. He got stranded in Italy because he was too heavy to fly back to the U.S. in the cabin. So Milo has been staying with Italian Grandma until he loses weight. Yeah, it’s not happening. Occasionally she reports in on Milo’s vet visits with Grandma.
“Apparently the vet has suggested vegetables, so for dinner Milo is having lightly steamed broccoli tossed in just a touch of butter, and some diet dog food steeped in homemade chicken broth.”
I have these clients.
“Milo has been back to the vet for a follow-up visit. To Marina’s dismay, her Florentine vet labeled Milo obese, even after she protested that ‘he never eats.’ Apparently the vet’s gaze rest thoughtfully on Milo’s seal-like physique, and then he said, ‘He may be telling you that, but we can all see he’s fibbing.'”
I have never been that brave.
“Marina said today the first thing she plans to do back in Florence is find a new vet. That nasty vet who told her Milo is obese, she said, is too young and doesn’t understand Milo’s emotional problems.”
I read a lot of the Milo sections to my coworkers. They thought they were hysterical. Yes, this is our life.
“The incredible story of the young women of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, who unwittingly played a crucial role in one of the most significant moments in U.S. history. The Tennessee town of Oak Ridge was created from scratch in 1942. One of the Manhattan Project’s secret cities, it didn’t appear on any maps until 1949, and yet at the height of World War II it was using more electricity than New York City and was home to more than 75,000 people, many of them young women recruited from small towns across the South. Their jobs were shrouded in mystery, but they were buoyed by a sense of shared purpose, close friendships—and a surplus of handsome scientists and Army men! But against this vibrant wartime backdrop, a darker story was unfolding. The penalty for talking about their work—even the most innocuous details—was job loss and eviction. One woman was recruited to spy on her coworkers. They all knew something big was happening at Oak Ridge, but few could piece together the true nature of their work until the bomb “Little Boy” was dropped over Hiroshima, Japan, and the secret was out. The shocking revelation: the residents of Oak Ridge were enriching uranium for the atomic bomb.”
Oak Ridge was a temporary city in the middle of nowhere, hidden by topography, and never meant to see the light of day. It had one purpose — to enrich uranium to feed the development of the nuclear bomb. A lot of people were required to build and then run the huge plants. How do you get a lot of people to agree to do a job that they aren’t allowed to know about or talk about? Pay high wages and tell them it is for the war effort.
People left other jobs without knowing where they would be going or for how long. Many were told to go to a train station and they would be met. They had no idea where they were heading.
I can’t believe that people agreed to do this. I’m too nosy. If you gave me a job and told me to spend eight to twelve hours a day manipulating dials so that the readout always read the correct number, I couldn’t do it. I certainly couldn’t do it for years without needing to know what I was doing. I would have been fired and escorted out of there so fast. How was the secret kept for so long?
Coming out of the Depression though, any job was a good job. These jobs were hiring women and African Americans at wages they wouldn’t see elsewhere. Of course, there was discrimination and segregation. Housing for African Americans was poor and they were not allowed to live together if they were married. When someone started wondering, “What happens if we inject this uranium into a person?” you know they picked a black man who just happened to have a broken leg to experiment on. He did manage to escape eventually but not before they had done a lot of damage to him.
This book tells the stories of women in several different jobs – secretarial staff, Calutron operators, cleaning staff, and scientists. They made a life in a town that wasn’t supposed to last long. The audiobook was compelling listening. The story sounds like a novel.
I went to vet school in Knoxville, which is 20 miles away from Oak Ridge. I had friends who were from there and friends whose families had been forcibly removed from the area in order to build Oak Ridge. It was interesting to hear what went on behind the scenes.
I would be interested in pairing this with this book:
“On August 9, 1945, three days after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, a small port city on Japan’s southernmost island. An estimated 74,000 people died within the first five months, and another 75,000 were injured.
Published on the seventieth anniversary of the bombing, Nagasaki takes readers from the morning of the bombing to the city today, telling the first-hand experiences of five survivors, all of whom were teenagers at the time of the devastation.”
The Girls of Atomic City does discuss the reactions of the citizens of Oak Ridge when they found out what they had been doing. It discusses the guilt that some people still have for their part in making the bomb.
You know what I kept thinking about while listening to this? This scene from Clerks.
Randal: There was something else going on in Jedi. I ever noticed it till today. They build another Death Star, right?
Randal: Now, the first one was completed and fully operational before the Rebel’s destroyed it.
Dante: Luke blew it up. Give credit where credit is due.
Randal: And the second one was still being built when the blew it up.
Dante: Compliments to Lando Calrissian.
Randal: Something just never sat right with me that second time around. I could never put my finger on it, but something just wasn’t right.
Dante: And you figured it out?
Randal: The first Death Star was manned by the Imperial Army. The only people on board were stormtroppers, dignitaries, Imperials.
Randal: So, when the blew it up, no problem. Evil’s punished.
Dante: And the second time around?
Randal: The second time around, it wasn’t even done being built yet. It was still under construction.
Randal: So, construction job of that magnitude would require a helluva lot more manpower than the Imperial army had to offer. I’ll bet there were independent contractors working on that thing: plumbers, aluminum siders, roofers.
Dante: Not just Imperials, is what you’re getting at?
Randal: Exactly. In order to get it built quickly and quietly they’d hire anybody who could do the job. Do you think the average storm trooper knows how to install a toilet main? All they know is killing and white uniforms.
Dante: All right, so they bring in independent contractors. Why are you so upset with its destruction?
Randal: All those innocent contractors hired to do a job were killed! Casualties of a war they had nothing to do with. All right, look, you’re a roofer, and some juicy government contract comes your way; you got the wife and kids and the two-story in suburbia – this is a government contract, which means all sorts of benefits. All of a sudden these left-wing militants blast you with lasers and wipe out everyone within a three-mile radius. You didn’t ask for that. You have no personal politics. You’re just trying to scrape out a living.
This book is basically the point of view of the people building the second Death Star.
“Like so many others, David Lebovitz dreamed about living in Paris ever since he first visited the city in the 1980s. Finally, after a nearly two-decade career as a pastry chef and cookbook author, he moved to Paris to start a new life. Having crammed all his worldly belongings into three suitcases, he arrived, hopes high, at his new apartment in the lively Bastille neighborhood. But he soon discovered it’s a different world en France. From learning the ironclad rules of social conduct to the mysteries of men’s footwear, from shopkeepers who work so hard not to sell you anything to the etiquette of working the right way around the cheese plate, here is David’s story of how he came to fall in love with—and even understand—this glorious, yet sometimes maddening, city.”
This is the book the husband would have written if he lived in France. He is the person who said halfway through our trip to France that it would be a wonderful country if there were no people in it. His favorite French vacation story is the time we watched an older French woman beat a disabled British tourist with an umbrella because he didn’t give his seat up to her. He learned that parapluie is umbrella from that incident.
We once had a black, female, French neighbor to whom the husband had to explain several times that while the people in our small town might in fact be both racist and sexist, what was getting her in trouble was being French. No, it wasn’t ok to park in the fire lane and then cut in line at WalMart because she was parked in the fire lane, for example.
David Lebovitz had this same frustration with French people when he moved to Paris. Why are they always cutting in line? Why won’t they help you in a store? Why does it take so long to accomplish everyday tasks?
This book is hysterically funny. He is a cookbook author whose new French apartment had a tiny kitchen and suspect plumbing.
Eventually he learned to adapt and thrive in his new city. He learned to cut in line with the best of them. He started dressing up to take out the garbage. That’s when he knew he was home.
There are lots of recipes in this book. I even made one. I know! I’m shocked too. I almost never make recipes in books. I made the fig and olive tapenade though and it was scrumptious. I even took a picture of it as proof but it looks like a glob of clumpy black stuff on some bread. Yummy food photography is not a skill I have.
“Leah Remini has never been the type to hold her tongue. That willingness to speak her mind, stand her ground, and rattle the occasional cage has enabled this tough-talking girl from Brooklyn to forge an enduring and successful career in Hollywood. But being a troublemaker has come at a cost. That was never more evident than in 2013, when Remini loudly and publicly broke with the Church of Scientology. Now, in this frank, funny, poignant memoir, the former King of Queens star opens up about that experience for the first time, revealing the in-depth details of her painful split with the church and its controversial practices.”
Leah Remini is the perfect person to write this tell all book about the inner workings of The Church of Scientology. She was brought into the religion as a child when her mother joined. She was taken out of school and moved to Florida in order to work at retreat center for Scientologists. She progressed through the religion as she started her acting career. As she became more famous, she was given more and more opportunities to promote her faith.
She knew that she was working to clear the planet. She was part of saving the world. If that meant that she needed to go to the center and do her courses for hours a day, she did it. If it meant giving millions of dollars for church activities, she went along. She faced interrogations based on reports that people wrote about her. She was even thrown off a boat once. It didn’t faze her.
Through it all she remained a true believer
Then she was invited to be part of the elite group of Scientologists who grouped around Tom Cruise. That was when she started to see hypocrisy. She saw people how weren’t behaving like the church demanded and nothing was being done about it. She noticed that people were disappearing and no one would talk about it. She decided that she needed to speak up to save her church — and they silenced her. Eventually she was declared to be a Suppressive Person who no Scientologist is allowed to associate with. This is a horrific punishment for a person whose entire life revolved around the church for thirty years and whose entire family are members.
That’s when she decided to speak out publicly.
I listened to the audio version of this book and I think that was a good choice. She reads her own story and you can hear the emotions brought up. There is sadness for her lost life and anger at the people who deceived her. There is love for her family who decided to stand by her.
My only issue with the audio is that got slow in the middle. She spends a lot of time detailing growing up in Scientology. It was necessary information to have to understand what happened later but it didn’t keep my interest. I actually put this audio down for several months and didn’t intend to go back to it. I only listened again because I finished another book and didn’t have anything else with me while in the car. I’m glad I picked it back up. The last third of the book was very compelling.
I’d recommend this book for anyone who wants to learn more about Scientology or anyone who is in the mood for a different look at a celebrity memoir.
“In a time of death and terror, Leymah Gbowee brought Liberia’s women together–and together they led a nation to peace. As a young woman, Gbowee was broken by the Liberian civil war, a brutal conflict that tore apart her life and claimed the lives of countless relatives and friends. As a young mother trapped in a nightmare of domestic abuse, she found the courage to turn her bitterness into action, propelled by her realization that it is women who suffer most during conflicts–and that the power of women working together can create an unstoppable force. In 2003, the passionate and charismatic Gbowee helped organize and then led the Liberian Mass Action for Peace, a coalition of Christian and Muslim women who sat in public protest, confronting Liberia’s ruthless president and rebel warlords, and even held a sex strike. With an army of women, Gbowee helped lead her nation to peace.”
War came over Liberia in waves. First Charles Taylor took power and then a group of rebels fought him. Each group terrorized the citizens. The soldiers were boys with guns who were told to take what they needed as they moved through the country. They murdered and stole and raped their way across the country.
Leymah Gbowee had just graduated from high school when the fighting started. She had a bright future ahead of her and it all collapsed. Suddenly, getting food and water and a safe place to sleep was the only priorities. She went from being an aspiring doctor to being a mother of four children trapped in an abusive relationship in a few years. She got a job working with trauma counselors during a time of relative peace. She loved the work and was able to move into working with women who were the most impacted by the fighting.
When the war started again she mobilized the women in the capital and in the refugee camps to stage sit ins to protest for peace. She claims that her story shows how God worked in Liberia through the women’s prayer. I say that it shows the exact opposite. The mass protests (and prayers) were not effective until they were paired with direct political action. They would protest for weeks and then she’d get mad because nothing was happening. At this point they would get in the faces of the men who were obstructing the peace and cause change to happen.
To give all the credit for this to God erases the power and bravery of the women who stepped up and said, “Enough!”
This isn’t a fairy tale about bringing peace. Their world was cruel and heartbreaking. Leymah sacrificed her family over and over. She is open about drinking to cope with what her life had become. This book was published in 2011 just before she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work.
A documentary about her work called Pray the Devil Back To Hell was made. You can watch it for free on Amazon. It puts faces to the women who she writes about.
I’d recommend this for anyone who loves women’s history and the power of women to demand change in the world.
“The compelling, inspiring, and comically sublime story of one man’s coming-of-age, set during the twilight of apartheid and the tumultuous days of freedom that followed. Trevor Noah’s unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away. Finally liberated by the end of South Africa’s tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle.”
This book is amazing. That is all. Go preorder it.
I was reading this on my Kindle app and was highlighting like crazy. Trevor Noah has been an outsider all his life. In South Africa under apartheid there were four racial categories – white, black, colored, and Indian. Colored people were the descendants of interracial relationships in the past. There was no category for 50/50 black/white children because it couldn’t legally happen. He chose to identify as black because that’s what his mother was but he wasn’t accepted there either.
Growing up both defined by and outside of such a strict racial hierarchy sharpened his insights.
“That is the curse of being black and poor, and it is a curse that follows you from generation to generation. My mother calls it “the black tax.” Because the generations who came before you have been pillaged, rather than being free to use your skills and education to move forward, you lose everything just trying to bring everyone behind you back up to zero.”
“British racism said, “If the monkey can walk like a man and talk like a man, then perhaps he is a man.” Afrikaner racism said, “Why give a book to a monkey?”
He talks about history when describing why having a friend named Hitler wasn’t considered strange.
“Every country thinks their history is the most important, and that’s especially true in the West. But if black South Africans could go back in time and kill one person, Cecil Rhodes would come up before Hitler. If people in the Congo could go back in time and kill one person, Belgium’s King Leopold would come way before Hitler. If Native Americans could go back in time and kill one person, it would probably be Christopher Columbus or Andrew Jackson.”
“Holocaust victims count because Hitler counted them. Six million people killed. We can all look at that number and rightly be horrified. But when you read through the history of atrocities against Africans, there are no numbers, only guesses. It’s harder to be horrified by a guess.”
This is the story of growing up illegally because his mother fought to make a place for him even before the fall of apartheid. She was a visionary. However, even after apartheid there wasn’t a place for him to make a legal living as easily as it was to make an illegal one in the townships. He talks about the saying about teaching a man to fish vs giving him a fish. He points out that it doesn’t work if you don’t also help him get a fishing pole.
This isn’t the story of how he became a comedian or how he ended up taking over for Jon Stewart as the host of The Daily Show. That all comes later. This is the story of the world that shaped him into the person he is today. It is funny. It is horrifying. It is necessary reading.
“Dancers After Dark” is an amazing celebration of the human body and the human spirit, as dancers, photographed nude and at night, strike poses of fearless beauty. Without a permit or a plan, Jordan Matter led hundreds of the most exciting dancers in the world out of their comfort zones not to mention their clothes to explore the most compelling reaches of beauty and the human form. After all the risk and daring, the result is extraordinary: 300 dancers, 400 locations, more than 150 stunning photographs. And no clothes, no arrests, no regrets. Each image highlights the amazing abilities of these artists and presents a core message to the reader: Say yes rather than no, and embrace the risks and opportunities that life presents. “
It started with an offhand comment from a contortionist. She’d be available for a photoshoot after her show. It might be raining. Maybe they should try nudes.
Jordan Matter had been photographing dancers and circus performers for years but now that work went in a new direction. This is a book of photos of dancers naked in public at night. There were no permits. No closed sets.
The photographs in the book are beautiful. Several of them I stared at just to try to figure out how they got into those positions. I love one of a dancer balancing on pointe on top of a wine bottle. Other times I could only imagine how incredibly cold they must have been. Here’s a behind the scenes video of one of the shots that made me freeze just looking at it.
The cover dancer is Michaela Prince, whose autobiography I reviewed. Most of the rest are anonymous except for Alan Cumming. At the end of the book there are some of the stories behind the pictures. It wasn’t enough. I wish there had been a story for every picture. I wanted to know if the participants were ballet dancers or modern dancers. Did they perform on Broadway or in circuses? Luckily there is video of the process that gives more background on his website.
“When Paul Graham was suddenly diagnosed with a serious wheat allergy at the age of thirty-six, he was forced to say goodbye to traditional pasta, pizza, sandwiches, and more. Gone, too, were some of his favorite hobbies, including brewing beer with a buddy and gorging on his wife’s homemade breads. Struggling to understand why he and so many others had become allergic to wheat, barley, rye, oats, and other dietary staples, Graham researched the production of modern wheat and learned that not only has the grain been altered from ancestral varieties but it’s also commonly added to thousands of processed foods. In writing that is effortless and engaging, Paul explores why incidence of the disease is on the rise while also grappling with an identity crisis—given that all his favorite pastimes involved wheat in some form.”
This is an unflinchingly honest account of what it is like to give up one of the things that you enjoy most in life. Paul Graham loves to eat. He loved bread in all its forms. He loved beer. Suddenly he found out that those foods were behind a sudden illness that caused him to lose 25 pounds and end up hospitalized.
The honesty of the writing can certain come across as whiny, especially for those of us who have had restrictive diets by choice or necessity for long enough to have moved past the first stages of grief. He laments what it means now to travel without being able to eat anything and everything on a menu. Eventually he learns to move past that and see that there is life after allergies.
“But the most sensitive have also come to know something that “normal” eaters do not often have occasion to consider: to have anyone make food for you is an implicit extension of trust. The more serious the consequences, the greater the confidence one puts in the cook.”
Yes! I can be a nervous wreck when we go to new restaurants. Honestly, I only implicitly trust food that I make myself for the husband because of his allergy. The author laments people disrupting the orderliness of buffets so he can’t be sure anything is safe for him. I can relate totally.
He discusses the privilege that he has as a fairly well off person with the skills and time to cook from scratch in order to accommodate his new diet. He wonders how people how have to survive on prepared food do it. The answer seems to be – not well according to the research. He points out the irony that the foods that were once considered only good enough for poor people are now the rare grains and ingredients that cost more than wheat.
I’d recommend this book for any food lover or person interested in knowing what it is like to live with food allergies.
Book received in exchange for review from BloggingforBooks.com
“Saving Delaney is the heartwarming true story of a baby who is diagnosed with Down Syndrome and the unconventional family who fought for her right to life. Andrea Ott-Dahl, who with her partner Keston Ott-Dahl has with two other children, agreed to act as a pregnancy surrogate for a wealthy Silicon Valley family. When pre-natal testing revealed the baby would be born with Down Syndrome, Andrea was urged to abort the child. Instead, the Ott-Dahls chose to keep and raise the daughter they would call Delaney, overcoming their fears while navigating legal, medical and emotional challenges.”
I’m not going to lie. I read this book for the chocolate.
I was at BEA and the authors were signing right next to another author I was in line for. When I finished they had a short line and the BEA worker said that they were handing out chocolate with the book. That got my attention. I hadn’t been interested in the book because I don’t like babies. I’m also pro-choice and didn’t care to read a pro-life screed. Turns out I’m really more pro-chocolate than anything. I went up and got a copy of the book. Delaney even signed it for me herself.
Now I’m glad that I read this book.
The book is told from Keston’s viewpoint. When her mother died when Keston was in her early 40s, she went through a bit of a wild time. She broke up with her long term partner and decided to just have fun for a while. She wasn’t planning on meeting a woman in her late 20s with two young children and falling in love. She certainly wasn’t planning for her new girlfriend to decide that she needed to be a surrogate for another couple.
Keston had always had a phobia about people with disabilities. This view was formed when she did some community service in a residential care facility. Since that time she had actively avoided any contact.
Trying to get pregnant as a surrogate wasn’t easy for Andrea. Tensions rose between the Ott-Dahls, the prospective mothers, and the sperm donors as months passed with no pregnancy. Right when they were about to give up, Andrea got pregnant.
Routine prenatal testing showed abnormalities early. Andrea was the biological mother. An egg donor was not used. Now the question was, could she be made to abort her biological child if she signed a contract stating that the prospective mothers got to decide about any health concerns to the child? Should they keep a child with Down’s Syndrome knowing Keston’s issues with disabilities?
This book is the story of growing up and growing together. It is standing up for your family in the face of pressures from all sides. It is about learning to overcome your prejudices and convincing others to do the same.
Regardless of your personal opinions on abortion or surrogacy, I’d recommend reading this book. It gives the perspective of people wrestling with the tough choices that come with assisted reproduction that aren’t usually heard.
“Comedian Zach Anner opens his frank and devilishly funny book, If at Birth You Don’t Succeed, with an admission: he botched his own birth. Two months early, underweight and under-prepared for life, he entered the world with cerebral palsy and an uncertain future. So how did this hairless mole-rat of a boy blossom into a viral internet sensation who’s hosted two travel shows, impressed Oprah, driven the Mars Rover, and inspired a John Mayer song? (It wasn’t “Your Body is a Wonderland.”)”
I have a confession. I hate YouTube. If I am forced to watch a video because of a deep interest in the subject, it better be captioned so I don’t have to turn the sound on my iPad on. It is no wonder that I’d never heard of Zach Anner before reading this book. It is also a testament to my love for his story that I’ve watched several of his YouTube videos and shared them with others.
Zach has cerebral palsy which causes him to have limited fine motor skills and poor balance. He describes his legs as mostly decoration. He has a lazy eye and his eyes don’t track which makes it difficult for him to read. He also has a razor-sharp mind, a wild sense of humor, and the compulsive need to express himself through pop culture references. This leads to a laugh out loud funny memoir about the unexpected turns his life has taken.
The book is not organized chronologically. I appreciated that. How many memoirs have you read where you know something interesting happens in the author’s twenties but first you have to suffer through the minutia of their childhood for many, many chapters? Here we start on a high note. He entered an online competition to win a spot on a reality show on OWN, Oprah’s network. The prize? His own TV show on the network.
His video went viral when it was discovered on Reddit and adopted as the favorite by 4chan purely because of the spelling of his name. He went on to win his own travel show on OWN. From there you can only go downhill through cancellation and strangers asking, “Didn’t you used to be….?” in stores. He describes how he moved to YouTube to make the realistic traveling with disabilities show that he wanted to make.
Along the way we learn about his attempts to find love, his love for music, his time working at Epcot policing other people’s disabilities, and his failures in adaptive P.E. class in 4th grade. Each story is hysterical but ends with a life lesson that manages to be uplifting without being sappy.
This is best experienced by listening to the audiobook. Zach narrates it himself. I can’t imagine this book without his upbeat and charming narration or without listening to himself crack himself up retelling the adventures that he’s had.
One of the first videos Zach talks about making is this one where his friends torture him at a trampoline park. I had to look it up.
It is even funnier when you hear the background story of what went into making it.
I will be recommending this book to EVERYONE! Do yourself a favor and get the audiobook and step into Zach’s world.
“The United States Postal Service is a wondrous American creation. Seven days a week, its army of 300,000 letter carriers delivers 513 million pieces of mail, forty percent of the world’s volume. It is far more efficient than any other mail service—more than twice as efficient as the Japanese and easily outpacing the Germans and British. And the USPS has a storied history. Founded by Benjamin Franklin, it was the information network that bound far-flung Americans together, fostered a common culture, and helped American business to prosper. A first class stamp remains one of the greatest bargains of all time, and yet, the USPS is slowly vanishing. Critics say it is slow and archaic. Mail volume is down. The workforce is shrinking. Post offices are closing.”
I’ve always been fascinated by the workings of the post office.
I’ve never understood how they can sort all that mail and get it to where it is going. If you told me that this was involved, I’d believe you.
That why I was so excited to listen to this book about the workings of the post office. I also had just visited the Smithsonian’s Post Office museum in Washington D.C. when I started the book. In all my visits to D.C. I had never known about this museum. It is right next to the train station.
Did you know?
Many of the major roads of the United States were laid out by mail carriers
Mail used to be delivered up to four times a day in U.S. cities
There have been a few times when mail volume got so high that the system collapsed
It was illegal for anyone other than the U.S. mail to deliver letters
The United States Postal Service is now an independent company that reports to the government instead of a government department
The Post Office is required to deliver everywhere. At times that has required mule trains to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, sled dog teams, and even reindeer. Mandatory rural delivery allowed farmers to get daily newspapers. This kept them informed of the best time to sell crops for the highest profit. It kept everyone in the country informed about events. The United States mail has helped to hold the country together.
I particularly liked learning about the mail trains. Specialist clerks rode these mobile sorting cars, picking up letters at high speed and getting them sorted before the next town. There was one of these mail cars in the museum and a video of former clerks showing their system of sorting. It was amazing. I also learned about Owney, the famous mail dog.
Technological advances have helped the mail be delivered faster and faster. Optical scanners were developed to read printed labels of bulk mailers and now can even read handwriting. After a few passes through the scanners, mail can be sorted into the order in which each carrier will deliver it. I think that’s just magical.
One thing that wasn’t covered at the museum but was well covered in the book was the Comstock Era. This is a time of strict censorship of the mail. Items that were judged to be obscene were not allowed. This included information on contraception. There was a lot of entrapment by postal inspectors who would order an item and then arrest the person who sent it.
Also not covered in the museum but talked about in the book was the wave of violence at post offices in the 1980s and 90s leading to the phrase “Going Postal.”
We all know the Post Office is having problems. First class mail is down as most people send emails instead of letters. The Post Office is not allowed to get involved in electronic forms in the U.S. by law, unlike in other countries. Amazon’s new partnership with them to deliver mail on Sundays is helping as is a renegotiation of the labor contracts of Post Office employees.
Those of us who love getting mail hope that they will find a way to survive and thrive.
I’d recommend this book for anyone who love learning about how everyday things work. The audio narration was very well done. The story moved quickly enough to keep my listening interest.
“Ian Purkayastha is New York City’s leading truffle importer and boasts a devoted clientele of top chefs nationwide, including Jean-Georges Vongerichten, David Chang, Sean Brock, and David Bouley. But before he was purveying the world’s most expensive fungus to the country’s most esteemed chefs, Ian was just a food-obsessed teenager in rural Arkansas–a misfit with a peculiar fascination for rare and exotic ingredients. The son of an Indian immigrant father and a Texan mother, Ian learned to forage for wild mushrooms from an uncle in the Ozark hills. Thus began a single-track fixation that led him to learn about the prized but elusive truffle, the king of all fungi. His first taste of truffle at age 15 sparked his improbable yet remarkable adventure through the strange–and often corrupt–business of the exotic food trade.”
This book starts with the admission that it is weird for a 23 year old to be writing a memoir. It’s good to get that out there early because it is a bit presumptious but you’d be forgiven for forgetting that he’s only 23 while reading this.
While still in high school, Ian Purkayastha started an exotic foods club to make meals with strange ingredients for people in his Arkansas school and raise money for charity. He used his vacation time to travel to trade shows and meet up with people in the exotic food community. He set up his own business importing truffles from Italy for chefs in his area. This led to a job after high school graduation importing truffles in New York. This is where he started to see the problems in the industry. As he spends the next few years starting his own business, he travels around the world sourcing ingredients and meeting the people who hunt for mushrooms in the United States, Europe, and Asia.
Did you know:
A lot of “Italian” truffles come from eastern Europe
Truffle oil usually doesn’t have truffles in it
U.S. chefs prize the appearance of truffles so much that the vast majority of harvested truffles aren’t sent to the U.S. market because they aren’t the “correct” shape
There are attempts being made to raise truffles in specially planted orchards but it will take decades to see if it works
This book tries to dispel some of the snobbery around high end foods. It shows the work involved in finding and harvesting. It also points out how markets are kept artificially tight and how some countries become known as the best source of ingredients for reasons that may not be true.
This ARC of Truffle Boy is one of the prizes up for grabs this month for people who link up with Foodies Read. If you like reading books featuring food, link up your reviews with us!
“Clarkston, Georgia, was a typical Southern town until it was designated a refugee settlement center in the 1990s, becoming the first American home for scores of families in flight from the world’s war zones—from Liberia and Sudan to Iraq and Afghanistan. Suddenly Clarkston’s streets were filled with women wearing the hijab, the smells of cumin and curry, and kids of all colors playing soccer in any open space they could find. The town also became home to Luma Mufleh, an American-educated Jordanian woman who founded a youth soccer team to unify Clarkston’s refugee children and keep them off the streets. These kids named themselves the Fugees.
Set against the backdrop of an American town that without its consent had become a vast social experiment, Outcasts United follows a pivotal season in the life of the Fugees and their charismatic coach.”
Luma Mufleh came from a wealthy Jordanian family. She was disowned when she decided to stay in the United States after college. Several years later, she was coaching a girls’ under 12 soccer team and running a failing business in Decatur GA when a chance trip took her to nearby Clarkston. She didn’t understand why she saw so many non-white residents. After investigating, she decided to coach youth soccer teams for refugee boys.
This is the story of the Fugees’ 2006 season. Luma is very demanding of her players. They have to adhere to a code of conduct and soccer practice starts with mandatory tutoring sessions. There are three teams – under 13s, under 15s, and under 17s. Each has their own unique sets of challenges.
The overarching problem is finding a place to practice. They are stuck on a dirt and gravel field frequented by drug users. There is a fenced field in a local park but the mayor has declared that NO soccer will be played there because the field is for use only by Clarkston’s Little League baseball teams. It doesn’t matter that there are no Little League baseball teams in Clarkston.
The players come from all over the world. Liberia, Congo, Sudan, Iraq, Kosovo, and many other countries are represented. Most of the children have seen horrors. Now they are in a town that isn’t friendly to them and they just want to play soccer.
The book tells the story of the town also. How did it become a popular place for refugees? How is the town adapting or failing to adapt to a changing population?
The book was published in 2009 and contains an afterword that discusses what happened after the 2006 season. One of the things mentioned was that when the author, who was a newspaper reporter, published some articles the Fugees started to get donations. He mentioned that Luma’s goal was to buy some land so they could have a dedicated place to practice that was safe. She also said that she dreamed of having good facilities for tutoring times.
I went online to see what had happened since then. Look at this!
They don’t just have practice fields. They started a school! The middle school serves to teach English as a second language and to get kids whose formal schooling has been interrupted up to speed to go to American schools. They also have a high school. It is now coed. They accept donations so the kids don’t have to pay for this private education.
It was great to see that the program prospered after all the abuse they endured.
I’d recommend this book to everyone. The stories of the families fleeing from war zones around the world are heartbreaking. They put a personal touch on events that we hear about on the news and then forget about. Would you be able to survive what they did just to come to a new country where everyone seems to hate you?
“When Lucie Amundsen had a rare night out with her husband, she never imagined what he’d tell her over dinner—that his dream was to quit his office job (with benefits!) and start a commercial-scale pasture-raised egg farm. His entire agricultural experience consisted of raising five backyard hens, none of whom had yet laid a single egg.”
I laughed when Lucie Amundsen wrote about finding out that one of her first social media followers was a vegan. After all, here I am, a vegan wannabe reading and reviewing her book. To understand why people like me would be interested you have to understand that farm animal welfare is a huge issue. A lot people become vegan because of it.
Animal Welfare on Chicken Farms
On conventional farms chickens are kept in battery cages where they don’t have enough room to stretch their wings. Because of this, a lot of people like to buy eggs that are labeled as cage-free. However, just because they aren’t in cages doesn’t mean the chickens are living a happy life. A lot of farms keep thousands of birds in large barns crammed together on the floor. They aren’t in cages but they may not have much more room either. They may have access to a concrete outside area.
Pasture-raised birds spend part of the day outside on grass. This is the type of farm that Locally Laid is. And no matter how nice of a life the chickens have there comes a time when they are no longer laying. Chickens don’t get a pension plan.
The Amundsens had no farm experience prior to starting a chicken farm so things that I saw as glaring problems they went blissfully into. For example, there was no water in their rented barn. They would be getting water from a garden hose and transporting it to the barn. In winter. In northern Minnesota. Oh, honey, no. I’ve had to do that for a few horses for a few days when there have been barn plumbing issues and it sucks. I can’t even imagine trying to water 1800 chickens that way. They soon realized that this was a major issue.
Another issue was that Lucie was not on board with this venture. The stress on their marriage is covered honestly. Is it fair to ask one spouse to (repeatedly) give up her life and goals for the other spouse’s strange dreams?
The book gets into lots of other hot button food production issues like encouraging local agriculture, the role of mid sized farms, and the difficulties of getting organic certification. Their successes and failures are told with candor and humor. If you have read a lot about food issues or watched any of the documentaries on this then this isn’t going to be anything new to you but it is interesting to see how it plays out on one farm.
The husband is reading this book too. He came running out to me one day and was mock crying with his head on my shoulder. “I just read chapter five!” I couldn’t remember anything sob worthy. “The birds came. Myron’s an asshole!” Oh, yes, Myron. There is a big difference in caring for an individual bird and caring for a large flock where deaths are seen as the cost of doing business. Myron was their supplier of the first flock and he wasn’t as into chicken welfare as they were.
The husband proudly showed me the pasture-raised eggs that he bought at the store too. See, even vegans reading the book and passing it on can help make a difference.
When Damon Tweedy begins medical school,he envisions a bright future where his segregated, working-class background will become largely irrelevant. Instead, he finds that he has joined a new world where race is front and center.
Black Man in a White Coat examines the complex ways in which both black doctors and patients must navigate the difficult and often contradictory terrain of race and medicine. As Tweedy transforms from student to practicing physician, he discovers how often race influences his encounters with patients. Through their stories, he illustrates the complex social, cultural, and economic factors at the root of many health problems in the black community.
Damon Tweedy was offered a full scholarship to medical school at Duke University in North Carolina in the 1990s. That was a deal too good to pass up even though it was well known that Duke had a history of being extremely racist. Early in his time at Duke a professor mistakes him for a maintenance man and when he says that he isn’t there to fix the lights the professor can’t figure out any other reason why he should be in the classroom. This spurs him to work even harder to prove that he belongs there.
He is frustrated because over and over in lectures he hears that diseases are more common in blacks than whites. He worries that frustrating interactions with black patients will turn his white coworkers against black people.
He tells stories about what it is like to be both a black doctor and a black patient.
He talks about volunteer work at a clinic for the uninsured and whether or not the Affordable Care Act could help these people. He had always assumed that people were uninsured because they didn’t work before helping at this clinic. That’s a pet peeve of mine. I’ve had this argument with my middle to upper middle class family members who were against universal healthcare and who have always had jobs that offered insurance. I’m a veterinarian. Until July 1 of this year when my practice was bought by a large corporation, I’ve never had a job that offered health insurance. At least I could afford to buy it when I wasn’t married. Most of my coworkers who make just above minimum wage didn’t have any health insurance. Most of them still aren’t opting to get the available insurance now because it is very expensive with huge deductables. /rant
Black women are the single most religious demographic in the United States, yet they are among the poorest, least educated, and least healthy groups in the nation. Drawing on the author’s own past experience as an evangelical minister and her present work as a secular counselor and researcher, <em>The Ebony Exodus Project</em> makes a direct connection between the church and the plight of black women.
The 2008 American Religious Identification Survey reported that 86% of black people identified as Christian. Black women make up the majority of most congregations in black churches.
The Ebony Exodus project is a collection of interviews with women who have left the church. In between the personal interviews, there are discussions of the effect of the black church culture on mental health and physical health.
Several of the women identified the church’s attitude towards homosexuality as a factor in leaving. Some of them were bisexual or lesbians themselves and others had family or friends who they didn’t want to see denigrated by the church.
The difficulties of leaving an institution that for many people defines the black experience in America is discussed. Who are you as a woman in the African-American community if you aren’t in church?
Anti-intellectualism rears it head again. Many women talked about studying their way out of the church (like I did.) They hate the fact that so many people don’t know anything about the religion that they purport to believe in.
What is the affect of the prosperity gospel teaching on the black community? What happens when you give the money you had to pay your bills to the church because you are supposed to believe that god will provide for you if you are supporting the church? Is this helping to keep black women in poverty?
One thing that seemed very different in the black churches described here and the white churches I knew was the idea that you can only speak positive things. If you say that things are going poorly for you then you are “claiming” that reality. It is sort of like, “Fake it ’til you make it.” Women in this book said that it leads to suppression of what is really going on in their lives. No one shares the real problems. No one admits to be stressed or depressed and may not get the help they need since they are too busy “claiming” their wonderful realities that they want to have. There is also a tendency to blame bad things on a person having demons attached to them. Nothing is the fault of circumstances that the person can improve on their own.
I’ve never understood why Christianity is so rampant in the African-American community. It doesn’t seem logical to me. It is a religion forced on their ancestors by their oppressors as a way of controlling them. It would seem like people would be in a rush to get rid of it.
Winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Lin-Manuel Miranda's groundbreaking musical Hamilton is as revolutionary as its subject, the poor kid from the Caribbean who fought the British, defended the Constitution, and helped to found the United States. Fusing hip-hop, pop, R&B, and the best traditions of theater, this once-in-a-generation show broadens the sound of Broadway, reveals the storytelling power of rap, and claims our country's origins for a diverse new generation.
HAMILTON: THE REVOLUTION gives readers an unprecedented view of both revolutions, from the only two writers able to provide it. Miranda, along with Jeremy McCarter, a cultural critic and theater artist who was involved in the project from its earliest stages--"since before this was even a show," according to Miranda--traces its development from an improbable performance at the White House to its landmark opening night on Broadway six years later. In addition, Miranda has written more than 200 funny, revealing footnotes for his award-winning libretto, the full text of which is published here.
Their account features photos by the renowned Frank Ockenfels and veteran Broadway photographer, Joan Marcus; exclusive looks at notebooks and emails; interviews with Questlove, Stephen Sondheim, leading political commentators, and more than 50 people involved with the production; and multiple appearances by President Obama himself. The book does more than tell the surprising story of how a Broadway musical became a national phenomenon: It demonstrates that America has always been renewed by the brash upstarts and brilliant outsiders, the men and women who don't throw away their shot.
I probably would have never even heard of Hamilton if not for the rabid fangirls on Twitter.
I tried to listen to the soundtrack on Spotify once just to see what the excitement was about. It was ok but I wasn’t overwhelmed. I never made it all the way through. I did like the official website though that had historical notes along with the lyrics.
When the book came out I decided to try again. I was interested in hearing the story of how the idea came about and how that idea was transformed into a hit musical.
The book covers the history of the show. It starts from an idea that Lin-Manuel Miranda had while reading a biography of Alexander Hamilton on vacation during a time when there was a lot of discussion in the theater world about the possibilities of using hip hop in musicals. It covers the next six years of writing songs and trying them out in front of different audiences and workshopping the show. Interspersed are the songs with the stories of their inspiration and the historical background to each one.
The people involved in the show are profiled. It isn’t just the actors. Choreography, directing, set design, and costumes are discussed.
I listened to each song on Spotify as I came to it in the book. I finally made it the whole way through the show.
Am I a lyric quoting fan girl now? I’m not nearly as obsessed as the people who introduced me to this show on Twitter but the songs do get stuck in your head.* I appreciate it a whole lot more now that I know more about the creation and musical influences and history. If you aren’t sure what all the fuss is about, I’d recommend reading this book to get you up to speed.
*Ok, full disclosure, since I wrote this post:
I’ve had songs stuck in my head at all times
I bought the soundtrack
I was drawing blood on a cat and heard an announcement on the radio that the tour is coming to town in 2017. I immediately started making plans to get tickets up to and including buying a season pass to be guaranteed a seat.
For an undocumented immigrant, what is the true cost of the American Dream? Julissa Arce shares her story in a riveting memoir. When she was 11 years old Julissa Arce left Mexico and came to the United States on a tourist visa to be reunited with her parents, who dreamed the journey would secure her a better life. When her visa expired at the age of 15, she became an undocumented immigrant. Thus began her underground existence, a decades long game of cat and mouse, tremendous family sacrifice, and fear of exposure. After the Texas Dream Act made a college degree possible, Julissa's top grades and leadership positions landed her an internship at Goldman Sachs, which led to a full time position--one of the most coveted jobs on Wall Street. Soon she was a Vice President, a rare Hispanic woman in a sea of suits and ties, yet still guarding her "underground" secret. In telling her personal story of separation, grief, and ultimate redemption, Arce shifts the immigrant conversation, and changes the perception of what it means to be an undocumented immigrant.
Julissa Arce’s parents were working legally in the United States while she and her older sisters lived with her extended family in Mexico. Her younger brother was born in the United States. When Julissa started acting out in school at age 11, her parents brought her to live with them. She had no idea that it was illegal for her to go to school. She didn’t know that she had outstayed her visa until her mother explained that she couldn’t go back to Mexico for her quinceanera because she wouldn’t be able to come back into the United States.
She was a star student but was not accepted to any colleges because she didn’t have a social security number. At this point Texas passed a law that allowed undocumented students to go to college at Texas state schools. This allowed her to be able to go to school.
I was conflicted when reading this book. I think people should follow the rules of the country they live in. I also think that it should be much, much easier for people to come to the United States from Latin America so people aren’t required to sneak into the country. Julissa also buys fake documents as an adult to be able to get a job. I can see that she was brought into the country by her parents and she had no intent to do anything wrong at that point, but now she was actively breaking the law because she felt she was entitled to stay here and get a very high paying job. She talked a little bit about whether or not she should go back to Mexico because she would be able to get a very good job so it wasn’t like she didn’t have options. She also marries specifically get to a green card. The more unethical things she does, the less sympathy I retained for her.
This book made me understand the issues around children of undocumented immigrants. They are stuck as they become adults. I think there should be a way for these children to be able to be legally documented.
First come first served and if you want to throw in a few dollars for shipping that would be great but not required.
In her new memoir, Cookie Johnson, wife of NBA legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson, shares details of her marriage, motherhood, faith, and how an HIV diagnosis twenty-five years ago changed the course of their lives forever.
On November 7, 1991, basketball icon Earvin “Magic” Johnson stunned the world with the news that he was HIV-positive. For the millions who watched, his announcement became a pivotal moment not only for the nation, but his family and wife. Twenty-five years later, Cookie Johnson shares her story and the emotional journey that started on that day—from life as a pregnant and joyous newlywed to one filled with the fear that her husband would die, she and her baby would be infected with the virus, and their family would be shunned. Believing in Magic is the story of her marriage to Earvin nearly four decades of loving each other, losing their way, and eventually finding a path they never imagined.
November 7, 2016 will mark a quarter-century since the announcement and Cookie’s survival and triumph as a wife, mother, and God-fearing woman.
Cookie has never shared her full account of the reasons that she stayed and her life with Earvin “Magic” Johnson. Believing in Magic is her story.
We all have had that friend. You know the one. She’s the one with the loser boyfriend who she insists is just the sweetest and kindest person ever to exist but he just doesn’t show that side of himself in public. If you just knew him like she does, you’d understand.
This is what the first half of this book felt like to me. I felt like I needed to stage an intervention even though it all happened years ago.
While they were dating, Magic:
Publicly shunned her and then asked her if she learned her lesson when she didn’t follow his orders
Got upset when his friends teased him for calling her on an out of town trip so he broke up with her because she was “too controlling.”
Dated other women when they were supposed to be exclusively dating and then had the nerve to get mad at her for calling him out on it
Saw her with her new boyfriend during a 2 year breakup and then going out of his way to publicly humiliate the new boyfriend.
Repeatedly broke up with her for long periods and returned only when he found out she was dating someone else
Let her know that he had impregnated another woman during one of their breakups by bringing the now 3 year old offspring to a family party and introducing them to each other in front of his whole family
Proposed and then called off the wedding – TWICE
And just like your friend who keeps getting back with her jerk of a boyfriend, she keeps making excuses for him.
Now, I give her credit for not moving to LA with him and living the lifestyle of a basketball girlfriend. He wasn’t going to make a commitment so she stayed in Toledo and worked on her career. Good for her!
Eventually she did move because she felt that she had to prove to him that she could fit into his world. She kept a job in her field though to maintain her independence. Soon she had to choose between her career and the NBA finals. She quit her job to stand by her man and what did he do? Dumped her again.
This book is advertised as the story of a long and successful marriage in the public eye. It doesn’t read that way at all. To me it reads like a woman trying too hard to convince you that everything is ok.
I found the second half of the book more interesting mostly because Magic almost entirely disappears from the story once they got married. She tells the story of raising her son, who she was pregnant with at the time of Magic’s HIV diagnosis. She talks of coming to terms with the fact that their son was absolutely not athletic and over time realizing that he was gay. She talks about the adoption of their daughter and the affect that adoption had on the life of her child. She touches on the work they do in HIV education. She does not discuss what it is like to have an HIV positive partner.
This is also advertised as a story of faith. She talks about getting through the hard times when Magic would run off again by reading the Bible and discovering what God wanted her to do. Amazingly, God always wanted her to do exactly what she wanted to do. He would always lead her back to her emotionally abusive boyfriend. Wow, thanks for looking out for me God!