Intelligent, contemplative spiritual memoir by a fine writer with a rich interior world.
A young woman writes of her spiritual evolution in an insightful debut memoir.
The “spacious life” of the title refers to the “immeasurable spaciousness” evoked when the author, a model and actress, practices meditation and mindfulness. Doumani was born well-off, “ensconced in the comfort of a heavenly suburbia” in Sydney, Australia, to loving parents (Thai mother, Lebanese father). An “inner restlessness” fueled her spiritual quest. The result here is not a dreary rehashing of her past but a thought-provoking look inward that includes fascinating mystical experiences and dreams. Writing in a strong, clear voice, she describes an inner journey augmented by travel and exposure to other cultures in places like Bangkok and Bangladesh. Her spiritual adventures weren’t as expansive as those of, say, Shirley MacLaine, nor do they veer into cosmic revelations, yet both authors question reality and their individual circumstances. In addition to a mentoring relationship with a Buddhist master, Luang Pu, the author had a series of male friends, three of whom are profiled here: the Italian, the Businessman, and the Fighter. These relationships aren’t portrayed solely as romantic interludes but rather as mirrors of her spiritual process, each representing a particular set of challenges. The Italian, a “livewire” whom she met at university, was possessive and ultimately obsessed with her. The Businessman was given to “maximising opportunities,” a process that didn’t necessarily match Doumani’s wishes (he remained on the sidelines during her cancer scare). The most compelling association was with that of the Fighter, who was in pain due to a freak accident; his physical suffering, sometimes moderated by overmedicating, greatly impacted the author. In time, she came to view relationships as “ultimately ephemeral, like a hologram.” Using established spiritual staples—“Sitting quietly by myself, doing nothing special, and grasping at nothing in particular, that is what the forest taught me”—the author crafts an engaging story, keeping the relationship with self top of mind and ending many chapters with an enticing hook. The result is a tale of heightened awareness and compassion. Despite her Mensa-level IQ, Doumani avoids pomposity, delivering a coherent story grounded in consistent practices and self-awareness.
Intelligent, contemplative spiritual memoir by a fine writer with a rich interior world.Pub Date: March 18, 2015
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: almer Higgs Pty Ltd.
Review Posted Online: Jan. 28, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorker staff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
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