A rich, insightful New-Age narrative about the author’s holistic development.
In this debut account of losing a beloved family member, a woman finds hope and joy in profound moments of spiritual connection.
When Austill-Clausen lost her beloved brother to AIDS in 1995, she embarked on a journey of grief—one that she says eventually brought her to a form of enlightenment. Through her connection with nature and animals, she says, she began to discover her own connection to the spirit of her brother—and to those of others, as well. An encounter with a manatee and a spiritual epiphany while riding her horse led her to contact a spiritual teacher, Nancy Arael, who showed her the power of her chakras and meditation. In this touching narrative, Austill-Clausen intimately describes her progress toward spiritual awakening, as well as her experience of sharing it with other members of her family. In one vivid scene, she tells of a moment one morning in 1996, when she connected deeply with the rocks, ice, trees, and other elements of a secluded landscape: “I realized all stones were alive, and each had its own power. I thought about all the times I had casually picked up a rock and flung it away without asking its permission.” An occupational therapist by trade, she writes in clear, conversational prose that skips no details about her meditation experiences and visions. As a result, what begins as a sad story of grief develops into a story of a world of fairies, spirits, love, and light. Readers who are interested in chakra healing, meditation, shamanism, energy crystals, and spiritual development in general will enjoy the rich, journalistic quality of Austill-Clausen’s book, and perhaps even feel prompted to follow in her footsteps.
A rich, insightful New-Age narrative about the author’s holistic development.Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-63152-130-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: She Writes Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 30, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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