Editorial Review

Behind the Christmas songs we love to sing lie fascinating stories that will enrich your holiday celebration. Taking you inside the nativity of over thirty favorite songs and carols, Ace Collins introduces you to people you've never met, stories you've never heard, and meanings you'd never have imagined. The next time you and your family sing 'God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,' you'll have a new understanding of its message and popular roots. You'll discover how 'Angels from the Realms of Glory,' with its sublime lyrics and profound theology, helped usher in a quiet revolution in worship. You'll learn the strange history of the haunting and powerful 'O Holy Night,' including the song's surprising place in the history of modern communications. And you'll step inside the life of Mark Lowry and find out how he came to pen the words to the contemporary classic 'Mary, Did You Know?'Still other songs such as 'O Come, O Come, Emmanuel' trace back to mysterious origins--to ninth-century monks, nameless clergy, and unknown commoners of ages past. Joining hands with such modern favorites as 'White Christmas' and 'The Christmas Song,' they are part of the legacy of inspiration, faith, tears, love, and spiritual joy that is Christmas. From the rollicking appeal of 'Jingle Bells' to the tranquil beauty of 'Silent Night,' the great songs of Christmas contain messages of peace, hope, and truth. Each in its own way expresses a facet of God's heart and celebrates the birth of his greatest gift to the world--Jesus, the most wonderful Christmas Song of all. ... Read more

Reviews

Sloppy research
For someone with 50 books to his credit--as per the dust jacket--Collins is highly sloppy in the research of this book. As has been previously noted, he just presented a common story about the origins of "Silent Night" without necessarily having done any deep research. And the comments about "The Twelve Days of Christmas" come straight from a silly internet piece, with no basis in fact.

This is common throughout this book. It seems more often than not, Collins has just done some cursory internet research and then slapped it all together and called it good.

Some other screw-ups: Irving Berlin was worried that "White Christmas" wasn't really a good song. Actually Berlin, upon introducing it to his office staff and musical secretary, refered to it as "not only the greatest song I've ever written, but the greatest song ever written." Berlin at one point had plans to make White Christmas the main production number in a major Broadway revue. In performing it for Crosby and studio execs, Berlin got nervous with himself and choked in performing it. You can read about this in Jody Rosen's excellent book on White Christmas, called "White Christmas."

As for his assertions about the meaning and origin of the term Merry in merry Christmas, he gets it wrong again. Ten minutes in the Oxford English Dictionary, available at any decent public library, would have given him the answers.

Better Books on this subject are Rosen's afforementioned book and "The Penguin Book of Christmas Carols" ed. Ian Bradbury.

What a fascinating book!
I heard about this book by listening to WMBI in Chicago the week before Christmas. They had the author on, telling one Christmas carol song per day. Immediately I purchased the book, and am thoroughly enjoying it!

Ace tells the stories of 31 favorite Christmas songs. They aren't all traditional carols, but include "Mary Did You Know", and a couple of secular-based Christmas songs such as "Silver Bells" and "Rudolph". I would love to know where Mr. Collins got all his information - there is no Bibliography.

The book itself is very attractive - you can see what the cover is like above, but inside, the print is a deep blue, and there are simple drawings and borders using the same blue. This makes it very visually appealing.

The best way to read "Stories Behind the Best-Love Songs of Christmas" would probably be to read one chapter per day for the 31 days before Christmas. But you can also read it straight through, or dip into the chapter that talks about YOUR favorite Christmas song.

As a perfect companion to Ace Collins' book, I recommend "Christ in the Carols" by Christopher and Melodie Lane. In this book, the emphasis is on finding Christ in the carols and how these carols express so beautifully the glorious and mysterious incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Take the time out this Christmas to enjoy the history and meaning of these beloved songs of Christmas! This book would make a wonderful gift!

You might be interested in checking out my other reviews of Christian books adn music. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Cancer survivor, poet, and philosopher Mark Nepo has consciously allowed life to move through him. The Book of Awakening is the result of his journey of the soul and will inspire others to embark on their own.

Nepo speaks of spirit and friendship, urging readers to stay vital and in love with this life, no matter the hardships. Encompassing many traditions and voices, Nepo's words offer insight on pain, wonder, and love. Each entry is accompanied by an exercise that will surprise and delight the reader in its mind-waking ability. ... Read more

Reviews

Learning who I am
I start every morning with an inspiration from this book. I take the time I need to reflect on the daily passage and have found it to be a way of learning about the real person I am. I have been searching for inner peace for so long , this book has helped me to meditate on the important things to make my life and my inner self more complete and at peace. I love this book and want to give everyone I know a copy.

Editorial Review
There are very few books in this world which elicit the question `Why have I such an array of books on this subject when this one would suffice?' The entry of Mark Nepo's Book of Awakening into my life not only presented this question but also initiated an immediate removal of the other six inspirational books waiting in a tumbled line by my bed, making space in my overcrowded life for the simplicity of one source of wisdom.

The Book of Awakening, which is beautifully produced by Conari Press, is in the form of a daybook, having an entry of wisdom for every day of the year. This allows us to take a dip into this vast ocean of insight every day or to dive in at random when the spirit moves us. Each page of wisdom is followed by a short and profound meditation on the topic at hand which helps put the reading into the context of one's own life, and is suggested in such a way that even the meditation-shy could be enticed to participate.

In his introduction, Mark describes his book as `a companion and a soul-friend'. I agree that this book can act as a soul friend, which is a different relationship than is possible with most wisdom books. And that is quite a gift to give to yourself or a friend. The key reason for the possibility of this almost human relationship with the book is, I believe, to be found in the divinely human writing style of the author.

Mark is born a poet whose eyes perceive the divine patterning within the everyday experiences of life. He has crafted the art of painting that depth so that others may begin to see into and beyond the mundane. Each new entry seems to invite a deeper friendship of the soul as Mark lays himself bare in his truly personal stories of struggle and revelation. He interweaves his own perception with gems of collected treasures from many spiritual traditions, giving us access to his own spiritual advisers in their many forms.

--- Carmella B'Hahn, Sufi Journal, London

A Daybook with poetry, inspiration and much more!
Mark Nepo's day book is a wonderful way to remember the importance of enjoying the details that make life a mystery and a gift. The book includes inspirational quotes, beautiful poetry, points for mediationsand heart-warming glimpes of life. Although each day's entry is meant to be savored, I gobbled them all up and now will go back to holding them close to my life one day at a time.

A beautiful offering.
To be honest, this book caught my eye first because of its beautiful cover of the Lotus. I opened the book read a passage
and felt deeply moved almost to tears. This is a beautifully orchestrated book. Its daily reflections, passages and quotes
are soul food for our journey. This book is definitely a work
of love. You can feel the intent put forth and given to the reader by the author. What a blessed contribution it is. The foreward by Wayne Mueller sums this stellar gem up perfectly.
A difinite addition to your collection, if not the only book you will ever need and keep close to your heart, spirit and soul.
Dear Mark Nepo,
You have written a book that has moved me so, there are
no words to describe it. I thank you for sharing your beautiful offering. I am so happy to have come across it just in a time
when I was so ready and open to its messages.
Blessings,
Christine/Toronto, Ont. Canada

Beautiful Daily Contemplation Book
Written by a poet and teacher, this book is organized by date, with 1-2 page offerings for each day of the year. Beautifully written, each entry begins with a quote from another poet, saint (practically every spiritual tradition is represented), or other literary work, followed by the author's musings and a set of questions to contemplate that day. Some random samples: "August 1: The Pain of Becoming - We do ourselves a great disservice by judging where we are in comparison to some final destination." "April 10: At Home in Our Skin - The spiritual life is about becoming more at home in your own skin."

Mark Nepo's Book of Awakenings
This is a wonderful daily reader - a great way to start the day - sometimes I just pick up the book and randomly pick a reading. Truly inspiring stuff - it's like a yoga class for your mind.

timeless
A beautiful gift for yourself or a loved one. Dated daily essays to ponder along with daily exercises to strengthen those spiritual muscles. I'm admittedly a biased huge fan of Mark's writing. I've never bought a daybook before and didn't realise that's what this was when I purchased it. If I'd known I might have missed out on a treasure. It is structured with dates but there is no year so this book can be read and re-read year after year and I'm sure each read will reveal another level of wisdom. If you're on the fence about making this purchase, I'm sure you won't be sorry if you decide yes, and there's no reason to wait until the beginning of a year to buy it.

Deep, courageous, vivid, tender, honest, treasured
In every reading I find extraordinary insights I underline and carry with me. I actually am purchasing a copy for my desk at work. It is definitely a gift giver. So many of the daily meditation books I've purchased are disappointing, or I've gotten used to something kind of nice or merely reflective. Nepo takes me to an edge I've wanted to see time after time. I leave his readings better for the experience, eager to share.

A good book for the grieving woman
I am a life coach for widows.
I suggest to all my clients that they purchase this amazing book. It gently, lovingly and firmly reminds us each day of who we are and that in order to emerge, we need to accept that where we are is where we are supposed to be. Even if it is messy. I am so grateful for this book.

A Beautiful Devotional Read
I have found this book to be a beautiful daily devotional. It is rich
with poetic philosophy and heart opening passages that take you deep
within yourself. The guided meditations allow you to expand around the
everyday circumstances that life graces us with, and allows you to go
to the depths of your own heart and knowing you are better than you were before. This read is a portal into the self thatis conscious and aware of the inner workings behind every perceived problem and lifts you to the higher ground of expansion. It is a delight to read it daily and lift myself out of limiting beliefs into other perspectives that free me of conditioned responses. ... Read more

Editorial Review

More than 100 pages of new, cutting-edge content.

Forget the old concept of retirement and the rest of the deferred-life plan–there is no need to wait and every reason not to, especially in unpredictable economic times. Whether your dream is escaping the rat race, experiencing high-end world travel, earning a monthly five-figure income with zero management, or just living more and working less, The 4-Hour Workweek is the blueprint.

This step-by-step guide to luxury lifestyle design teaches:
•How Tim went from $40,000 per year and 80 hours per week to $40,000 per month and 4 hours per week
•How to outsource your life to overseas virtual assistants for $5 per hour and do whatever you want
•How blue-chip escape artists travel the world without quitting their jobs
•How to eliminate 50% of your work in 48 hours using the principles of a forgotten Italian economist
•How to trade a long-haul career for short work bursts and frequent “mini-retirements”

The new expanded edition of Tim Ferriss’ The 4-Hour Workweek includes:
•More than 50 practical tips and case studies from readers (including families) who have doubled income, overcome common sticking points, and reinvented themselves using the original book as a starting point
•Real-world templates you can copy for eliminating e-mail, negotiating with bosses and clients, or getting a private chef for less than $8 a meal
•How Lifestyle Design principles can be suited to unpredictable economic times
•The latest tools and tricks, as well as high-tech shortcuts, for living like a diplomat or millionaire without being either ... Read more

Reviews

Better Than The First Version By A Very Long Shot . . . Definitely Worth The Investment
I reviewed the first edition of The Four Hour Workweek and was surprised by the content, it was a fresh look at a new idea (Lifestyle Design) and it offered some really practical, useful advice that virtually anyone could implement. I recommended the book to many people, most liked it some didn't.

I eagerly pre-ordered this version of the book when I first heard about it mostly because I was curious if it would really be better . . . and boy was it!

I sat down with this book and read until the wee hours of the morning. Sure a lot of the material is the same, but there are around 100 new pages of material and that material is what the first edition desperately needed. The new material is solid examples, case studies, new resources and it addresses how to navigate lifestyle design in a rapidly changing economy.

Tim includes a list of things learned in 2008 along with lessons learned, this section of the book was priceless. Here are a few of the things he talks about:

1. Don't accept large or costly favors from strangers - Exceptions, uber-successful mentors who are making introductions and not laboring on your behalf.

2. You don't have to recoup losses the same way you lose them - An interesting discussion of mortgages.

3. One of the most universal causes of self-doubt and depression: Trying to impress people you don't like (This one really hit home with me . . . hard)

4. Slow meals = life

5. Money doesn't change you; it reveals who you are when you no longer have to be nice.

6. It doesn't matter how many people don't get it. What matters is how many people do.

7. I should not invest in public stocks where I cannot influence outcome (Another hearty agreement from me).

The list goes on as does the new information in the book. This one is a must read for anyone who wants to break the slave-save-retire cycle and live on purpose now.

Reading Comprehension is Key
I'd like to preface this review with something interesting about the Amazon reviews for this book. Many 1-star reviewers accused the 5-star reviewers of being "plants." Especially the ones who hadn't reviewed a book before on Amazon. How do they know that the person wasn't just so moved by the book they made their first Amazon review? We all had that first book we reviewed at one point or another. And extreme feelings about a book, either extreme love or extreme hate, tend to motivate one to share that view with the world.

What I found amazing was, most of the 1-star reviews were reviews of positive reviews, not the book, even though they claimed to be reviews of the book. With all that was taken out of context and twisted, it was clear that most of the 1-star reviewers either didn't read the book or don't have sufficient reading comprehension to be a critic of anything. I find this unfortunate since many negative-minded people read these reviews and respond with things like: "This was what I suspected, glad I didn't waste my money." I'm not sure what exactly the threat is in exploring new ideas whether you agree with them or not, at least allow your mind the opportunity to choose.

This book is not about being lazy. It's not a get-rich quick scheme. It's not about being dishonest or unethical. It became very clear that some people really truly believe that working few hours on work you hate to free up time for more productive and meaningful life activities is somehow "immoral." I guess the Puritanical mentality this country started out with (earliest settlers here) has seeped deeper into our overall culture than we once imagined.

I used to be very held back by the notion of "the other people in the world who are suffering." i.e. why should I seek to make my life situation better when it seems selfish compared to all the starving Ethiopian children, for example. But the crux of the issue is this... I am either helping, being helped, or breaking even. Breaking even would be when a person barely scrapes by enough to support and take care of their own family unit (people living in the house with them.) They are often in debt, middle-class generally, but living paycheck to paycheck or not far above it. They live from scarcity rather than abundance and so any little bit they have over they have to save rather than use to help someone else.

Others are constantly "being helped" by the government, by charities, by whoever. Now I'm not making a moral judgment against either of these groups of people. Living in a money-based instead of a community-based society is hard. However... people often rush to judge those who either HAVE money or WANT to have money as automatically immoral or bad people. And that's not true. Who do you think the helpers are? It's certainly not the people who need help, and it's not the people in that middle class prison that can't seem to get ahead. It's the people who have extra money TO help. And those are also the people who volunteer the most because surprise surprise they have more TIME to donate than any of the other groups.

So I think people would benefit themselves quite a bit if they changed their attitude about acquiring money. Yes, there will always be greedy people who acquire at the expense of others. There will always be people who are materialistic and just want more and more useless "stuff." But then there are others who acquire money and more personal freedom who use a good portion of both of those assets to help others. And contrary to what many readers seemed to get out of the book (or out of their reading of the reviews only), the author's message isn't about being greedy, but about acquiring freedom and then using that freedom for something that benefits both you and others at the same time.

Pointless drudgery and suffering for the sake of it is... pointless. It's not character building necessarily and it doesn't make you a better person necessarily. And especially if a lot of the suffering is self-imposed based on a refusal to think outside of a very limiting box.

The author's definition of the "new rich" is a sliding barometer. For example his view (and I agree) is that someone who makes $40,000 a year and is totally 100% mobile and can live ANYWHERE in the world, and go anywhere in the world, is far more rich than someone making $500,000 a year who hates their job, works 80 hour weeks and is trapped in one location (usually a very expensive American city like NY or LA.) This is very true. You'd be amazed by the variable in quality of life for your dollar depending on where you live, even just in the United States there is huge variability.

This book explores a lot of ways for you to simplify your life and get work done with as soon as possible so you can get on to other things. Timothy Ferriss is NOT saying that you can work 4 hours a week starting tomorrow. The goal of this particular book for this particular outcome is one of two things: either to work remotely for your employer and increase productivity to the point that you can work fewer hours (though probably more than 4 a week) from home or anywhere else you are, or starting a business with the goal of automation at the end. i.e. internet business, product-based businesses (online), information products. You do a lot of work on the front end to create a product and set up an infrastructure so you don't have to continue to micromanage the business forever. You can go on to doing other things, either another income stream or micro-business on another topic/idea/product, or some other activity that interests you.

This is the kind of track I'm on and have been on for a little while now. This book wasn't overly novel to me because I'd already been initiated into this type of "Freedom-based" thinking through books like: "Unjobbing: The Adult Liberation Handbook," "Making a Living Without a Job," and "How I found Freedom in an Unfree World," all amazing books and paradigm shifters that make you take stock of what YOU want and not what you're "supposed" to want and that also make you look at money and acquiring it in whole new ways. Every single one of them is valuable in their own right and reading those books probably made this book far less "out there" to me. Since apparently it seems pretty "out there" to a lot of people.

I've owned a service business before (wedding coordinating) and a craft business (candlemaking) and on both fronts I realized quickly that even if I was spectacularly successful, that there was a definite ceiling on the amount of money I could earn with either without adding significant complication into the mix (i.e. working long hours indefinitely and employees which I would then have to manage.) In the case of candles I could have gone an entirely different route into outsourcing manufacturing, but then it would cease being a "crafts" business and turn into just retail.

There is a common saying among entrepreneurs that they would rather work 16 hours a day for themselves than 8 hours a day for someone else. Well I don't even want to work 8 hours a day. It's not that I'm lazy, I just have other things to do, and if you enhance your productivity there really is no genuine reason to work that many hours a day. Most people in 9-5 jobs are getting about 3-4 hours of genuine WORK done a day. Well that's about what I do, but I just do it in a concentrated effort and don't get sidetracked by other things. Some days I work 6 hours especially when I'm in the new phase of a project, but that's about my max. Granted, we are talking about income producing activities here. This doesn't include cooking and cleaning which is also technically work, or exercise, which is a form of work. I enjoy exercise, but I enjoy most of what I do to one degree or another so liking or not liking the activity can't be the barometer for what is and isn't work.

Anyway this is an incredibly long-winded way of saying that I really enjoyed this book, and didn't find it that "out there." It's somewhat amusing to see the people who "do" find it that "out there" because I don't really think I'm an impractical person. But I will admit that it has probably helped that I'm so stubborn, I just pretty much refused to buy into many of the ideas I was "supposed" to buy into regarding work. So even with the first paradigm-shifting book I read in this category, I was open to the ideas. I'm not a lazy person but I also don't mistake "busyness" for productivity or accomplishment.

I was already familiar with a lot of the mentalities and ideas in the book from my exposure to the above mentioned books as well as learning experiences I've already had in business and things I'd figured out on my own, but I did learn a few new techniques and he also helped to boil down some things for me that will be useful in launching my next income stream which will hopefully eventually replace the freelance work I'm doing now. Because the goal eventually is automation so I can free up time to just write what I want (with or without big profit at the end of it), and focus on other pursuits.

One of the top 3 influential books I have read!
Brief Background: I owned and operated 4 bookstores in Austin, Tx for 13 years. I have read a lot of books and have sold many books on being successful in business and life. This is my first review.
I was given this book by a business partner and I was reluctant to read one more book on the secrets of a great life. I was fascinated and hooked after the first few pages. I am going to keep this simple. If you are clear that greatness is inside of you, then this book is for you. If you are clear that you have nothing to offer, then this book is for you. This book is a paradox as is Tim Ferriss. This is not a get rich quick book. It is a book that gives you all you need to have an amazing life. And along the way you may get rich. If you just do part of what he says your life will be great. If you attempt all of his recommendations...who knows. He gives you assignments at the end of every chapter to explore your limitations. Thanks Tim for pushing yourself beyond what experts said you couldn't do.

P.S.
Because of Tim's book I started 6 internet websites...3 made me zip and didn't cost me much except some time and a little money(under $100 each). The other 3 are making me a total of $2000 a month profit for the last 6 months. I also drastically reduced the amount of time I work at my other business'. ... Read more

Editorial Review

This beautifully written, heartfelt memoir touched a nerve among both readers and reviewers. Elizabeth Gilbert tells how she made the difficult choice to leave behind all the trappings of modern American success (marriage, house in the country, career) and find, instead, what she truly wanted from life. Setting out for a year to study three different aspects of her nature amid three different cultures, Gilbert explored the art of pleasure in Italy and the art of devotion in India, and then a balance between the two on the Indonesian island of Bali. By turns rapturous and rueful, this wise and funny author (whom Booklist calls "Anne Lamott’s hip, yoga-practicing, footloose younger sister") is poised to garner yet more adoring fans. ... Read more

Reviews

Great, for what it is., March 31, 2008
I find it so surprising--reading the angry, negative reviews--that the people who hated the book hated it for exactly the reasons why some steer clear away from the the spiritual-journey-memoir genre. Yes, the author is self-absorbed, yes, she seems to think of only trite stuff, yes, she seems self-indulgent with her problems. And yes, she's allowed. It is after all a book that is positioned to address these things in the author's self; who otherwise would not be searching for something more: more meaning and more appreciation in/of her life.
Here is a woman who shows all the possibly-perceived-as-lacking-substance thoughts of hers and we are throwing tomatoes at her. One thing, she obviously wasn't afraid of that. She wasn't aiming to be coming off as some deeply wise woman but a fumbling girl-woman trying to break out of what she felt was imminent disaster (had she had the baby and delayed her need to find out what she truly wants from her life she might have left not only her husband, but their child, or most probably ending up not leaving out of guilt and becoming crazy instead: exposing her family to that for years; not an uncommon reality). She is not one for anti-depressants, remember.
This memoir falls in the same category as the TV show Sex and the City (of which it was compared to in a review here). Both get trampled for being supposedly superficial, covering the silly plights of city girls who don't know what they want and yet have everything. But this book--as the TV show--actually are part of a wider story that is illiciting reactions from the public because it reflects the transition in which women in the modern world are experiencing: now that we have equality with men professionally, now that we are liberated from all the limitations being a woman dictated two generations ago, how does that affect us? From a distance, in a glance, it seems that women have all the cards to play with now. But this book and many other works by women and/or about women of this generation show that having all those cards does not mean Happiness.
There are still things in society--in regards to a woman's role--that grates. And then there are things within our Modernised, Westernized, Individualized, Ambitious selves, that are lacking.
This is what Miss Gilbert's search is about, and what she represents.
On a collective level, much of the modern world is in search of God, Spirituality (one just needs to walk through bookstores in the US and see the plethora of soul searching self help books on the shelves). This is what needs to be observed and understood as a phenomena in the West; the small voices, small cries, here and there by those who come up with the balls to share their journeys and thoughts with us--no matter how trite-sounding, how shallow-seeming--are part of a collective howl for the meaning of life.
Elizabeth Gilbert's voice is just one of many that calls for recognition as part of a chorus for something that firstly, many women are hollering about, and secondly, humanity in general--humanity in the first world--are crying for: some kind of guidance, indication, that the collective paths we fought for and chose (the best education, career ambitions realised, a certain amount of money needed to live that certain kind of magazine-lifestyle life--which is what Liz Gilbert's life is a reflection of, remember--love in the form of marriage and what society dictates) are truly the things that give us peace and happiness in the infinite sense.
Eat, Pray, Love might not be that deep, wise voice representing the deep, wise journey into the deep, wise self. But this book's packaging and tone, hell, its WORDS, never did say it was. It is a fumbling--almost child-like in its guilelessness--show of the ego's awareness and needs, and its attempt at searching for what many people from all walks of life only wish they could go out and find: THEMSELVES. SELF, being the keyword here. And in this memoir, ultimately, God, being in each of our selves.
To the people who were disappointed that the author didn't seem to give a hoot about India's poverty, they must have not read the book through: Miss Gilbert never ventured out of her ashram and the little village it is located in, after making a decision to further develop her meditation skills and thus skipping the rest of India. She also ignored Italy's corruption with her indulging in good food and focus on learning and enjoying the Italian language. Again, the critics missed the point of this memoir. It's a book about a writer, a New Yorker, a recently-divorced-woman-in-her-early-thirties' journey to heal and find spiritual strength through various means: pleasure first to recover (Italy), spiritual examination and purging (India), combining the two for balance (Bali), which would result hopefully in the kind of substance and depth and balance that so many critics mentioned she lacks.
One doesn't pick this book up to: 1. Be exposed to India's poverty and expect the author to discuss that in depth. 2. Be exposed to Italy's corruption and expect the author to discuss that in depth. 3. Be exposed to Balinese wiles and expect the author to discuss that in depth. (which she actually did in the account of the Balinese woman she raised money for to buy the land the woman needed to build a home).

Next time you pick a book up at the bookstore, call up your powers of perception before purchasing it. A book IS pretty much its cover. Did everyone really expect a book titled "Eat, Pray, Love" A Woman's Search for Everything, to be an experience of religious fervor, one that would reveal the secrets of the universe? It's a story about a girl who thought everything she thought she wanted, would bring her happiness. It didn't. It didn't for her, and possibly not for many other women. If it took this one woman to go to Italy, India, and Indonesia, to get away after a difficult and painful divorce to heal and get perspective--instead of festering and turning into a pile of flesh in depression--then by all means. Yes, she financed her travels through her book advance--after giving away the suburban home and NYC apartment to her ex-husband. And if she wrote this book for us, it's really for us to appreciate and enjoy the ride with her. Anybody else who got so upset needed only to put the book down and pick another one to their taste. If anything, that's this book's lesson: Do what makes you smile and thankful for life.

A ME-moir, not a memoir, April 25, 2009
I'm a big fan of Gilbert's earlier work (specifically 2003's The Last American Man) and I was deeply disappointed by this book. In fact, I sent it sailing across the room twice within the first hour. Gilbert's a fine writer, let there be no doubt. Her structure is great. She writes scrumptious sentences. She's an eminently likable narrator. But my complaint is more psychological rather than literary. As we learn over the course of the book, Ms. Gilbert is an enormously privileged woman, lives the glamorous writing life in NYC, owns two homes and yet is so sad and depressed about life. Get over yourself, lady! This book is the literary equivalent of like How Stella Got Her Grove Back. Only with yoga and white people.

Gilbert claims to be quite the globe-trotter but seems to have never learned the basic tenet of travel: learning about the larger world. Confronted with the rich, confounding, complicated world, she turns away and gets lost in her own navel.

What I hate even more about this book is what its incredible popularity says about us as Americans: just like Gilbert, we are giant narcissists and we never, ever stop thinking about ourselves and our own needs and cannot, even for a second, think about the lives of the less fortunate around the world. Gilbert thus becomes the American Every-Woman: 9-11 happens in her own backyard and she's so distraught over her failed marriage that it barely registers. If you think I'm being too hard on us Americans, think of it this way: her previous book The Last American Man was much, much better than Eat, Pray, Love but since it evinced none of the yoga-loving-upper-middle-class-woman-who-spouts-cheap-wisdom-like-Oprah-on-a-global-quest-for-self-actualization story elements, it barely sold 1% of what Eat, Pray, Love did. This is a sadly-revealing book about the state of our culture. And it's not just about Elizabeth Gilbert. It's all about us.

And, of course, don't miss the upcoming film adaptation, starring-you guessed it- Julia Roberts. If I have one other person recommend this book to me I'm going to to kill them.

Eat Pray Shove (It), February 16, 2008
Here is a book that either changed people's lives or irritated the bejesus out of them. Count me among the latter.

Eat Pray Love - One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert was supposed to enlighten me. It didn't.

OK -- First the positive: Overall, it is a well-written book. The author takes many complicated metaphysical concepts and makes them readable. The book is divided into sections: Eat, which is the author's journey to Italy; Pray, her pilgrimage to India and Love, where she takes a lover in Bali.

This is about a thirty-something woman looking for spirituality and happiness. She is married, but desperately unhappy for no single reason that she cannot or will not divulge. So, she leaves her husband (and, by the way, gives him all marital property out of supposed "guilt" for leaving him, making me wonder what exactly she did to warrant this)and falls right into another relationship (a-ha! adultery, perhaps?). When the rebound relationship that broke up her marriage falls apart, she now wants to find God. Of course. She claims God spoke to her on the bathroom floor, thus beginning her journey.

But not before she goes to her publisher and secures a $200,000 advance for this book. Makes you wonder, as one reviewer on Amazon pointed out, was the journey retrofitted to the book proposal?

What better way to go find God than in Italy. For four months she eats gelato, practices her Italian with a young man named Luca Spaghetti (If you are going to make up names of allegedly real people, could you find a more sterotypical name? Why not Carmine OrganGrinder?) and gains 23 pounds -- quick to point out to the readers that she was way underweight to beign with.

She learns to enjoy life and be selfish from the Italians - who by the way still find her immensely attractive, although they don't hoot and holler at her like they did 10 years previously. But she is still so damned cute. Just ask her.

On to India. At the Ashram, she learns to meditate and still broods over her lost marriage and subsequent realtionship. Probably the most boring part of the book, except for her conversations with "Richard from Texas" -- a down home, larger than life character who speaks in folksy platitudes that would make Andy Griffith proud. He also bestows our author with her nickname "Groceries" because she was emaciated from grief from crying for the millionth time over her beloved David. As one reviewer from Amazon said, "What kind of nickname is Groceries?"

I honestly believe she made these people up. Reminds me of "Go Ask Alice" -- supposedly the real story of the drug-addicted Anonymous -- until it was revealed that the protagonist was a fictitious composite of the author's psychiatric patients. Boo.

Then Bali. She ends her self-imposed celibacy with an older Brazilian man. High on orgasmic ecstasy, out of the supposed goodness of her heart, she asks her friends to send $18K in donations to help a single mother, an alleged friend of Ms. Gilbert's, who is portrayed as a con artist because she didn't buy a house in the timeframe coinciding with the termination of Ms. Gilbert's visa. I always thought that a gift should be a gift without strings attached -- especially coming from someone who supposedly found God. I wanted to ask Ms. Gilbert "What Would Jesus Do?"

My biggest problem with this tome is that this 30-something woman basically is looking for applause for running off for a year, obstensibly supported by a $200K book advance, to "find God." I'm sure millions of women would love to leave their everyday lives and travel the world to do nothing but self analyze. If she had done volunteer work, I may have felt differently. If she went through some real hardship, I could sympathize. But she was in an incompatible marriage, then dumped by the guy she left her husband for. She should perhaps speak to those battling life-threatening diseases, or raising children alone, or taking care of an elderly parent, or worried about where their next meal is coming from.

And for all of her self-realization and navel-gazing to end her dependence on men, Ms Gilbert has, as pointed out by anotherAmazon reviewer, married her Brazilian and moved to new Jersey. She could have saved Penguin Books a whole lot of money by getting in her car and going through the Lincoln Tunnel. I wonder how long before she ends up back on the bathroom floor.

Blah, blah, blah, blah...., October 24, 2007
I could not finish this book. When the author burst into sobs yet again in the middle of prayer, or a conversation, or walking down the street, or (more likely) on the floor of yet another bathroom, I gave up. This is the type of person you meet at a cocktail party and RUN in the other direction after a few minutes when she starts spewing out all her problems at you with no end in sight. Note to the author: I am your reader, not your psychotherapist. I really tried to enjoy the book and even like the author, but after slogging through a couple hundred pages of endlessly self-absorbed chatter, I was worn out and put the book in the Goodwill pile. When she writes, "I discovered my mind was not a very interesting place to be," I have to say, "Amen, sister!"

dishonest and poorly written, April 14, 2007
I've read several of the reviews posted here and though I couldn't finish this book, it seems to me that what's wrong with it is not so much the author's hollow-souled narcissism but her lack of intellectual seriousness. Someone gave me this book as a birthday present. That it has received a lot of attention is no surprise. Look at the drivel America reads. Light, shallow laughs, sex, food, not much real thought. That's the sum of this book. Feel-good rubbish that inspires not one iota of serious thought. Gilbert's slapphappy universe is one in which everything can be solved with pizza and fresh mozarella. Every paragraph contains at least one stock one-liner. This isn't literature. It's stand-up comedy of the worst kind. We've read it all before. She claims she can make friends with anyone. It's precisely that lack of discernment and depth that makes this story forgettable. The prose is laced with one cliche, one trite and cutesy obvservation after another. Some reviewer here said this book is not a book but a magazine article. Exactly right. I finally closed the book when I read that while in India she wanted to "valet park" a destitue family into a new life. It isn't just that the phrase is a silly toss-off modernism but that there's no true emotion in it. You'll never know how this woman really feels. Don't waste your money on it.

Expected more. MUCH more., March 19, 2007
This book reminded me of a quote that's served me well in life: "It's a sign of maturity when you begin to fall out of love with your own drama." The author clearly hasn't reached this stage on her path to "enlightenment"!

don't waste your time on this one, July 12, 2007
Not one interesting character. Not even the author. A horrible divorce... big deal. A love of food ... not really worth 116 pages. I had to get to page 156 to finally understand. She is in an Ashram in India having trouble silencing her mind and meditating.

"What I am alarmed to find in meditation is that my mind is actually not that interesting a place after all."

That sentence sums up the book

Glib, narcissistic and lightweight, May 14, 2007
I picked up this book on the strength of good reviews and found myself wanting to throw it at the wall. The author is a fine writer with a good sense of humor who seemed to want to write about her journey to self fullfilment, spiritual awakening and happiness. Instead she came off as a priviledged, slightly spoiled writer who needed an excuse for a writers advance so she could travel for free. She reveals herself to be a spiritual narcissist who obsessively navel gazes. While many passages are light hearted and funny and she is oh, so very clever and witty!! there was no real depth, no real meaningful questions asked or answered except for how she could get more breaks and be FULFILLED. It seemed like an extended article for SELF magazine. Instead order books by Kathleen Norris or even Anne LaMott for God's sake!

Symptomatic Of The Downfall Of Western Civilization..., October 28, 2009
Elizabeth Gilbert was a self-absorbed, married, thirty-something living the privileged existence of an affluent writer in the most powerful nation on Earth, when, suddenly - shock-horror - she realized that she wasn't happy. As a consequence, she cast aside her husband, took up with another man - with whom she still wasn't happy - and, after this relationship fell into inevitable dissolution, decided to run off around the world in order to "find herself" (one must assume that she'd already looked down the back of the sofa) after receiving a handsome advance from a publishing company to chronicle her subsequent exploits.

"Eat, Pray, Love" is pseudo-intellectual, altruistic, mother-my-dog pap of the worst kind masquerading as spiritual insight. Read between the lines and it expounds selfishness as a virtue and mindless hedonism as both philosophy and legitimate path to spiritual insight. Unsurprisingly, that great doyen of the gullible, Oprah Winfrey, loved it and made it one of her book club choices, thus unleashing it to a wider audience than Gilbert's talents as a writer would normally have ever allowed. Apparently, God help us, a big-screen version with Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts is currently in the offing.

As a literary construct, Gilbert herself seems to be the contemporary living embodiment of Tom and Daisy Buchanan from "The Great Gatsby", of whom F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, "They were careless people...they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness...and let other people clean up the mess they had made."

"Self-absorbed" does not begin to cover it; "self-centred" is not nearly an adequate description. One hopes that she can't really have been so completely inured to the poverty of India and Indonesia by her solipsism. If so, then she seems to be genuinely emblematic of a subset of the "sex and the city" generation of women who put their own self-gratification above all other things. Worryingly, this attitude seems to be becoming increasingly more prevalent in western society.

I will be honest, I first happened upon this book after briefly seeing some of Winfrey's interview with Gilbert on television and consequently read three quarters of the book in my local library - and was so completely incensed that I felt it my civic duty to warn you off of this book.

If you want a genuinely enjoyable book to provoke introspection, this isn't it, but may I politely suggest Tom Hodgkinson's How to Be Idle: A Loafer's Manifesto and The Freedom Manifesto: How to Free Yourself from Anxiety, Fear, Mortgages, Money, Guilt, Debt, Government, Boredom, Supermarkets, Bills, Melancholy, Pain, Depression, Work, and Waste or Lin Yutang's The Importance Of Living in it's stead; If you want a decent travelogue, may I politely suggest any Bruce Chatwin's books, and if you really want to read a writer with talent give the exponents of the Gilbertian philosophy of self-aggrandisement both barrels, then I strongly recommend Michael Bywater's Big Babies: or: Why Can't We Just Grow Up?

She teaches you how to discipline yourself not to judge someone, November 20, 2007
I hated this book but I forced myself to finish it. Putting the authors irritating voice aside, it epitomizes everything wrong with American culture today: worship of the mediocre, travel without seeing anything, polarizing of the Other and fake spirituality. That said, I learned something important about spirituality as well but I'll get to that in a minute. It has to do with learning not to judge (see above, I've become quite judgmental).

When I was dragging myself through this book, I experienced strong waves of hatred for this woman. She missed all of the poverty in those places and all complexities of the cultures she "learned about". She acted like hers was the only travel experience any of her readers have ever had with her "Let me explain what being Balinese means..." demeanor. She couldn't even accurately transcribe the Italian words in the passage of curses ("Molto migliore"???). She spoke about Italy like an annoying travel companion who has been there for five minutes, has read two things about the place and knows five words and acts like the expert and when you visit her there and after 2 days there yourself you can see that she still hasn't seen or learned a thing. She takes what she wants to see from the world and tells readers what she thinks they want to hear about it. She doesn't even give an original spin to these common travel destinations, or even any insight into the expats she does meet. Did she ever mention not liking someone? Did she ever mention any negative emotions about anyone other than "David" or her ex-husband? Did she ever mention any locals being any less than thrilled that she graced them with her presence? Did any other readers feel her jealousy seething when the sexy Brazilian Armenia walked in Wayan's shop? Of course we all did but the author, miss Spiritually Enlightened at Greeting Her Emotions must still not be able to face that one. Or maybe she can't dare mention it because that might make her readers not like her and this woman spends all her energy spinning a version of herself that everyone can like. I guess her spiritual enlightenment only works for exploring and sharing insights about her weight. Or making money off the bored, privileged American public.

Now, how about how offensive she is? Besides her condescending assumption that we are all married 35 year olds stuck in our houses who have never traveled and are relying on her to tell us how it is, she made two references where she tried to make the suffering of her love life out to be comparable that of a refugee ("we had the eyes of refugees" and counseling with the boat people revealed that their suffering too "was all" love story sagas (personally offensive to anyone touched by the world's refugee story).

Okay, I said that I learned something. Yes, I learned something. Important. I looked deeply into my hatred I felt towards this woman throughout the book. I learned that the reason I hated her so much was because I was expecting her to have something insightful to say and I was expecting to learn about the people from an anthropological, non-biased, realistic perspective. Each faux pas she made infuriated me. I wasn't seeing her for her. I was trying to project what I thought was her view of herself onto her. Basically, I was expecting her to live up to how great she tells us she is and when she didn't deliver, time after time, sentence after sentence, I felt some justified sense of triumph and anger at "catching" her, and then feeling immense frustration at not being able to expose her to the world so everyone else would see through her too. Instead, I should learn to accept the book for what it is (horrible) and accept the author as she is (whoever that is) and accept that to her it was suffering, to her it was enlightenment and it does no good to judge her for it (even though I am not spiritually enlightened enough to stop myself). Instead of hating her, I should have shut the book, written this review, and laughed about it. ... Read more

Editorial Review

In the instant number one New York Times bestseller Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man, Steve Harvey gave millions of women around the globe insight into what men really think about love, intimacy, and commitment. In his new book he zeros in on what motivates men and provides tips on how women can use that knowledge to get more of what they need out of their relationships, whether it's more help around the house, more of the right kind of attention in the bedroom, more money in the joint bank account, or more truth when it comes to the hard questions, such as: Are you committed to building a future together? Does my success intimidate you? Have you cheated on me?

In Straight Talk, No Chaser: How to Find, Keep, and Understand a Man, Steve Harvey shares information on:

How to Get the Truth Out of Your Man
Tired of answers that are deceptive? Harvey lays out a three-tier, CIA-style of questioning that will leave your man no choice but to cut to the chase and deliver the truth.

Dating Tips, Decade by Decade
Whether you're in your twenties and just starting to date seriously, in your thirties and feeling the tick of the biological clock, or in your forties and beyond, Steve provides insight into what a man, in each decade of his life, is looking for in a mate.

How to Minimize Nagging and Maximize Harmony at Home
He said he'd cut the lawn on Saturday, and you may have been within reason to think that that meant Saturday before ten in the evening, but exploding at him is only going to ruin the mood for everyone, which means no romance. Steve shows you how to talk to your man in a way that moves him to action and keeps the peace.

And there's much more, including Steve's candid answers to questions you've always wanted to ask men.

Drawing on a lifetime of experience and the feedback women have shared with him in reaction to Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man, Harvey offers wisdom on a wealth of topics relevant to both sexes today. He also gets more personal, sharing anecdotes from his own family history. Always direct, often funny, and incredibly perceptive, media personality, comedian, philanthropist, and (finally) happily married husband, Steve Harvey proves once again that he is the king of relationships.

Reviews

Harvey is Open, Revealing, and Helpful to All Who Choose to LISTEN - Four Stars, December 10, 2010


Comedian and media star Steve Harvey has now penned his second best seller. In this book he is directing his advice to women, but I believe that men will benefit from this book just as much. The objective is to give women an informed understanding of men, and only a man could write such a book. There is no question that he is coming at relationships from a different point of view based on having living in his own intense relationships.


He knows what works and what doesn't, and he has spent considerable time trying to figure out how a man is hardwired in his brain differently than a woman. Most of us are dealing with the behavior resulting from how we think. Harvey is suggesting that we deal with the thinking itself.


A key thought that he has developed is that everything we as men do is filtered through our title, which simply means who we are. The next question is how we get that title, which means what we do for a living. The final question becomes what regard we are held in by our fellow human beings. He is very honest in saying that by this we mean what is the compensation we receive.


Harvey believes that unless we come to terms with these three questions prior to marriage, we probably can't be successfully married and therein lies the enormous divorce rate we witness in our society. Men are marrying prior to having an understanding of who they are. Without that self knowledge the relationship is doomed before it even gets started.


I believe that Harvey is touching new ground in this book, and certainly has become his own person. In the book he develops the idea that we as men have to learn how to be men before we can be anything to anyone else, who chooses to love us. What's even more important is that we certainly must do this before we can love them back.


We probably all realize by now that women prefer flowers, and yet men wish to buy them plants that will live for years. It's the same concept with weddings. Women dream about weddings, and yet have any of us ever met a man who dreams about his wedding day? Strange isn't it?


The author goes through the ages of a man's life and what a man has to figure out during each decade of his life. What Harvey has to say is fascinating:



The 20's
You must make a decision to figure out your life, what do you want to do, what is your work? While we are figuring out our work, a woman is concerned with her biological clock, while for us it's the financial clock.


The 30's
The game is getting old. We are looking for a woman with the least amount of drama. Can she add support to our lives, is she loyal, and will she bring fun to relationship as well?


The 40's
Nothing can be as good as coming home to a family of people who threw their arms around you. A man needs somebody he can talk to, who can give you comfort, and companionship.


The 50's
It's time to solidify your legacy, as well as to realize that your body is starting to betray you.


CONCLUSION:


As men we are hunters, and we show our love for a woman by doing three things:

1) We PROVIDE for her

2) We PROTECT her

3) We PROFESS our love for her


I think we as readers will learn a great deal from this book. There is much wisdom in what Harvey has to teach us. Whether it's regarding the conflict of he won't commit, while she won't leave, or how to claim the blessing of the breakup, there is much to gain. Just remember not to buy into the fairy tale, and thank you for reading this review.


Richard C. Stoyeck

Good Advice for Young Women, December 7, 2010
First, let me say that I am not a fan of Steve Harvey. I've always thought he was a bit pompous and "me" centered and that hasn't changed after reading his book. I still think he's a tad arrogant to be writing relationship books; I ordered this book only because it was available briefly for free on Kindle pre-order. Who made him an expert?

That said, what makes him an expert is that he's a MAN. He knows what men are like and he's honest with women about what men really think and how they really behave when we're not around. I think every young woman should read the section where he delineates what men are looking for in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s and beyond. As a 61 y/o woman who has been happily married for 15 years to a good yet flawed man, I think Mr. Harvey gives sound advice, whether women want to hear what he's saying or not.

What makes me choke on giving 5 stars is that I do not like being placed inside a category (ie. the assumption that all women think or act the same). For instance, his first book's title: Act Like a Lady but Think Like a Man. As a woman, I think like I think; I do not think like either a man or a woman and resent the inference that we are all cookie-cutter copies of one another. As a young woman, I thought like a ditz and now, as a 61 y/o woman working on her doctoral program in Psychology, I use critical thinking and hopefully think like a scholar.

Also, not all women are so desperate that they are in a hurry to get married. Some women prize an education and desire to have a career while they are still young enough to enjoy its rewards just as much as a man does. No woman should ever "settle" for less than what she wants in a man just to alleviate her loneliness. A woman, like a man, should learn to be at peace with herself and with her God before she attempts to attach herself to a man.

If you can get past the sexism and the man's obvious admiration for himself, this book has good advice for any woman who wants to understand men better.

Good information, December 18, 2010
I have to give Steve Harvey credit for his attempts to make women aware of how men think and how we can prevent ourselves from making the same mistakes over and over again. Much of the book is common sense and it's really nothing new that hasn't been said before. Makes a good read however and I enjoyed this book as much as I did the first book.

What a great read !!, December 14, 2010
I started reading this book and knew from the first few chapters this was going to be a great read !
I found it very insightful & useful in my own relationship. Sometimes its better to hear from a man, how they operate. This book definitely helps to understand them & their thought process.
I would recommend this to any lady wanting an inside view to the mans brain & how he feels about relationships. Thanks Steve !!!

Great Book for Women Already in Relationships, December 12, 2010
I really enjoyed Steve Harvey's first book Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man: What Men Really Think About Love, Relationships, Intimacy, and Commitment. I've read a lot of relationship books and it was the first one that I had read that really focused on a man's point of view and basically told women when it was time to walk away and how to recognize whether a man is a good man or not, not yet ready to commit or never will commit, etc. I'm giving this book four stars because it lives up to it's title - it's straight talk. He's telling women things they might not want to hear. I'm not giving it 5 stars because I got bored with his personal anecdotes pretty quickly and because I know some men who are not anything like the men Harvey describes. I don't doubt that his analysis is accurate for most men, though.

This book is a good follow-up for women who were left with a lot of questions after reading Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man. So, I would first suggest reading that book and then reading this one. As a single woman in my 20's I didn't find this book as helpful as the first - don't get me wrong. There was a lot of good information, but it seemed to aimed more at women trying to keep/satisfy/or get along better with their man. For single gals, a book on how to find a man and cultivate the relationship early on would be better. I mean, I'm dating men in their 20's and early 30's and a lot of the advice seemed tailored toward more seasoned daters.

Steve's advice for women looking for a man is basically to look your best all of the time, and to hold out on the bedroom for 90 days until you get to know him better - which requires being inquisitive and asking detailed questions. This book is chock full of great tidbits for women already in a relationship, living with a man, and married to help you get along with your man better. That's the other reason that I give this book 4 starts. I'm glad I purchased it on my Kindle, because I'll definitely go back and re-read it once I meet someone new.

Second Recipe for Loneliness, December 26, 2010

Recipe for Loneliness Number Two
The simplistic and formulaic notion that men want different things than women, and that Love is simply
figuring out those two sets of criteria and applying them, is a recipe for loneliness and relationship failure.
The central concepts of Harvey's relationship opus fail to touch the mythical and truthful core of Love--the melting of Self and Other.
Harvey doesn't even go in that room.
Instead he leaves men and women with lists of ways to get along with the Other. No pass;not Love. More like highly-refined roommatehood.
Friends with privileges.
A rehash of John Gray's, Men are from Mars...and a rehash of Harvey's first book, this self-help book in neither about the Self nor helpful.

Common Sense, December 12, 2010
Ladies, why buy a book to try and figure out men. Don't you think there is more time to spend on your future, you self-esteem, etc? You can take this guys advice and have low self-esteem and issues and things will always be the same. Yes he is a man, but he categorizes way too much. Not every woman is the way he describes and neither is every man.

I never liked Steve Harvey either, he is very stuck on himself and is making money off of telling women something that should be common knowledge. Notice how no men are running out to buy books to figure us out? Straight talk, no chaser: Pay attention to what men say and do and have a level head and you will never go wrong. Do not stick around for bs, give 2 chances and that is it.

He is going to make a monopoly off of desperation.

Straight Talk for Men and Women also in..., December 7, 2010
Steve Harvey has a new book about men, why they cheat and why they commit. There are so many new books by Black authors this fall! Great. Re: Harvey's book, yes, men do cheat, and even after they commit, they might still cheat. And yes, sometimes they lie to get what they want :-). So women need to maintain themselves amidst it all--their health and their sanity. There is more "straight talk" in the book Living Well, Despite Catching Hell: The Black Woman's Guide to Health, Sex and Happiness. In that book, the Happiness section addresses relationships and gives the younger set of women in a not-so-committed relationship a four-step approach to healthier lives; they are "Close Your Legs, Be Well Read, Tend that Body and Sweat that Head." Hello! Now that's some "straight talk!" As women, we love our men, and the Sex section encourages women to overcome some long-held hang-ups to enjoy intimate relations. But we have to also deal straight up re: health issues, so it's important to "Trust, but Verify!" Congrats on the new book. Between Straight Talk and Living Well, the beauty and barber shops will be busy with conversation in 2011.

Quicker delivery, December 7, 2010
I thought I would receive this book on it's release date. Otherwise I would have gotten it at a book store. Very disappointed. ... Read more

Editorial Review

After many years of writing in her prayer journal, missionary Sarah Young decided to "listen" to God with pen in hand, writing down whatever she believed He was saying to her. It was awkward at first, but gradually her journaling changed from monologue to dialogue. She knew her writings were not inspired as Scripture is, but they were helping her grow closer to God. Others were blessed as she shared her writings, until people all over the world were using her messages. They are written from Jesus’ point of view, thus the title Jesus Calling. It is Sarah’s fervent prayer that our Savior may bless you with His presence and His peace in ever deeper measure. ... Read more

Reviews

AWESOME BOOK!, January 28, 2005
This book has an excerpt to read for every day of the year. So far I have read Jan. 1 through Jan. 28. In addition to those 28 days I have jumped around reading random pages and I have been so encouraged by what I have read. Each reading is a half a page to one page long. The book is small so the reading time is very short. Each page is written as if Jesus is talking directly to you. There are scripture references listed at the bottom of each page as well. So if you are looking for a great devotional book that will help you get closer to the Lord that won't take up a large amount of time this is the book for you.

Jesus Speaks in This Book - But in a Very Narrow Way, August 8, 2010
"Jesus Calling" is a relatively unique devotional book in that Sarah Young has written her devotions from the point of view of Jesus Christ. Using this technique gives the book a sense of immediacy and intimacy with the Lord, and this is the great strength of the book.

Many of these short sayings that Young puts in the mouth of Jesus are things the Lord would say and has said to me during a life of listening to Him, reading the Scriptures, and keeping a journal. How often have I heard Him remind me to worship Him alone, to trust in Him at all times, and that He is always with me. To hear these words as if they are Jesus' own can be beneficial to the soul.

However, there are 4 reasons I can give "Jesus Calling" only 3 stars and not 4 or 5 stars, (even though I'm vastly outnumbered in the reviews on Amazon).

1. Young has Jesus say only a limited range of things compared to what God actually teaches in the entirety of the Bible. I love to hear Jesus say things like, "Relax; Trust Me; Listen to Me; I am with you; I am calling you; and Wait for Me." But this seems to be all that Young's Jesus ever says. Where are the specific commandments of Jesus, and not just "affirmations"? Where does this Jesus ever talk about the practical ways we should love our neighbor, and not just love God? And why is it always a solitary call to be alone with Him, when we're called to be the Church?

2. "Jesus Calling" shows Young's bias and doesn't have Jesus say the hard things He must often say. Where are His reminders and commandments to seek forgiveness and to forgive, to love regardless of the cost, etc? This Jesus doesn't seem ask us to do anything difficult or to sacrifice very much. It's all "You are on the right path." Where are the times when Jesus has to chastise, correct, and discipline us? Where are the times when He says things like, "Repent!" or "You're being too selfish and must take up your cross for Me today."?

3. "Jesus Calling" doesn't give any hint that sometimes God may withdraw His sweet fruit from our lives so we will depend only on Him, and not on His gifts. The saints have often experienced the "dark night of the soul" when we can't always feel God's blessed Presence? What then? Young's devotional doesn't account for this.

4. The devotionals are not directly scriptural. Thankfully, these devotionals aren't heretical or unsound: they're just incomplete. It's true that there are some Scripture references tacked on at the end of each devotional, but I don't sense that the whole counsel of God comes through in these devotionals. I like what God has told Young, but sometimes it's all too easy to interpret your own voice as being that of the Lord's. Occasionally, the words presented as Jesus' are jarring and don't sound like Jesus, such as: "This is a paradigm shift that will revolutionize your life" (devotional for March 22).

"Jesus Calling" has undoubtedly blessed many lives and will continue to do so. However, it gives a narrow view of the entirety of what Jesus Christ has to say to us.

THE devotional book that you absolutely must have!, April 4, 2005
I absolutely love this devotion book. Sarah Young speaks from the heart and puts into words what I can not form but what I do feel.
It is like "listening in a mirror." Listening, not reading. I can read the book, but listen to God's voice in my soul - where the Holy Spirit reflects (hence, mirror) that from those in whom He lives.I highly recomend this as a must have devotion.

Don't judge this book by its cover, July 27, 2009
A few months ago I joined the Thomas Nelson Publishers blog book review team. What a novel idea. I signed up, agreed to write a review and publish it on my blog as well as one other commercial site. In exchange, I received the book I chose to review in the mail.

I chose "Jesus Calling," a devotional by Sarah Young.

I was drawn to the content based on a few tweets from others reading the devotional. I grew up in my faith with the Oswald Chambers classic "My Utmost for His Highest." I love my online devotional time on the Jesuit site [..]--one of my favourite experiences on the web. I also love Henri Nouwen's "Bread for the Journey."

Now "Jesus Calling" is fast becoming another classic in my life. Sarah Young writes what she hears Jesus speaking to her in her spirit. She has honed her listening through years and years of writing in her journal and being attentive to what the Spirit wants to say to her.

As I have spent time in "Jesus Calling, "I have heard Jesus speaking to me many times in beautiful, fresh ways. Sometimes I hear Sarah's personal filter--she is the pen, the messenger, after all--but I also recognize this as the voice of my Shepherd.

Here are a few of my favourite calls:

* "Rest in My Presence, allowing Me to take charge of this day. Do not bolt into the day like a racehorse suddenly released. Instead, walk purposefully with Me, letting Me direct your course one step at a time."

* "You are on the right path. Listen more to Me, and less to your doubts. I am leading you along the way designed just for you."

* "You must discipline yourself to live within the boundaries of today. It is in the present moment that I walk close to you, helping you carry your burdens. Keep your focus on My Presence in the present."

I definitely recommend "Jesus Calling." My only caveat comes with the actual design. Here's what I suggest: Please don't judge this book by its cover. I was surprised when I opened the parcel I received in the mail. I was actually somewhat taken aback. My heart sank somewhat, because this book came dressed as a very dated, and forgive me for this, missionary. You get the picture. I had to force myself to pass through the visual barrier. The size and design also visually placed it in the gift book category, which surprised me. I am in my thirties and I have never bought a Christian gift book. That's just me.

As I dove into the content, however, wanting to keep up my end of the agreement, I was drawn in by the fresh writing. This book has taken me new places with Jesus. There's a lot of wisdom here, so much Beauty and great Depth.

"Jesus Calling" is worth laying down all your preconceived ideas about where you might receive and delving deeply into this revelation of Jesus.

So, while the design placed this book for me in a different audience; the content of this book crosses generations for those who want to experience Jesus in a fresh way.

If you can pierce through the visual barrier of the book jacket, the content will grab your heart, because it is Jesus speaking though one of his beloved daughters.

At Peace for Everyday Living, March 12, 2007
This is a great book, a friend gave it to me when my father was dying with lung cancer. It kept me focused on what was really important in life and how to keep in touch with God through this trying time. A simple reading everyday that was just what I needed to hear.

Jesus Calling by Sarah Young - A perfect source for daily encouragement!, June 10, 2009
As a busy Christian woman, I sometimes find it difficult to sit and enjoy being in the presence of the Lord. I have several devotional books on my shelf, but none seemed to give me the spiritual boost I was looking for. That is, until I started reading "Jesus Calling" by Sarah Young.

"Jesus Calling" is a devotional gift book containing 365 devotions written from Jesus' point of view. Though each daily message is short, they are consistently relevant and personal for people of all ages and from all walks of life. Each page contains the very promises and blessings found Jesus.

From the day I opened Jesus Calling, I was hooked. Every day, I look forward to reading about the blessings God has for me. Sarah Young did an amazing job in writing each devotional; it truly feels as if God is speaking to me through each page. I honestly can't think of anyone this devotional wouldn't be perfect for! The devotions are short enough to be read in just a few spare minutes, but are powerful enough that they stay on your mind throughout the day.

I can't say enough about how much it has blessed me in the short time I have been reading it. If you are looking for a way to make the scriptural promises of the Bible more personal, this book is perfect for you.

Christina
[...]

Jesus Calling by Sarah Young, May 31, 2009
What if Jesus could pick up the phone and call you? What would He say? Jesus Calling is a daily devotional like nothing I've read before. Each message feels like a personal phone call from our Lord.
Their content reached into a place that was desert thirsty for encouragement, a healing touch, a kind word, a renewed promise. Each one showed up just when I needed it most, meeting whatever pressed me that day. The messages got me thinking about what the Lord wanted to show me in each situation He took me through.
It felt like my best friend had put His arm around my shoulder.My life became a journey alongside Him and no matter what I went through, He was there. And He would be there again tomorrow. As I read Jesus Calling, I began falling in love with Jesus all over again.
Each page contains a daily message and references to inspire daily bible reading. If you enjoy devotionals or have never tried them, I wholeheartedly recommend Jesus Calling. You'll be glad you took His call.

A member of Thomas Nelson's Book Review Blogger program. [...]

Jesus Calling, September 30, 2008
This devotional especially touched me because it really did seem that Jesus was talking to me. Also, bible verses are listed for reference. Because of my love for this book I purchased several to give to others who need to hear a word from God.

What An Awesome Devotional, March 8, 2007
What a wonderful devotional. God has had me buy so many of these books to give to others as a gift. What a blessing this book has been to so many people. I probably have purchaased about 15 of them. Everyone that I have given it to has thanked me so much, and it has really changed their lifes. God has used me to give it to them when they really needed to hear from Him. It is so amazing to know that God can use this small book to bless so many people. Thank you , Lord. Thank You for this wonderful Author ( Sarah Young ). May God continue to Bless Her.

Deborah

Simply Great. Please get this book. There aren't any words to describe how great this book is., May 6, 2006
I had to stop reading ahead because the first time i started reading it I was so touched. It really feels like God is talking to you in modern times. Sarah Young is truly gifted and this book has literally saved my life. Keep it goin. We need more devotional books like this. ... Read more

Editorial Review

In his #1 bestseller The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell redefined how we understand the world around us. In BLINK, he revolutionizes the way we understand the world within.How do we make decisions--good and bad--and why are some people so much better at it than others? That's the question Malcolm Gladwell asks and answers in BLINK. Drawing on cutting-edge neuroscience and psychology, examining case studies as diverse as speed dating, pop music, and the New Coke, Gladwell shows how the difference between good decision making and bad has nothing to do with how much information we can process quickly, but rather with the few particular details on which we focus.BLINK displays all of the brilliance that has made Malcolm Gladwell's journalism so popular and his books such perennial bestsellers as it reveals how all of us can become better decision makers--in our homes, our offices, and in everyday life. ... Read more

Reviews

Absolutely enthralling and fascinating throughout.
This is one of the most fascinating books I have read in some time. The book centers on the concept of how fast we really do make judgments, called "thin slicing", and how deeper analysis can sometimes provide less information than more. It is all about cognitive speed.

The concept of "thin slicing" is dissected and explained. What I found fascinating, and also common sense, is that we process information on a subconscious level, "behind the door", and process so holistically that to over analyze can actually hinder our ability to make decisions.

Several key points are applicable in business. One of the in depth studies looked at a military leader who was particularly successful. One of his more poignant observations was that a great leader needs to let the people do their work. When deciding how often to follow up "you are diverting them, now they are looking upward instead of downward. You are preventing them from resolving the situation". (Page 118) Further "allowing people to operate without having to explain themselves constantly ... enables rapid cognition" (Page 119). It seems that most micro-management actually prevents people from successful decision making.

Another strange phenomenon occurs when we try and explain how we come to some conclusions. It seems that the more we try to analyze how we come to some conclusions the less reliable they become.

The ability to absorb and detect minute changes in facial expressions allows us to essentially "read minds" if we pay attention. There are several chapters on how reliable we can be in predicting behavior with very little information.

Overall, this book is so well written that I had a hard time putting it down. My only compliant, and it is a minor one, is that the book just ends. No summary or wrap up, just "boom", it's over. However, that is more a testament to how engaging the book is I suppose. Highly recommended!

Our Hidden Programming
I bought the book before a flight after reading the adulatory comments on the front and back.

It started well, with the premise that the subconsious forms a conclusion long before the consious mind is aware of it. I suppose it is obvious, but he makes the point well.

From there things get a bit lost. Reading along I soon realised that I was nearing the end and the number of pages left for a profound and all-encompassing conclusion was rapidly diminishing.

Unfortunately it never came.

This is a very short book which promises much but delivers little. I hope that the author will follow up with something more worthy of the title. It is really just a collection of true stories, mostly about racial or sexual prejudice, which leave a bad taste in the mouth. Each story is drawn out as well, a little like the History Channel.

I'm sure that there is a good book somewhere in this subject matter, but I can't for the life of me reconcile the reviews that this book has received (Compelling, Astonishing, Brilliant) with my experience. Maybe they only read the first chapter. Maybe I missing something.

Since reading this book I have been looking around and found this one:

The Genie Within: Your Subconcious Mind, how It Works And How To Use It (Paperback)

Maybe this would be a better choice for this subject matter. ... Read more

Editorial Review

The Secret revealed the law of attraction. Now Rhonda Byrne reveals the greatest power in the universe -- The Power to have anything you want.

In this book you will come to understand that all it takes is just one thing to change your relationships, money, health, happiness, career, and your entire life.

Every discovery, invention, and human creation comes from The Power. Perfect health, incredible relationships, a career you love, a life filled with happiness, and the money you need to be, do, and have everything you want, all come from The Power.

The life of your dreams has always been closer to you than you realized, because The Power -- to have everything good in your life -- is inside you.

To create anything, to change anything, all it takes is just one thing…THE POWER.

Reviews

A NEW WINDOW INTO PROSPERITY . . ., August 18, 2010
Rhonda Byrne has been a long-time favorite author of mine. Through "The Secret," Rhonda has helped me to have an inner confidence in the law of attraction. I've come to believe that what I think about (in the right way) will come into my life.

In "The Power," Rhonda takes the law of attraction in another direction and teaches the power of using your emotions to FEEL what you want to have so that what you desire will come quicker. It is a way of engaging the mind and heart and getting them to work together.

I felt "The Power" was inspirational, because it reminded me of why we have feelings and the different energy that comes from feelings. Not surprisingly, love is the most powerful feeling . . .genuine love can change anything. . . or any situation.

Rhonda teaches how to use the power of love in all aspects of your life, from relationships to money, to health, and more.

I would highly recommend getting this book along with another that I read early this summer and has meant a lot to me. It seems that there is a 3rd dimension to the Law of Attraction. The best way to describe it is "Serendipity."

I've been so inspired by Serendipitously Rich: How to Get Delightfully, Delectably, Deliciously Rich (or Anything Else You Want) in 7 Ridiculously Easy Steps which was written by Madeleine Kay, along with a foreword by Joe Vitale (a star in "The Secret" movie). This book gives you a really fun and delightful feeling as it moves you positively on a path of change. However, it also gives you some practical steps which are akin to putting the law of attraction into action by teaching how to make decisions based on serendipity.

It is like having a deeper level of faith. It has made a difference for me. . .it might for you too.

I Have A Decision To Make, September 10, 2010
"The Power", by Rhonda Byrne, is a book about the power of love. The author wrote "The Secret" in 2006 and it became a world-wide bestseller. The author promises that this book will add immeasurabley to what you learned in "The Secret".

My father suffered a heart attack and I was spending endless hours at the hospital. One evening, I went to Walmart and I noticed this book on the shelf. I was instantly drawn to it. I spent the next couple of days reading this book as I sat in the hospital. It was a very anxious time but this book helped me gain a different perspective. The "power" in this book is the power of love. Your life is made up of only two kinds of things...positive things and negative things. This book explains how your attitude and way of thinking can make bad things seem better.

Most of the information in this book comes from the New Thought Movement of the early 1900s. These authors taught the principles of positive thinking and the law of attraction. Ms. Byrne quotes many of these authors in this book but she also describes how these principles can be used in everyday life to produce positive results in your life.

My favorite chapter in the book is "Keys To Power". One of the topics in this chapter is the "key of gratitude." Everytime I start feeling down, I think of things that I am thankful for. I am soon feeling much better. Ms. Byrne says, "No matter what negative situation you may find yourself in, you can always find something to be grateful for, and as you do, you harness the force of love that eliminates negativity."

Positive thinking does not always come easy to me. I remember my mom telling me when I was a child, "All you ever do is grumble, gripe and complain." Children tend to live up to spoken expectations so I tend to see the cup as half empty instead of half full. I like this book because it reminds me that changing your mind can change your life. I have a decision to make.

Even better than the Secret!, September 13, 2010
I loved it! I thought it was even better than "the secret", but I love both. I have read "the Secret" several times and will do the same with "the Power". It's easy to flip through for quick inspiration and the book radiates love, which is what the power is about.

Do not judge this, or any book until you APPLY it., September 17, 2010
The one star and five star reviews differ with people's attitude toward what this book calls them to do. It doesn't say sit and salivate and drool with love like a puppy. It tells you to take the attitude of love, meaning positivity in outlook and focus. So if you are the type of person that is mired in negative stuff and you cherish your state, then you will keep saying "buh-humbug" all the way. But if you have had enough of your pity-parties and you want to clear the junk in the attic of your head, then you will decide to APPLY the book's suggestions and God forbid, you may actually get out of your misery corner. So if you have no such intention, then don't waste your money. Not too many of the reviewers seem to have actually tried any of the concepts in the book. So they are not at all talking from experiential evaluation of the book. IF you want to try and APPLY the ideas, the book will be an uplifting start. Take the ideas and build on them, practice thinking only what you love and want, and if you still do not get any results, then come back to review with complaint that it was painful reading. If you honestly put it into practice, you will not need to! If it will sit on the shelf with all your other half-baked, half completed projects of yours, then save time and money now. So my suggestion:

You want to really APPLY and practice the book's way of living = BUY!!!!
You do NOT want to APPLY and practice = Don't buy.

You decide. Simple: In the end what you get is what you want and love.

Yes, I liked this book!, September 7, 2010
When I was in seventh grade, I made my first "vision board." Of course, that was many, many years ago. Back then, I called it (among other things) my "dream poster." I cut up magazines and newspapers and did drawings of things I wanted to do and places I wanted to see. I also wrote in notebooks with different colored pencils a "diary" of all the things I had achieved in life -- before any of it could have actually happened. I focused on my desires. I read biographies and novels and watched movies about people who did what I wanted to do. I worked on making my dreams come true. I got into the schools I dreamed about. I owned a business -- back when the "glass ceiling" in business was proudly made out of solid cement! I took a trip to Europe, and got a newspaper to foot the bill for all the expenses. I danced professionally. Yep, I was on the stage at Lincoln Center once! Later on, I got yet another job of my dreams.

And, I did this while lots of people spun their wheels in the background telling me what a fool I was, that I should give up -- over and over and over again. I've faced ridiculous obstacles, and conquered them every time.

So, I guess I discovered "The Secret" before Rhonda Byrne made it popular. But, even Rhonda Byrne admits that it is not her invention at all! Dream. Focus on those dreams. Keep going, even when reality and so-called realists tell you that you are wasting your time.

I laugh when I read the one-star reviews for The Secret and The Power. Sooo many people have the answer, they think. It's just that their answer is always "no." No, you can't have more money. No, you can't have that career. No, you can't get into that college. No, you can't dance, can't sing, can't paint, can't..... anything. And, for them, people who keep moving on are stupid, because we can't see it their way.

Enjoy your negativity, folks. I can't imagine what I might achieve next. But, I assure you it won't be sitting on my rump insulting others who dare to dream, and dare to achieve.

The Power, by Rhonda Byrne is an excellent book, and I highly recommend it to anyone capable of thinking outside of narrow limitations.

something everyone should own, October 17, 2010
This is a book all should read and have to just open and take in daily. It is amazing how you can start to feel confused or down and just a few pages puts you right on track. It answers alot of questions and helps to understand why we and others do the things we do. And how we can look at something different to DO something differently.

A Bible for us all!, September 21, 2010
Rhonda Byrne's timing in publishing her latest book was perfect! In these trying times when negativity abounds...we should all read and live "The Power"...the world would then be a wonderful place! Thanks, Rhonda, for your beautiful book and thought provoking words.

"The Secret" changed my life. Using the power of positive thinking, my house sold on the day I invisioned, for the amount I wanted, I was able to quit my job at a bank (Great timing there!), and move closer to my children and parents. My future husband then 'found' me and we are now happily married and living the life I had dreamed about. Does the Secret work??? You bet it does! I am living proof. All of my friends and family are amazed at how my life turned around. It can and will for them and for you, if...when...you start to live "The Secret" and harness "The Power"!

What a great way to live......., October 21, 2010
I have finished reading "The Power" for the 2nd time. This book has life changing suggestions to change the way you think to change the way you feel - it tells you how to look for the positive in all situations. Even when it is really hard to find a positive aspect to something that has gone wrong - there is always a lesson to be learned so that in itself is positive. It also has made me realize what love really is - not just for a person or family but for the whole of life. I have just purchased the audio as well because I'm going to take a 2-3 hour driving trip and I would like to listen to it on the way.

I'm not saying you are going to receive a million dollars but I'll bet you'll feel better about it if you don't :)

Barbara Johnson
Cave Creek, AZ

Getting stronger everyday, October 20, 2010
I purchased this book in an airport in Washington DC on my trip home to Florida. I have been battling a life threatening disease for some time now. I love reading Rhonda Byrne. She gives me inspiration to keep up with the fight.

words to live by, October 17, 2010
I love this book and it has changed my life and the way I live. The world would be an even more beautiful place if everyone lived this way. If you want happiness in your life and good things to follow you, read this book. Even after reading it, I still refer to it often, especially if I am having a bad day or a challenge in my life. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Fragments of a Great Secret have been found in the oral traditions, in literature, in religions and philosophies throughout the centuries. For the first time, all the pieces of The Secret come together in an incredible revelation that will be life-transforming for all who experience it.

In this book, you'll learn how to use The Secret in every aspect of your life -- money, health, relationships, happiness, and in every interaction you have in the world. You'll begin to understand the hidden, untapped power that's within you, and this revelation can bring joy to every aspect of your life.

The Secret contains wisdom from modern-day teachers -- men and women who have used it to achieve health, wealth, and happiness. By applying the knowledge of The Secret, they bring to light compelling stories of eradicating disease, acquiring massive wealth, overcoming obstacles, and achieving what many would regard as impossible. ... Read more

Reviews

The Review "They" Don't Want You To Read, March 6, 2007
Catchy review title? Thought so. Robert Cialdini, renowned psychology researcher and author of Influence: The Power of Persuasion (perhaps the best book ever written on the subject) identifies six basic rules employed by politicians, advertisers and scam artists alike to persuade others. Each of them are employed quite adeptly by Rhonda Byrne in this book.

Cialdini's first principle is SCARCITY; people want what's expensive, exculsive, or otherwise attainable. Byrne's mastery of this principle is clearly shown by the very name of the book: The Secret. We all learned this the first week of kindergarten as we felt the jealousy of watching two classmates, hands cupped over ears, sharing a secret out of earshot.

This message is reinforced throughout the book and its advertising campaign which pitches "The Secret" (whatever it actually is) as jealousy-guarded information hoarded by the happy, wealthy and successful. Whenever someone tries convincing you of something, whether it's a way to make enormous sums of money, to lose weight, etc - be wary of when it's pitched as "the knowledge THEY don't want you to have." Think about it - everything from the "secrets that Wall Street doesn't want you to know" to "uncovered - celebrities' secrets to staying young" are phrased not simply to pique your interest but to make you jealous. Appeals to our emotion are far more powerful than appeals to reason, and Byrne demonstrates mastery of this principle throughout "The Secret."

Cialdini's second principle is LIKING. We like those who like us, and in turn, we do business with them. Positive thinking and emotional intelligence has been linked to strong interpersonal relationships, academic and professional success, and good health, but there is a fine line when positive thinking crosses over to unjustified exuberance. Instead of simply noting the substantial benefits of positive thinking (a well-accepted principle which wouldn't sell books), Byrne crosses the line so blatantly that anyone with a modicum of modesty would find it blasphemous.

AUTHORITY is another Cialdini principle, also in play in "The Secret" in quite subtle ways. Another technique which differentiates this book from just another book of positive thinking is the heavy use of quasiscientific language, which gives the impression that the "law of attraction" is (or will become) an accepted scientific principle, just like the law of gravity or the law of attraction of oppositely-charged particles in chemistry. Many people are both intimidated and confused by the authority of science, a fact exploited by manipulators ranging from Byrne to peddlers of magic weight-loss pills.

Since no respected physicist would ever publish a paper on the universality of the "law of attraction," Byrne indirectly seeks experts in other ways. She attributes the success of people ranging from Einstein to Beethoven to adherence of "The Secret," thereby manufacturing experts. After all, if Einstein and Shakespeare mastered "The Secret," who are YOU to question it?

The last two Cialdini principles are CONSISTENCY and SOCIAL PROOF. The success of this book should leave little doubt it will be followed by more (and more expensive) forms of media peddling "The Secret." The audio recordings, weekend seminars, advertising tie-ins, and other follow-up products certain to follow will exploit these two principles. Once people commit themselves to believing happiness will come from "The Secret," they will attribute future successes, whether a promotion or a great new relationship, to adherence to it. Conversely, setbacks will be even more powerfully in committing people to "The Secret," as people will attribute their failures to not living up to "The Secret" (and buying more of Byrne's books). Consistency dictates it will be less painful to buy more books and immerse one's self further into "The Secret" than to accept the whole premise is a quite ridiculous; while not as pernicious as a domineering cult, "The Secret" promises to charge you handsomely for a positive outlook on life.

Byrne's book is problematic on many levels. On it's face, it's a manipulative marketing tool meant to flatter, confuse and deceive. It's also pseudoscience at its best, the last thing we need to encourage in an increasingly technological world which requires healthy skepticism and critical thought. Most damaging, though, is how the book perverts reality by encouraging people to equate a positive outlook on life with a childish, idiotic narcissism. Ayn Rand must be rolling in her grave hearing about the modern manifestation of her objectivist movement reduced to the intellectual equivalent of canned pork.

If you're interested in "The Secret," I highly encourage you to read the book - yeah, READ the book - if for any other reason so not to be manipulated by its brilliant marketing. Read it with a critical eye, with a copy of Cialdini's book in the other hand. You may not learn the secret of happiness, but you WILL learn a lot about manipulation and influence from a master of the subject in Rhonda Byrne.

Reaches Too Far, Oversells, Underdelivers, January 1, 2007
I think a book like this, which makes some really big claims, should, roughly, do the following:

1) Present it's premise clearly
2) Since it's a self-help book explain clearly what you need to do
3) Provide compelling evidence that it's ideas work
4) Be credible.

The book does a decent job of explaining its premise, which is that everything in your life is the result of the law of attraction. I quote, "the law of attraction says like attracts like, so when you think a thought, you are also attracting like thoughts to you." In other words, think good thoughts and good things will come to you and if you think bad thoughts then bad things come to you. I've simplified this a bit but not a whole lot as the concept isn't rocket science.

Now, does this book explain clearly what you need to do? Actually, for a self-help book it does a very poor job of this. How do you control your thoughts? What kinds of practices and thinking produce the best results? The author and contributors basically tell you a bunch of stories about how "so and so did something and you can too by changing your thinking".

And that's it for the "how to" part of the book. There isn't any.

Now, if I wanted to prove something worked from a scientific perspective it would seem to be easy to test this stuff out. You take two groups of people, teach one the secret, let the other go on with their lives and see what happens. In theory those that know the Secret would be happier and more successful than the control group. It might not be perfect but it'd be a whole lot better than what we get in this book. But, of course, you'd have to have an actual methodology to test.

Instead the authors cite numerous anecdotes of how the Secret worked. One person's cancer went away. Another individual walks after a brutal accident. Still another finds romance. That's all fine and perhaps it's evidence but it's not proof. Cancer can be misdiagnosed. How many people who were injured like the "Miracle Man" never walked again despite the best attitude and trying the approach perfectly? The problem with anecdotes is that it's easy to start with a result, work backward and assume the conclusion. It's also very easy with anecdotes to only present the ones that make your case and ignore those that don't (when someone dies of cancer while practicing the secret for instance). It's just not good enough to use anecdotes for large claims like those made in this book.

The following quote struck a nerve.

"People hold that for awhile, and they're really a champion at it. They say, `I'm fired up, I saw this program and I'm going to change my life.' And yet the results aren't showing. Beneath the surface it's just about ready to break through but the person will look just at the surface results and say, `This stuff doesn't work.' And you know what? The universe says, "your wish is my command,"

I thought it was interesting that the universe instantly manifest failure but isn't quite so fast with success. In fact, a cynical individual might conclude that what they are really saying is, "when this program works it's because the secret always works, but, on the off chance it doesn't work, well, that's your fault." An even more cynical person might think, "gosh, I wonder what would help a person who failed? Maybe, a seminar with Bob Proctor would be just the thing to get them over the top?"

Lastly, is the Secret credible? On the one hand, I think a lot can be said for the idea that if you change your thinking you'd change your life. In many ways that seems obvious to me.

On the other hand, if the secret actually was true, especially at the scope claimed by the book it would mean that everything that's happened is the result of your thinking. So, when a child dies of pneumonia, well, it's because they brought pneumonia into their lives. Michael J. Fox, not only did you bring Parkinson's into your life but change your thinking and it will go away. Obviously these things aren't true and they obliterate, in my opinion, any credibility in the book.

Not only does the book go too far but most (I'd argue nearly all) of the contributors aren't credible. On a topic of this scope: the ability to 100% change your life and the world in an incredible fashion, does anyone really think you couldn't find psychologists, top flight scientists, therapists and thousands of mainstream individuals to support it, if it worked? Wouldn't there be tons of research instead of anecdotes? Instead we get a Feng Shui Master, a chiropractor, motivational speakers (err trainers), a metaphysicist, etc. combined with a half dozen anecdotal stories. So the most powerful like changing idea ever and you get it from the crew in this book presented in this fashion? I don't think so!

If this idea really worked, at anything other than giving material to self-help speakers and generating repeat students, it just wouldn't be found here. The book wouldn't even have to be written because we'd all already know it and be practicing it. Remember, this is not a new idea, it's been around for a very long time, and it's been the topic of literally thousands of seminars and hundreds of books.

In conclusion, I'm not opposed to the idea on a small scale but this book just goes way too far and I'm left with the feeling that all that's really going on is a bunch of people trying to get their name out and get you to pay for their seminars.

a best-seller; folly of the masses, June 25, 2007
This book was given to me as a gift on father's day. I started reading it the way I read any book but soon I started reading faster and faster, more like scanning, with speed-reading techniques, and finished it in 2 hours, while taking notes at the same time.

I have no interest in self-help books or concepts like power of positive thinking. This book combines the two, with the main thesis being that the "secret" to anything in life, wealth, health, success, love, romance, happiness is positive thinking, thinking positive thoughts. More specifically, imagining things that you want to have and really, truly believe that you already have them, and feel good about having them now!

For example, if you want to be rich, you should first imagine that you are already rich; second, you should really believe that you are already rich; and third you should feel yourself in a rich life style, feel happy about it. If you keep doing this for awhile, miraculously the doors of wealth will open to you, all the opportunities will line up at your door and you will be well into your way to becoming that rich person you are imagining. Similarly, if you want to loose weight, you should imagine yourself in your ideal weight, really focus on that, only allow yourself "thin thoughts" and avoid "fat thoughts", and you will get thin. I quote; "if someone is overweight, it came from thinking fat thoughts". Another one; "Food cannot cause you to put on weight, unless you think it can."

I felt like putting a smiley face right after the last sentence as I am smiling now, and was smiling throughout the book. All you have to do is just ask (oh, and believe, and feel) for the thing you want and lo and behold, thou shalt have it! I quote: "Make a command to the Universe. Let the Universe know what you want. The universe responds to your thoughts." Another one: "The Universe will start to rearrange itself to make it happen for you." Really? I didn't know the entire universe cared so much about me!

The method even works for some frivolous things. Like always finding a parking spot, never having to wait in lines, never being late etc. And a lot of people are, allegedly, already doing it: "We have received thousands of accounts of The Secret being used to bring about large sums of money and unexpected checks in the mail. People have used the secret to manifest their perfect homes, life partners, cars, jobs, and promotions, with many accounts of businesses being transformed within days of applying The Secret."

One look at the titles of the co-authors of the book says a lot: Metaphysician, moneymaking expert (ha?), healer, life coach, law of attraction specialist, feng shui consultant (sure)... How about gullibility specialist, swindling expert, or snake-oil salesman?

Actually I shouldn't be so hard. At least one person, the main author of the book made her wishes come true. In the foreword of the book, and elsewhere inside, she says that she was going through a very bad time, her company of 10 years was about to be history. In desperation she looked everywhere for answers and that's how she discovered "the secret". Judging from the success of the book and the film, it must have worked for her. I suppose she must have thought, believed, and felt something like this: "I want a large number of credulous people to buy what I am saying (and the book, and the dvd) so I can make a lot of money".

Think and Grow Rich Meets The Power of Positive Thinking in Brief Quotes, February 22, 2007
I am in complete agreement with the idea that our thoughts need to be carefully marshaled and focused on what we want. My comments focus on how Ms. Byrne has expressed that point in this book.

Everyone I know swears by the DVD version of The Secret. I decided to read the book first and then look at the DVD.

In grading this book, I am comparing The Secret to the many books that encourage you to create your own reality through mental focus including books written by those quoted in The Secret.

First, what is the secret? As stated in a quotation by Bob Proctor:

"The Secret is the law of attraction!

Everything that is coming into your life you are attracting . . . by virtue of the images you are holding in your mind."

Second, what causes the law of attraction to work? According to Ms. Byrne on page 11:

"You are the most powerful transmission tower in the Universe. Your transmission creates your life and it creates the world . . . . And you are transmitting that frequency with your thoughts."

Third, what's the evidence that this secret is true? Each of 24 authors tells anecdotes of people who overcame hurdles after envisioning a more positive result. A few claims are made that quantum physics supports this conclusion, and Ms. Byrne confides that she understands a great deal about this subject.

Fourth, why is this a secret? Because Ms. Byrne had never heard of the law of attraction prior to a year or so ago.

Let me make a few observations about the development of this idea in the book:

First, science has shown us that we ignore almost all of the sensory input we receive. Our minds focus on a small percentage of what's considered relevant through something called the reticular activating system. Change what you focus on, and you notice things for the first time that have been there all the time. That's one reason why envisioning what you want works: You notice helpful resources around you that you've been ignoring. That observation, however, has never been tied to any evidence (to my knowledge) that we physically create anything with our minds beyond our own bodies, except by manipulating the physical world in various ways.

Second, religion points to a different phenomenon. Christians, for example, read in the Bible that God has filled those who have been saved by repenting their sins and believing in Jesus with the Holy Spirit which permits good works (including miraculous works) to be done by the desire of the believer. The source isn't the believer's mind, but rather God's spiritual resources which are greater than the physical world. Anyone who read these Biblical texts would say that an individual is far from a powerful source of creating reality: An individual can do nothing to change reality without God, but can do anything good with God's help to change reality.

Third, in Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill reported the results of many years of intensive interviews with the most successful people on Earth of his day. Many of them believed that their thoughts physically changed the exterior world by opening the door to possibilities that otherwise wouldn't have existed. But Mr. Hill presented the idea as expressed opinions, rather than as a proven fact. He also pointed to many other things that these people had done that helped them succeed. Mr. Hill reported that it takes more just focusing on what you want: There are other steps involved such as working with a mastermind group.

Fourth, our own bodies are very strongly affected by our thoughts. Scientific research keeps showing new dimensions of that fact. Think certain thoughts and your immune system is stronger. Think other thoughts and your immune system is weaker. In addition, placebos do heal people who think they are getting real medicine when they are not. Why? Because people are really healing themselves. You can extend that influence by behaving well or badly towards others, causing a mental reaction in them, which in turn creates a change in their body chemistries.

By comparing those earlier works, my sense is that what The Secret really represents is one woman's quick attempt to make sense of this kind of information. In doing so, she seems to have oversimplified and misstated what is known about the role of thought in creating life experiences. I doubt if the intent was deliberate or not well intentioned. But after all, she is a film maker, not a student of thought.

By ignoring the full range and roots of the evidence, Ms. Byrne runs the risk of discouraging some people who feel like they are real losers because they cannot evince a perfectly positive reality. If it were as simple as The Secret suggests, we would have billions of people living trouble-free lives. To my knowledge, even the most successful practitioners of The Secret aren't as wealthy as those the most successful people who don't. That would make an interesting study, and a far more valuable book than this one.

Here's an example of a misleading example. Ms. Byrne argues that food doesn't make you fat; it's what you think about food that makes you fat. The punch line of her story is that "I now maintain my perfect weight of 116 pounds and I can eat whatever I want." Every person I have met who is an authority cited in this book is noticeably overweight. Why don't any of them want a perfect weight and be able eat anything they want?

My point for you: Avoid this book.

I encourage you, however, to think positively and learn about how your thoughts can improve your life!

If you want to learn about how to improve your life through your thoughts, consider reading more reliably based and carefully presented sources. If you prefer a secular book, try Think and Grow Rich or The Success Principles. If you would like a book that half-way between a religious and secular focus, try Your Best Life Now. If you want to draw totally on the Christian or Jewish religious roots, read the Bible.

I'll look at the DVD now and let you know what I think of that.

A book for losers, January 10, 2009
1. Bogus metaphysics, bogus science:

The Secret pretends it's a book about winners and how they win. It isn't. That's just the come-on. It's actually a happy make-believe feelgood book for losers.

Positive thinking is a powerful force, but it isn't magic. It's more like a necessary precondition to success: people who believe they can succeed are far more likely to succeed than people who are sure they'll fail.

For instance, say they're starting a new business, and they run into some big problem. The person who thinks in terms of success will say "Gosh, I'm going to have to figure out a way to get around this problem if I'm going to be successful." Then they get to work on figuring it out. The person who thinks in terms of failure will say, "I knew it was only a matter of time before the universe screwed me over -- I can never catch a break," and gives up trying.

Very important point: in both cases, positive or negative thinking didn't affect the universe. What it did was affect the way the people made decisions and addressed their problems in the real world.

That's the difference between a genuinely useful and valuable book like Norman Vincent Peale's The Power of Positive Thinking, and the pile of steaming tripe that is The Secret. Peale's book tells you that positive thinking is the best starting point for getting what you want. The Secret says that positive thinking is enough all by itself. It dresses its idea up in bogus pseudo-scientific language, but essentially what it's saying is that positive thinking is magic.

That's premium-grade hogwash. Positive thinking isn't magic. Thoughts are not magnets. There is no Law of Attraction, no primal universal force that makes the events in our lives match the way we think about our lives. Positive thinking is a good mindset for making good decisions about the actions we take, but it's the actions that have the effect, not the thoughts.

That's why The Secret is a feelgood book for losers.

===

2. Some real-world implications:

If Rhonda Byrne's advice were any good, neither she nor her publisher would have to publicize her book. They'd just think the right thoughts, and readers everywhere would automatically be moved to pick up a copy.

People cycling through the manic phase of manic-depressive bipolar disorder would be such a nexus of inventiveness, serendipitous insight, and luck, that major corporations would bid on their services.

No baseball game could ever end as long as the fans on both sides believed victory was possible.

We'd never run out of petroleum.

Average global income would be far more evenly distributed than it is. After all, anyone can hope. Anyone anywhere can think good thoughts.

Alternately, there could be Third World sweatshops available to do our believing for us.

Finally, if Rhonda Byrne's advice were any good, the Evil Overlord list wouldn't include the observation that an Evil Overlord who shouts "I AM INVINCIBLE!" is a sure bet to die almost immediately afterward.

===

3. Fraudulent provenance:

If thinking the right thoughts really could do what The Secret claims, that fact could never stay a secret. Everyone has people they love; and because they love them, they want them to be happy and successful. If they learned an infallible secret for attaining power, wealth, and success, they'd pass it on to those they loved so that they could be happy too. Those people would tell others, and so the knowledge would spread. Soon it wouldn't be a secret any more. After that, people would start preaching it from the rooftops, and carving it into the sides of buildings.

Let's limit it to children. Can you imagine withholding such a secret from your own children? Could you keep silent while you watched them lead frustrated and impoverished lives, or died from conditions you knew how to cure? That's not believable.

Now, genealogists will tell you as a rule of thumb that everyone with European ancestry is descended from Charlemagne, who lived from 742 to 814 AD. That is: if Charlemagne knew this secret knowledge, and he only told his children about it, and they only told their children, and so forth and so on, by now half the world would know it. Yet author Rhonda Byrne says the Greek Philosophers and the Ancient Egyptians had this knowledge. The Greek Philosophers lived about 1,100 years earlier than Charlemagne, and the Ancient Egyptians lived more than three thousand years earlier. It's ridiculous to imagine that a simple, basic, easy-to-apply, and yet overwhelmingly powerful universal principle could stay a secret for even a fraction of that time.

===

4. Further real-world implications:

If what Rhonda Byrne says in The Secret were true, Las Vegas wouldn't exist. People don't place bets they think are going to lose. Gamblers are powerfully into positive thinking. Someone who's betting heavily while drawing to an inside straight is unquestionably visualizing success, and they're telling the universe exactly what form they want it to take. They nevertheless fail to fill their straights at exactly the rate predicted by plain old statistical probability -- that is, most of the time.

Positive thinking is all around us. New restaurants, new breakfast cereals, new television shows, and new political candidacies expect success. No one throws their heart into studying ballet from age six onward because they envision themselves having the wrong adult body type and winding up teaching tap and jazz to children in some dull but affluent suburb. The world is full of unemployed theatre majors, unpublished writers, unsuccessful beauty pageant contestants, unheard-of musical acts, and college athletes who never make the big time. None of them got there by thinking they wouldn't succeed.

If Rhonda Byrne's advice were any good, no singer would ever hit a wrong note. That goes double for singers who are drunk.

I know other reviewers have already covered the implications of The Secret's suggestion that misfortunes are caused by our own negative thoughts. Still, I have to say: NO KIDDING? SOMEBODY PHONE DARFUR NOW!

And while we're waiting for that phone connection: no kidding? Insanely bad high-level decisionmaking, failures of oversight, and a grossly irresponsible pursuit of deregulation for its own sake had nothing to do with our lives getting zapped by a collapsing economy? Look at Enron's employees and stockholders. They didn't expect to get screwed. New Orleans residents who didn't have cars never envisioned themselves drowning in their own attics. Homeowners with subprime mortgages never imagined they'd wind up in foreclosure.

Are we to understand that some families have an inexplicable tendency to attract the same ailment, generation after generation? How is it possible for devout Christian Scientists to die of cancer or eclampsia or ketoacidosis? If a guy in his late 50s has been in denial about his radiating chest pains for the last ten or twelve hours, and the first thing he says when the EMTs come through his door is "I'm not having a heart attack," has his attitude improved or decreased his chances of surviving the episode?

If I worry about drunk drivers, and then some night I get t-boned at 60 mph by an irresponsible lush with a DUI record as long as my arm, is the accident actually my fault because I had all those negative worries? If I've got a cheerful toddler with me, who's responsible for her death? If I kneecap Rhonda Byrne, and set fire to the warehouse where her books are waiting to ship, will she apologize to me for thinking thoughts that obliged me to do it?

===

5. In conclusion:

I swear, I've never had any thoughts that warranted the existence of this book.

Think for a minute with me before you buy, March 14, 2007
Let's say something first: if it makes you feel better, you can even believe in Santa Claus, and there's no problem with that.
So, if you want to believe what Rhonda says, it's up to you.
For me, there are too many lies in this book.
They are appealing, because we all search for an easy way out. They sounds beautiful, like birds in the sky. But they remain lies.
They are also immoral: I think one of the best teaching in christianity is compassion. Compassion means to feel the suffering of another, to understand him deeply. It's the feeling we all feel when we see a baby cry for apparently no reason, so cute and so defenseless.
We feel his pain, we think we have to help.
But if you believe that feeling (mental) pain attracts to you disgrace, how can you embrace compassion?
Also, why help others if when they are in struggle it's all their fault? Why try to help them if you believe that their minds are responsable for that?
When we think of World War II, and Nazism, are we going to say that all the Jews were vibrating in a bad mood? I don't think it's a good answer to the evil that men do (and what about 9/11, or Katrina?).
Were all the people in the '60 anti-war movement creating more war? Vietnam was caused by John Lennon? Don't be a fool.
The poet says: the good sailor moves the sails, for he knows he can't control the wind.

I take this very personal. When I was just a kid, a friend of mine died. He was the happiest child in the world, we were shocked and thought about death for a long long time. He didn't attract his bad destiny, and we didn't attract anything, except tears.
Leave this book alone.

P.S.
There's no need to say that the quotations of great men in the past are largely distorted. Take Bhudda: he spoke all the time against desire of material things, and he thought a lot about illness, aging and death. It's easy to take a quotation out of context and gain noble fathers for a poor idea.
Peace.

Unscientific Blather, April 5, 2007
The Latin phrase, Ad Ignoratium, is apt: the statements made in this book are true only to the degree of the reader's ignorance.

Hmmm, I can win the lottery just by thinking positively about it? What if everybody around me has the same thoughts? Can we all win? If I want a college degree, can I get one just by thinking really hard or do I have to actually attend classes? I have cancer; can I will it away by envisioning smiling faces? Or should I get chemo first?

The bulk of the book employs pseudo "experts" to elevate the very real power of positive thinking to the status of a wishing well. As most of us learned as children, wishing alone rarely makes things happen. Action makes things happen, and tragically little about action is talked about in this book.

Lots of people report great things coming to them after practicing the "Secret." But it's unlikely that anyone will report how often it doesn't work. Like psychic predictions, we breathlessly report the "hits" and ignore the misses.

I'm a believer in positive thinking, but not magical thinking. There is a difference. Keep that in mind when you read this nonsense.

nothing new, April 3, 2007
There is a lot of talk about the "Secret" but I really did not think it was "new" material. I find it rather interesting that with all the brilliant healers and scientists on this planet, that the people included in this work are only from the U.S..
I certainly do not agree that little children or unfortunate people that live in war torn areas "draw" this to them. Sounds more like a marketing tool than a message of peace. Where is the compassion for others less fortunate than us?

A Word to the Wise..., March 19, 2007
I am commenting on The Secret as a clinical psychologist who specializes in how cultural and spiritual beliefs affect health as well as the author of a book about converging science and mysticism to navigate our personal journey. First, The Secret is a compilation of opinions from a group of professionals in several fields, rather than a book by the author. It would be more accurate for Ms. Byrne to present herself as the editor, rather than the author of the book. Having said that, it is important to distinguish between wishful thinking and mind-body science. Although the concepts expounded in the book are beautiful examples of what we could achieve if we explored our potential, it leaves the reader with "feel-good" platitudes, by failing to convey that simply wishing something does not attract anything other than expectations that lead to disappointment. As a scientist, I have seen the mind bypass biology in miraculous ways, but this does not happen by just wishing and waiting for "the laws of attraction" to work. Instead, change requires honoring commitments, not blaming others for our failures, assessing the self-sabotaging that surface when self-esteem is compromised, and realistically defining goals.
The success of this book shows how hungry we are for someone to tell us that change happens magically without having to confront our demons and without taking responsibility for the life we created with our actions.
While I wish Ms. Byrne the greatest success, I want to caution the reader that if "wishful thinking" does not attract what you want, do not blame yourself, because it was only thoughts without action.

I wanted to like this book., April 8, 2007
Recently I was at the airport and overheard snippets of a conversation taking place nearby. A gentleman was telling a fellow traveler about "The Secret". Intrigued, I got the book and just finished reading it.

First I should say I really wanted to like this book. It's a delicious idea....to think that the happier, shinier, more successful people of this world have access to a certain "secret" that causes them to attract good things. Unfortunately, as much as I hoped this book would blow me away, it didn't.

I found it difficult to stay awake while reading the first four chapters. The same basic themes ("Your thoughts become things" and "The Great Secret of Life is the law of attraction") were repeated over and over again. Mixed with the boredom was a sense of surprise that the book was so focused on material things. A chapter called "The Secret to Money" came before chapters on Relationships, Health, "the World", You and Life, which definitely made me go "Hmmmm."

"The Secret" starts with a great idea, but develops a credibility problem when it uses All Or Nothing and Overly Simplistic language. For example:

(a) "Nothing can come into your experience unless you summon it through persistent thoughts." This would seem to suggest that everyone working in the World Trade Center on 9/11/01 somehow INVITED the terror attack through their own persistent thoughts (which is, of course, pure hogwash.) Or terminally ill cancer patients fighting for their lives... SUMMONED the disease.

(b) "You have two sets of feelings: good feelings and bad feelings. And you know the difference between the two because one makes you feel good, and the other makes you feel bad." This seems to wipe out several dimensions of human emotional experience. What about ambivalence? ("I'm happy about the job offer in LA but, gosh, I'll really miss my family and friends in Boston.") Are we wiping out the concept of bittersweet? Isn't it a balance of a range of emotions that makes us human?

It is fine to say that, within reason, what you take the time to visualize for yourself in glorious detail is more likely to manifest itself in your life, or even that you can accomplish things you never thought possible by first seeing yourself doing, feeling, and thinking like you have already accomplished them (and, of course, following up with massive action to get you where you want to go.) I also realize that repetition and simple phrasing can be useful tools for teaching new concepts; however the scope of "The Secret" is too broad to use these techniques. (We're trying to learn a new blueprint for life here, not how to care for a potted plant.)

"The Secret" takes a valid concept to extremes. The unrealistic wording is unnecessary and raised red flags that were distracting and interfered with my ability to remain open to the overall excellent and useful message of the book. If you seek to learn more about the fascinating power of positive thought and creative visualization but do not wish to be brainwashed with extreme claims, then this book is probably not up your alley either.
... Read more

Editorial Review

It's no wonder thatThe Power of Now has sold over 2 million copies worldwide and has been translated into over 30 foreign languages. Much more than simple principles and platitudes, the book takes readers on an inspiring spiritual journey to find their true and deepest self and reach the ultimate in personal growth and spirituality: the discovery of truth and light. In the first chapter, Tolle introduces readers to enlightenment and its natural enemy, the mind. He awakens readers to their role as a creator of pain and shows them how to have a pain-free identity by living fully in the present. The journey is thrilling, and along the way, the author shows how to connect to the indestructible essence of our Being, "the eternal, ever-present One Life beyond the myriad forms of life that are subject to birth and death."Featuring a new preface by the author, this paperback shows that only after regaining awareness of Being, liberated from Mind and intensely in the Now, is there Enlightenment. ... Read more

Reviews

Here and Now, November 2, 2008
After reading happiness books like "Finding Happiness in a Frustrating World", I felt like I had a good handle on what science had uncovered about how to live a happy life and have to say that I am MUCH happier for having read them. But, while the field of positive psychology has made some great contributions to my happiness levels, it's books like The Power of Now that come along and let you know there's STILL more you can learn.

A key concept of the book (if I'm explaining it right) is that you will start to experience a certain kind of enlightenment when you learn to leave your analytical mind behind. In other words, instead of "thinking" try just "observing your thinking." And when you do this, you also need to realize that all this "thinking noise" that goes on in your head all day long is not really who you are- an enlightening concept indeed!

To that end, the book is set up in a question and answer format to help you get to understand these kinds of concepts. While it might seem ridiculous to some, it really isn't. Case in point, we all talk to ourselves or have witnessed others talking to themselves at times (maybe during a sporting event perhaps). If you ask someone who they are talking to, they will usually say "I'm talking to myself." And this, by definition, means that there have to be two "selves", an "I" talking to "myself"- and so justifies the idea of two selves (a "you" and a "thinking you" in the book).

Well, if these seem to be the kind of concepts you're ready to explore, this is your book. It raises some good questions and certainly brings up one that you can't argue with: all we have is the here and now. As the book so astutely points out, "Nothing ever happened in the past; it happened in the Now. Nothing ever happened in the future, it will happen in the Now." And learning to live in the now IS the point of the whole book.

An idea whose time has come, October 11, 2002
You've heard the old maxim that there is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come. That's what The Power of Now represents to me. I have been in the book business all my adult life and consider myself somewhat jaded when it comes to books on self-help, gurus or enlightenment manuals. In fact, I almost never read them. There is something unique about The Power of Now that makes it stand out in an otherwise crowded field. It may be the clarity of the language, the absence of technical language, or more likely, the fact the author is clearly writing about a place the he authentically inhabits; and that my friends, is rare indeed. When describing this book to others, I compare the concepts and practices to the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh, and to the Dzogchen teachings of Tibetan Buddhism, as well as the core instructions of such Zen Masters as Dogen and Hongzhi. The thing that makes this book so magical is that you get all that pith instruction without having to wade through cultural artiface or the barriers of religiosity. This is only the second review I've written, and I'm doing it because I believe this book is fundamentally important. The teachings have had an immediate impact on my life in a way that few books ever have. I agree with the editorial review - within a chapter of reading this book, I was already holding the world in a different container. This is the real deal.

This may just be THE book!, November 23, 2001
Eckhart Tolle's message isn't new. His book is meant to point us toward enlightenment,
and thus his teachings aren't much different than that of Buddhism. But the way this book SPEAKS...

WOW!

I've been reading "Power of Now" slooowly, over the past week and a half.
I'm nearly finished with it, and plan on starting again on page one when I'm done.
This may be the ONE book that you've been looking for... it's that good.

You can FEEL the essence of Tolle's message while you read. The book BREATHES with spiritual insight.
As you read, you just KNOW that what Tolle says is "the truth."

In reading the book, meditating, and practicing these principles in everyday life,
I've noticed in myself an increased ability to be "fully present" in the world and STAY THERE.
This is the experience I've been wanting for many years.
I've been waking up each morning in a peaceful mood...
I think, while sleeping, I've been integrating the lessons I've learned!

Be here now... it's the only place and time to be.

and Now..., January 24, 2002
I picked up "The Power of Now" in the "New Age" section of the bookstore. I was determined to make the reading about "spirituality" a short episode in my life... and I was probably right, as far as the reading goes, that is.

I got the book and continued reading at home, and, as I often do with study guides and textbooks, started underlining what seemed most important. Soon it became harder to separate the important from the unimportant, because it all seemed important! Then, I stopped, put down the pencil and said: "Wow!"

Where did this book come from? Why aren't we hearing about it on CNN? Reading it felt strange at first, as it demanded my total attention: either I was drawn deep into it, or not at all. Do you like to eat while reading? Well, this book will make you feel ridiculous if you try to eat and read at the same time!

The book showed me that I have a pretty thick mold of the mind to break through, and it took me very far on the first day, even farther after that. The message went beyond what I would probably recognize on my own. After all, I was (and still am but to a lesser degree) one of those constant thinkers who mistakenly believe that it's good to think all the time but almost never stop to see, hear and feel the essence of being. Although the message in the book seems familiar and simple, in the end it provided exhaustive answers to the few questions that I had and also those that I wouldn't have thought of before. Amazingly, it also managed not to raise new ones. What it did was grab me by lapels and put me into the present moment. Over and over again, it told me what it means, how to enter it, offered a few different methods, and suggested that with practice many opportunities exist to enter it.

Another point is that once I finished the book, its message lingered (may I say "in my mind" here?). The author's obvious and at the same time subtly effective, repetitive approach somehow kept reassuring me that I was absorbing and remembering the material. The text never strayed far from the core of the message, which seemed to stick with vivid clarity.

I soon began to practice shifting myself into this state of intense concentration, and it feels strange and alluring at the same time, this detachment from the mind. At first, I could only do it while being completely relaxed, just before falling asleep. Later, it became easier to do along with other daily activities. Don't worry; you will not get hit by a truck while crossing the street and trying to focus into the Now! Also, the people at work will not laugh at you because you look weird trying to focus, but they may notice a difference in you: that you are relaxed, focused and less confrontational (because you are surrendered to the present moment). The most immediate effect for me was that focusing into the present moment helped me communicate better. I began to listen more intensely, meaningfully and less judgmentally than before.

However, I feel that this is only the tip of an iceberg. Trying to be in the Now has inspired me more than any miracle. At the same time, it's clear that learning to live in the Now is a skill, and like any skill it can be enhanced with practice. The more you work at it, the better and more natural you get doing it.

In short, I don't need to search for the truth anymore. I got lucky on the first try, by becoming a little curious with the book that seemed unassuming and light in physical weight. Thank you, Eckhart. NOW, I can be at peace, knowing how much I can look forward to in this life, and beyond.

Not a book for the mind - a book to teach you to be free, June 30, 2002
I have refrained from writing a review of this book for nearly a year and a half, being content to simply practice what Tolle has expressed so simply - remain in the present moment for that is all we have. After nearly three decades of practicing meditation to become enlightened (some day) I found it disheartening to conclude that I wasn't really getting anywhere, yet I was reluctant to give up the effort. Then Tolle popped into my life like a much needed life preserver, showed me who I really am, and put an end to my thrashing about in self-created whirlpools of despair - when you discover you are the ocean itself the whirlpools peter out in embarrassment.

Don't read this book in order to feed your mind, stroke your ego or validate your beliefs. Read it in order to learn to free yourself from pain and delusion. It is obvious when reading certain reviews that some people are looking to add mind stuff to their inventory and then to demonstrate what a fine mind they have with an erudite and academic rebuff. They will have to remain content with a mind dominated life, always looking for something outside themselves to give validation and meaning. At some point, however, if they are lucky they may tire of that and take the opportunity to practice living in the now. It takes courage to jump into the unknown and discover the freedom and joy in living life moment to moment.

Perhaps you are ripe for this book like I was. Even so it was not always easy to let go of cherished beliefs and practices, but ultimately it is the only thing you can do if you really want freedom. Tolle shows how conditioned we have become in a gentle and easy manner, leading you by the hand all the way to the door of freedom. But it is up to each one of us to open that door. At first you may spend only moments of clock time in the sweetness of the now. If you keep at it you will become more skillful in accessing the now, and you will find yourself dwelling there for extended periods of clock time. And then upon reflection you will realize the peace that is always available - that we ARE peace.

So, are you willing to see what life will be like without a mind and ego to steer your every move, as you have been so conditioned to do all your life? (and if you are, don't worry, you will always have access to the mind and ego). Are you willing to let go of everything and to simply BE and let life unfold naturally? (it will anyway, but not resisting it reveals the peace that underlies all phenomena). If you are you will not find a better guide than Eckhart Tolle.

Clear, Intelligent, Gentle, February 5, 2001
Although I have always felt myself to be vaguely spiritual, I had never bought a book on spirituality before, shunned anything that smacked of religion, and wouldn't be caught dead in the New Age section. However, a friend recommended Tolle's book, and I found myself completely absorbed in it from beginning to end. Tolle himself would probably agree that there is nothing essentially "new" about the ideas in the book; the value lies in the clear, intelligent and gentle way in which they are presented. This book is carefully, thoughtfully and beautifully written. Not only does it illuminate the fundamental, slippery, destructive patterns of the mind or ego which confound one's spiritual and even physical well-being, but it also provides a variety of simple and practical techniques for breaking down and dissolving these various forms of mental pollution. I use Tolle's calming, contemplative techniques every day and throughout the day, and they work wonderfully for me. I've read the book twice so far and have given it to others as a gift. The companion tapes are excellent as well.

One Power trip, April 13, 2005
In all of my 62 years, I have read numerous works on the topic of spirituality. Mr. Tolle's book follows many classics of which I so enjoyed-works by Ram Dass, Deepak Chopra, Andrew Harvey, Matthew Fox, Marianne Williamson, Alan Watts, Krishnamurti, Cayce ..ad infinitum. And though I enjoyed much of Tolle's book when it first appeared five years ago, when I look at it now(couldn't help but comment here on the author's vain and frighteningly egotistical preface to the new paperback edition), I am really wondering just who this teacher is.

I had the misfortune of hearing him speak when I was traveling in England last year, and the pomposity of which he came off -really appalled me. I never saw such an egotist in all my life. (in a so-called spiritual teacher-this is a bit off-putting) Tolle resonated with such vanity-that the spiritual "truths" he was attempting to make rang hollow. To me, those who remain modest and sincere and generous toward others are the real teachers. (Deepak Chopra, to me, is always so gracious and humble when he speaks; I also like Carolyn Myss and Andrew Weil-actually-- many spiritual communicators who come from a medical background-seem to walk their talk).

I can only say to those readers out there: "yes this is a good book-but pay attention to what may lie beneath the surface ". To me, the real spiritual teachers are always humble and helpful toward others. Tolle -in person- is very different from what he appears in his DVDs and books-I have heard he is cut-throat and very competitive when it comes to others' works (unfortunately, a good source of mine knows he has hurt others.) Bottom line? Everything must serve him. And that always says it all. Just be aware and go within and listen to your own inner communication to the divine. Forget this guy.

As one luminous Galilean soul once said: "By their deeds you shall know them".

Practical tips for joyous living, September 17, 2001
Philosophers like Krishnamurti say that the path of spiritual enlightenment starts with being aware of one's own thoughts. Commentators (of Upanishads and Gita) such as Swami Chinmayananda suggest that spiritual enlightenment is attained when the mind quietens. I have great respect for the above authors. However, I was frustrated for a long time as "watching my thoughts" and "quietening the mind" seemed impossible to achieve.

In this book, Tolle gives very practical advice on how we can watch our thoughts - the idea is to simply live in the present, in the Now. "...Make it your practice to withdraw attention from past and future whenever they are not needed. Step out of the time dimension as much as possible in everyday life. If you find it hard to enter the Now directly, start by observing the habitual tendency of your mind to want to escape from the Now..." is a brilliant piece of advice from the book.

The book is organised in a question-and-answer format and it is easy to read.

When we start reading the book, many questions rise in our heads. E.g.
*How can we forget the past? Doesn't past influence on our current situation?
* How can we not think about the future? How do we, then, plan for the future?
*How practical is it to ignore the time (future)?
All these questions and many other questions that come to mind while reading are answered in the book.

If you plan to read this book please think about the following: many of us read books like these and find them 'interesting'. As long as we are reading the book we feel inspired and we live in the Now. A while later, we go back to our routine and forget about living in the Now. To get the true benefit from this book, my suggestion is to create some measures so that you are reminded of the principles regularly. Some things you can do:

*Write down your questions, their answers and your other thoughts that come to mind, while reading the book. Review these regularly.
*Find people who are interested in discussing the issues relating to spiritual enlightenment and discuss.
*Make it a point to read or listen to books that relate to living the Now, on a regular basis.

The Truth is in the Power of Now, December 13, 2000
This book is so filled with truth, so powerful, so crystal clear that I was compelled to write this review and share it with other people. THE POWER OF NOW and WORKING ON YOURSELF DOESN'T WORK by Ariel and Shya Kane are the two most powerful and insightful books on self-awareness I've ever had the pleasure to read. Reading both of these books is like working with Zen masters, compassionate spiritual teachers who can free us from the torture that our minds and our judgments inflict on us constantly. I am not exaggerating when I say that THE POWER OF NOW was like a breath of fresh air. Tolle gets right to the point and explains so much about inner peace and how our minds actually work that I found myself wanting to share what he and the Kanes have discovered. If THE POWER OF NOW is the technical manual for reaching fulfillment (because it is mostly explanations about awareness rather than illustrative examples), then WORKING ON YOURSELF DOESN'T WORK is the practical guide with real world examples and insights that describe exactly how satisfaction is possible in everyday life. You'll want both of these books. I've found what I was looking for thanks to these wonderful authors.

The Power of Tolle's message, June 1, 2000
In the past 25 years I have read spiritual books ranging from the works of Gurdjieff and his followers to the discourses and satsangs with Maharaj, Poonjaji, and Gangaji. These have helped me and probably thousands of other seekers. They were the best written accounts available to all of us on the Path who refused to swallow the sugar pills of superficial knowledge of spirituality and enlightenment offered by many. NOW comes Eckhart Tolle with an unbelievably clear, powerful and succinct account of how and why our mind-based ego consciousness runs us, robs us of our birthright as humans, and why our society, at every turn, supports this process. His message is exquisitely eloquent and direct: Learn, through endless practice (unbending intent as Don Juan would say) to observe your mind without judgement. See where this leads you again and again as your sense of who you are escapes psychological time and the vastness, wholeness, and beauty of Creation opens before you. I have read only the first 50 pages and already I know that it will be THE ONE BOOK that goes with me everywhere as I read and reread it until it is part of me. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Author of the New York Times bestseller The Reason for God and nationally renowned pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church Timothy Keller with his most provocative and illuminating message yet.

It is commonly thought in secular society that the Bible is one of the greatest hindrances to doing justice. Isn't it full of regressive views? Didn't it condone slavery? Why look to the Bible for guidance on how to have a more just society? But Timothy Keller sees it another way. In Generous Justice, Keller explores a life of justice empowered by an experience of grace: a generous, gracious justice. Here is a book for believers who find the Bible a trustworthy guide as well as those who suspect that Christianity is a regressive influence in the world.

Keller's church, founded in the eighties with fewer than one hundred congregants, is now exponentially larger. More than five thousand people regularly attend Sunday services, and another twenty-five thousand download Keller's sermons each week. A recent profile in New York magazine described his typical sermon as "a mix of biblical scholarship, pop culture, and whatever might have caught his eye in The New York Review of Books or on Salon.com that week." In short, Timothy Keller speaks a language that many thousands of people yearn to comprehend. In Generous Justice, he offers them a new understanding of modern justice and human rights. ... Read more

Reviews

Marries God's Grace, Orthodox Theology, and Social Justice, November 3, 2010
When I ordered Timothy Keller's "Generous Justice," I thought I was buying a book about God's justice (in condemning sinners), which has been assailed by so many recently. Never have I been so pleasantly and emotionally surprised by a book. What Keller has done instead is to wed a theology of God's grace to us, and one that is fully orthodox in nature, with a biblical emphasis on social justice. Keller's main thesis is this: God's "generous justice" to humans who are poor in spirit and in great need is a motivation for our administering social justice - as well as an evidence that we have truly received the grace of God.

This is truly a mind-blowing, heart-rending thesis - and it's hit me like a ton of bricks! The very night I read this book, I read (from the Book of Common Prayer) the prayer for Social Justice in our Evening Prayer service at church. Obviously God is trying to teach me something, and I think He's trying to teach you all the same thing. That something is that Christians are to be involved in social justice not only because it's a commandment but because it's a response to a life that's received the grace of God (His "generous justice").

Keller cuts across the great conservative/liberal divide in this book. He has something that most of you will at first disagree about, but when you truly consider it, you'll find that he's probably right. Social justice is about caring for the poor and alienated, both as individuals and as communities. To conservative Christians he preaches that social justice does indeed involve changing entire communities and that real oppression and social injustice still exists in the U.S. To liberal Christians he preaches that much of poverty really does come from the personal moral failings of individuals. In fact, he outlines 3 possible causes of poverty: oppression, calamity, and personal moral failure. He believes that the biblical emphasis is especially on the larger structural factors (although I don't necessarily agree with him here.)

Perhaps most importantly, Keller is putting his money where his mouth is: his Redeemer Presbyterian Church is located in Manhattan.

What Keller does best, beginning with the Old Testament and continuing through the teachings of Jesus and the Epistles is to show God's concern for social justice. You cannot read this book without being challenged to want to be more involved in correcting social injustice, whether at the individual or social level. This book hit me like a ton of bricks because years ago I had read Ron Sider's Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger while in college. I was originally moved by the book but then became aware that Sider had made a lot of errors in his theology and thinking. For years, I allowed this and the liberal emphasis on the social gospel as opposed to the true gospel to shield me from the biblical message of the need for justice.

This book has been like a sledgehammer to my soul, and it will take me months and years to sort out what God would have me do next.

In addition to providing the biblical and theological rationale for caring for the poor and disadvantaged, Keller turns towards a more practical approach towards the end of the book, which was exactly what I needed. He answers questions I and many others have, such as "What if I don't live by an area of poverty?" (then look for the disadvantaged, abused, neglected, sick, single parents wherever you are!) He discusses 3 levels of help that need to be offered: relief (direct aid to immediate needs), development (giving a family or community what they need to move beyond dependency), and social reform (changing the conditions and social conditions that cause dependency).

Keller divides his book up this way:

Introduction: Why Write This Book?
Chapter One - What is Doing Justice?
Chapter Two - Justice and the Old Testament
Chapter Three - What Did Jesus Say About Justice?
Chapter Four - Justice and Your Neighbor
Chapter Five - Why Should We Do Justice?
Chapter Six - How Should We Do Justice?
Chapter Seven - Doing Justice in the Public Square
Chapter Eight - Peace, Beauty, and Justice

There are still things I disagree with about the book, and I have a few areas where I think Keller could have been clearer or more forceful so as not to mislead.

My 1st objection is that Keller seems to emphasize justice in terms of structures more than the justice we seek for individuals (for example, the many ways I seek justice among my kids at home). Keller didn't talk about this side of things enough. He also, in my opinion, doesn't adequately take into account the moral failings that are the cause of so much of American poverty since the 20th century. It's not that he isn't aware of this side of things: I just think he understates it.

Second, while Keller's clearly aware that our contemporary situation is not a theocracy like that of ancient Israel, too much of the time he seems to assume that the social justice we seek is out in the world at large, as opposed to the social justice we seek specifically in the Church. The New Testament letters are clearly more heavily weighted toward how we seek justice specifically in the Church, which is to model social justice for the world, even as the justice of national Israel was to be a model for the nations. He also doesn't address the problem that in ancient Israel and the first century Church, Christians knew who the poor were because there was little social mobility. They knew who was really lame and who was faking; they knew who had fallen on hard times; and they knew who was merely lazy or malicious. It's much more difficult for Christians today to discern this, and Keller makes no (or at least inadequate) reference to the traditional Christian distinction between the deserving and the undeserving poor (an issue that several books by George Grant discuss more adequately).

In spite of these errors or exaggerations, "Generous Justice" is still a book every church should be discussing. Read it, and see if it doesn't break your heart and make you more aware of God's grace to you, as well as your need to do justice to those around you!

Clear. Convicting. Compelling., November 3, 2010
Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes Us Just by Timothy Keller (author of the best-selling The Reason for God, and senior pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City) is a clear, convicting, and compelling case for the assertion that "there is a direct relationship between a person's grasp and experience of God's grace, and his or her heart for justice and the poor." (p. xiii). In his Introduction, Keller says that he wrote this book for four groups of people: (1) young Christian believers who are concerned for social justice, but often fail to let social concern affect how they spend money, conduct their careers, and choose which neighborhoods to live in; (2) orthodox Christians who approach the subject of "doing justice" with suspicion; (3) younger evangelicals who embrace social justice but jettison the traditional evangelical doctrines substitutionary atonement and justification by faith alone; and (4) unbelievers who may suspect, along with Christopher Hitchens, that "religion poisons everything" and view Christianity as one of the primary forces promoting injustice and violence. With this variety of target audiences in mind, Keller unfolds his argument for grace-driven justice in eight chapters.

Chapter one asks "what is doing justice?" and answers with an accessible study of the concepts of justice and righteousness in Scripture. While never getting overly technical, Keller shows that the Hebrew word for justice has to do with both the punishment of wrongdoing and giving people their rights (p. 3). Justice is, essentially, "to treat people equitably" - to give them their due. Such justice, which over and again in Scripture is concerned with widows, orphans, immigrants, and the poor ("the quartet of the vulnerable"), is rooted in the character of God and wedded to "righteousness." Since the biblical word for "righteous" refers to a life of right relationships, Keller says that "Biblical righteousness is inevitably 'social,' because it is about relationships" (p. 10). In fact, Keller argues that when these two words, justice and righteousness, are tied together in Scripture, "the English expression that best conveys the meaning is 'social justice'" (p. 14). Though this terminology is sometimes nothing more than a slogan used to recruit people to some political ideology or another, Keller says that "if you are trying to live a life in accordance with the bible, the concept and call to justice are inescapable" (p. 18).

Chapters two and three build the case for doing justice from the Old and New Testaments respectively. Keller carefully nuances his arguments from the Old Testament, showing that commands in the Old Testament reflect clear principles that are binding on Christians today, while granting that Scripture does not tell us exactly how to carry these principles out today. Especially helpful in this second chapter is how Keller deals with the causes of poverty, showing that Scripture doesn't neatly fit into the schemas of either liberal or conservative theorists. Rather, "the causes of poverty as put forth in the Bible are remarkably balanced" (p. 33) including oppression, natural disaster, and personal moral failures. However, Keller says, "having surveyed the Bible on these texts numerous times, I have concluded that the emphasis is usually on the larger structural factors" (p. 38). Chapter three focuses on the teaching of Jesus about justice and tackles some of the lesser known (and lesser obeyed) words of Jesus, such as those found in Luke 14:12-13 (pgs. 46-49) and Matthew 25:31-46 (pgs. 52-54).

Chapter four uses the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10) to build the case that Christians have the responsibility to show mercy and do justice not only for those inside the church, but for anyone in need, "regardless of race, politics, class, and religion" - that is, for anyone who is your "neighbor" (see p. 67). This chapter, drawing heavily on the work of eighteenth-century theologian Jonathan Edwards, includes a very helpful series of answers to common objections that religious people often make when faced with the call of justice and mercy.

Chapters five asks "Why should we do justice?" "Our problem in society today" Keller says, "is not that people don't know they should share with others and help the poor. Most people do know and believe this. The real problem is that, while knowing, they are insufficiently motivated to actually do it" (p. 79). So how does the Bible motivate us? First, with "joyful awe before the goodness of God's creation" and, second, with "the experience of God's grace in redemption" (p. 82). Keller's discussion of creation focuses mainly on how human dignity (and therefore human rights) is actually rooted in the Scripture's teaching that human beings are created in the image of God. In an excellent discussion of civil rights on pages 85-88, Keller illustrates the point through interaction with the writings of Aristotle, Martin Luther King, Jr., and C. S. Lewis.

But "as important as the doctrine of creation is, the most frequently cited Biblical motivation for doing justice is the grace of God in redemption" (p. 92), a point Keller makes from both the Old and New Testaments. This is really the heart of the book, out of which everything else flows. With eloquent reason, Keller drives this truth home: "If a person has grasped the meaning of Gods' grace in his heart, he will do justice" (p. 93); "People changed by grace should go, as it were, on a permanent fast. Self-indulgence and materialism should be given up and replaced by a sacrificial lifestyle of giving to those in need" (p. 95-96); "A life poured out in deeds of service to the poor is the inevitable sign of any real, true, justifying, gospel-faith. Grace makes you just. If you are not just, you've not truly been justified by faith" (p. 99).

If chapter five addresses motivation, chapter six takes on the practical question of "how should we do justice?" In this wise and practical chapter, Keller is simple, but not simplistic, discussing how "vulnerable people need multiple levels of help" including "relief, development, and social reform" (p. 113) then providing examples of and principles for doing each. This chapter delves into issues such as the needs of poor communities, racial reconciliation, and reforming unjust social structures. Drawing on Abraham Kuyper's concepts of "sphere sovereignty," he discusses both the responsibilities of Christians in the institutional church and as the organic church. And he tackles the relationship between social justice and evangelism, arguing that "they should exist in an asymmetrical, inseparable relationship" with evangelism being "the most basic and radical ministry possible to a human being . . . not because the spiritual is more important than the physical, but because the eternal is more important than the temporal" (p. 139). But Keller will not agree that justice is simply a means to the end of evangelism OR that doing justice IS evangelism. There is a distinction between the two. Deeds of justice and mercy are not identical to gospel proclamation. To say so, is "fatal confusion." Yet BOTH are necessary. Chapter seven carries the practical questions a step further, with a judicious exploration of "Doing Justice in the Public Square."

The final chapter, "Peace, Beauty, and Justice", relates the concerns of this book to "shalom" or the reweaving the fabric of human relationships into "harmonious peace." This is God's overall intention for human beings and doing justice means "to live in a way that generates a strong community where human beings can flourish" (p. 177). But how do we do that? In one of my favorite paragraphs in the book, Keller answers: "The only way to reweave and strengthen the fabric is by weaving yourself into it. Human beings are like those threads thrown together onto a table. If we keep our money, time, and power to ourselves, instead of sending them out into our neighbors' lives, then we may be literally on top of one another, but we are not interwoven socially, relationally, financially, and emotionally. Reweaving shalom means to sacrificially thread, lace, and press your time, goods, power, and resources into the lives and needs of others" (p. 177).

The length of my review shows my enthusiasm for this book, which is a significant contribution to Christian theology and ethics. Keller's clear and accessible style makes this book appropriate for any thoughtful believer, seeker, or skeptic. I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who is concerned with issues of justice in society, faithfulness to the teaching of Scripture on justice, and/or the implications of the Christian gospel for living a life of justice in our world today.

Justice and Grace, God's desire for our lives, November 3, 2010
Tim Keller does another great job in writing a book that will be helpful for Pastors and laymen. He takes the issue of God's Justice and guides us through a discussion of what it justice means Biblically and how do we apply it today. There are many verses about justice and especially about helping the poor in the Old and New Testament. Many are in the Old Testament and people often dismiss them thinking that the Old Testament has been done away with and replaced with the New Testament.

But the bottom line is this, the poor we will have with us always and how do we deal with them? How do we help them with their issues of hunger, lack of resources, lack of advocates standing up for them with the judicial system and society at large. What also do we do with the "year of jubilee" where the debts of the poor are forgiven and they are given a fresh start. What should we do with that today.

Keller takes us through a discussion of the definition of Justice, why the Old Testament is still valid, what does Jesus say and how do we treat our neighbors. He reminds us that the Old Testament, specifically the nation of Israel, was a Theocracy style of government. So how do we in a democracy deal with the poor since it is a completely different style of government than a Theocracy. What is the point of justice? What should we do about standing in the gap for our neighbors who are poor, or do we ignore them and let the government deal with them through welfare?

There are deep theological issues here and deep moral issues as well. How do you respond to the poor? How do you handle your resources? What do you do regarding Charity? Why do you act charitably?

Keller also talks a good bit about how our young people are moving back into a culture of "volunteerism" and the benefits that has on society as well as on themselves. But the real issue comes down to the heart issue of why do they volunteer to help the poor.

Wrapped in all of this is a discussion also about "God's Grace". Because some people feel that justice might just mean that we let people suffer in their poverty because they bring it on themselves. But the Bible is clear. Our task is to help the poor, the widow, the orphan, etc. These people are precious to God and thus should be precious to us.

This is a quick read, but a very needed read for the "Western Church" today. You will be forced to look at the role of "Deacon" in the church and how that role was put together to serve the poor. You will be left with this question, how does my church stack up in regards to reaching the poor? How would God feel we have done in serving the poor and providing "justice" for them.

Enjoy!

An Easy five stars, November 7, 2010
This is the best book on Christian ministry to the poor that I have ever read. Keller logically outlines how God's justice toward us requires that we demonstrate this same level of compassion towards the marginalized. He addresses some of the most common objections to being generous with compelling biblical evidence. Do not read this book if you do not want to understand justice for the poor in a completely new way.

Do something!, November 25, 2010
In this, his fourth book, Tim Keller has once again demonstrated that faith and reason are not enemies. In this book, he explores the role of the Christian in the area of social justice. He graciously argues that Christians have a responsibility to work for social justice and even to work along side non-Christians in serving the poor, oppressed and infirm. In clear language, he explains that God's beauty and the fact that man is made in this beautiful image should be our primary motivations for helping others. In chapters six and seven, Keller does an especially good job of showing that we need to be smart about how we serve. We need to, for example, consider both the micro/local and macro/global implications of our efforts. In a few places, Keller touches on the differing views of conservatives and liberals regarding social justice. Basically, he is consistent with James Davison Hunter (see To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World) on this. Basically, they both suggest, our differences as conservatives or liberals should not prevent us from working together in causes for social justice and, as Hunter proposes, maintaining a "faithful presence" in the world.

Intellectual discussion of how the church can serve the world, December 1, 2010
Generous Justice by Timothy Keller is an intelligent and reasoned discussion on how Christians should be serving within the world today. Keller, who is a pastor of a large church in New York City, throws aside the differences between fundamentalists, who focus on teaching about God, and the progressive church, which is focused on social justice. Keller says they both have it wrong by focusing on one side and ignoring the other. By using several biblical examples, as well as contemporary anecdotes, he explains how the church is called care for the poor in radical and unexpected ways. The first century church pooled their resources and had no poor among them, Keller recognizes that today's church isn't so simple, but that doesn't allow the church to simply ignore the problems in their communities. He encourages churches to move into communities in need of help and then recruit leaders from the neighborhood to make them a part of permanent change. There are other books on this subject out there, but Keller's is the first I've read that gives real suggestions that any reader can follow. Chapter seven is a fascinating discussion on just what the word "justice" means, with three philosophical definitions and how all of them miss the mark as well. Keller's focus is that true justice for everyone can only be found in the Bible and by studying the Word of God. His writing is very cerebral and inspiring.

A Powerful, Nuanced, and Biblical View of Social Justice, November 17, 2010
I'll freely admit that the relationship between social justice and the gospel is not one I completely understand. It's become a hot topic the last few years, but I haven't delved much into the fray. I'm definitely no expert, and the thought of trying to critique a guy like Tim Keller on the subject is a little humorous. His newest book, Generous Justice, contains multiple sections of thought that caused my head to spin, but in a good way.

I've become uncomfortable with how some Christians seem to ignore some of Jesus' commands regarding the poor and weak, but I also have a problem with people just wanting to "do justice" and never evangelize. So here's my perspective as a young, idealistic, evangelical Christian who doesn't want a theoretic faith that turns a blind eye to the poor and needy, but also doesn't want to compromise any piece of the biblical gospel and evangelism in doing so.

In the introduction, Keller states:

"This book, then, is both for believers who find the Bible a trustworthy guide and for those who wonder if Christianity is a positive influence in the world. I want the orthodox to see how central to the Scripture's message is justice for the poor and marginalized. I also want to challenge those who do not believe in Christianity to see the Bible not as a repressive text, but as the basis for the modern understanding of human rights."

After taking some time to define "justice," this is exactly what Keller does with this book. As a believer, I was confronted with a view of God, Christ, and redemption that won't allow us to turn from injustice. Always balanced by a nuanced view of God's redemptive work in creation and the gospel of the atonement, believers are shown the value and purpose of justice: to glorify the one from whom it emanates. I really appreciated the balance. You tend to get only those who elevate justice to the place of the gospel at the exclusion of atonement, or those who over-react to this error and ignore justice altogether.

The other thing Keller does is to address the nature of discussion about issues of justice. The terms are thrown around, by religious and secular, but few ever discuss what they really mean. Keller deftly shows, by scripture and by logic, how religious and moral rationale underwrites everyone's opinions in these areas, despite how they might try to dress them up in objective, secular language. By removing religious ideas from the public square, we've removed the language to describe the disagreements most people have over things like abortion, levels of taxation, racism, and others. By trying to find an objective "common ground" upon which to discuss the issues, we've removed the ground completely.

Finally, Keller discusses the concept of Shalom, and how efforts to "do justice" help reflect the restoration of Shalom after the Fall. Again, this is balanced with a nuanced view of the redemption of the world.

As I said, I'm in no position to critique any of Keller's arguments. They are far too complex and subtle for me to do so. From my situation, however, Keller has given me a biblical framework through which to view many issues that people my age, especially young evangelicals, are questioning. I'm sure others will find things to quibble over, but it's hard to argue with the biblical arguments put forward in this book. As a Christian, justice should be important to us. This book will definitely contribute to helping it become so.

Another Keller Success, November 26, 2010
This new book is consistent with the good writing, excellent biblical exegesis, and challenging application that I have come to appreciate and to expect in the writing of Timothy Keller. The message of this book will inform and help to guide the stewardship of my possessions and my giving, and I thank Mr. Keller for his grace-filled manner of presenting the subject of loving our neighbors. ... Read more

Editorial Review

The so-called golden years have arrived, and you hate to admit it, but you often wonder what is so golden about them after all. You re concerned about your health, your finances, and all the changes you face.
As a person of faith, how are you to cope with the challenges and find purpose for the rest of your life? Missy Buchanan knows first-hand what it s like. She addresses such heartfelt topics as the fear of falling, despair over feeling useless, and grief after the loss of a spouse. She pleads with God to help her see the beauty of life and the world in the midst of these trials. As you read this series of poems paired with selections from Psalms, take comfort in the company of a friend who is in the same place. Share the journey with Missy Buchanan as she faces the heartache and finds hope in the process of aging. ... Read more

Reviews

Stop Thinking of Aging as a Problem. Start Thinking About Spiritual Gifts!, March 16, 2010
For all the thousands of books about aging--usually regarded as a problem to solved--there are precious few writers exploring the spiritual gifts of aging. One of those rare and important writers is Missy Buchanan and her newest offering, published by Upper Room Books, is well worth buying.

Why dwell on aging? Let's face it: As a nation, we are aging! As much as our Baby Boom generation wants to envision our lives as an endless, youthful adventure--the deep truths of global religious traditions involve aging. Many of our greatest ancient stories don't make sense without an understanding of maturity and advanced years.

What Missy points out, over and over again in this new book, is that the ancient Psalmists often were touching on these truths. For this new book, she has written her own contemporary Psalm-like meditations--each one connected with a relevant Psalm from the Bible. And here's evidence that Missy and her publishers both are thinking wisely about these themes: The book is printed in large type. It's great if you're a family member caring for someone who is older--and it's also a great gift for an older person you love.

A treasure trove of knowledge, recommended, April 10, 2010
God knows no age. "Talking with God in Old Age" is a Christian inspirational book aimed at seniors who wish to understand God's plan for them even as they go into old age. Drawing much inspiration from Psalms, presented in large print for easier reading, Missy Buchanan does well in reminding seniors that even at an advanced age, you can do well inspiring others. "Talking with God in Old Age" is a treasure trove of knowledge, recommended.

Book Review of Talking With God in Old Age, September 7, 2010
"Another straight-to-the-heart project from Missy Buchanan written with genuine reflection and honesty."

There are those who share their heart openly and honestly. In Talking With God in Old Age: Meditations and Psalms by Missy Buchanan, there are 42 conversations, reflections, poems, and on-point messages for those approaching their golden years.

These are topics that are not openly discussed with children or other family members but only among deep friends.

Issues like loosing privacy and independence, pain from an aging body, and coming to grips with new titles like `shut-in.' All these issues pass through the minds of the elderly but are not openly admitted in general conversation with friends and family.

But here, in this grouping of meditations, the reader can identify with the topics and find hope and comfort from God's word. I recently began assisting in our ministry to the elderly by doing visits to our shut-ins and was happy to offer them this book as well another of Missy Buchanan's' books, Living with Purpose in a Worn-Out Body: Spiritual Encouragement for Older Adults.

This is a wonderful resource for anyone who has an elderly loved one or a perfect gift from the ministry of a Church. I recommend it highly.

Disclaimer:
Review copy provided free of charge by the author and donated to the library of Westwood Baptist Church.

Reviewed by: Keiki Hendrix
Reviewed for: Missy Buchanan

A wonderful book for all..., June 8, 2010
As we become older, many changes will take place in our lives. For example, we will wonder if our finances will be there for us when needed the most; we will find ourselves becoming frustrated by the many physical and mental processes of aging itself; there will be times of intense loneliness...when our thoughts may turn toward God, asking Him why He is allowing all of these things to take place; there are moments of picturing unfulfilled goals and dreams - against the background of the limited span of life itself. The list of the effects and implications of aging is endless. Missy Buchanan has once again presented a book of spiritual encouragement...words that will bring a tear to each of our eyes as we enter into the very thoughts of those who are living in their latter years. Well-written and thought-provoking, this is a "must-read" for those of all ages and stages.

Talking with God in Old Age, October 10, 2010
This book has no redeeming qualities. I was expecting an interesting message, but was disappointed in the lack of uniqueness it had. I do not recommend it since there is no earth-shaking attribute to it. I was looking for something that I could take to my meetings at church, some useful information to relate to my peers, but there is nothing to really share. ... Read more

Editorial Review

"We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand."
--Randy Pausch

A lot of professors give talks titled "The Last Lecture."Professors are asked to consider their demise and to ruminate on what matters most to them.And while they speak, audiences can't help but mull the same question: What wisdom would we impart to the world if we knew it was our last chance?If we had to vanish tomorrow, what would we want as our legacy?

When Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was asked to give such a lecture, he didn't have to imagine it as his last, since he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer.But the lecture he gave--"Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams"--wasn't about dying.It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment (because "time is all you have...and you may find one day that you have less than you think").It was a summation of everything Randy had come to believe.It was about living.

In this book, Randy Pausch has combined the humor, inspiration and intelligence that made his lecture such a phenomenon and given it an indelible form.It is a book that will be shared for generations to come. ... Read more

Reviews

If "he not busy being born is busy dying", Randy Pausch is immortal
In all mediums, Randy shows exceptional courage and grace in this real-time tragic situation. I found the book good, somewhat overlapping the lecture, providing interesting details.... I found the details on his wife and children more interesting having already seen the lecture. I had hoped for more philosophical reflections rather than stories, but that's apparently his communication choice and style. His intensity and certitude left me wondering what he was like before the cancer diagnosis. In fact, other than his talent for communicating, and substantial professional achievements, I think we are left with very little idea of what the man is like aside from his consistent messages of working hard and having fun, but that may be unrealistic realizing that the book was by necessity,a rushed book. It did relate a bit more perspective around the lecture itself which was interesting. It's a quick read, I suggest checking it out at the library for an afternoon read, unless you would like to buy it simply to benefit his family. The Diane Sawyer piece is good as well. ... Read more

Editorial Review

A dangerous, homeless drifter who grew up picking cotton in virtual slavery.

An upscale art dealer accustomed to the world of Armani and Chanel.

A gutsy woman with a stubborn dream.

A story so incredible no novelist would dare dream it.

It begins outside a burning plantation hut in Louisiana . . . and an East Texas honky-tonk . . . and, without a doubt, in the heart of God. It unfolds in a Hollywood hacienda . . . an upscale New York gallery . . . a downtown dumpster . . . a Texas ranch.

Gritty with pain and betrayal and brutality, this true story also shines with an unexpected, life-changing love.

Reviews

Better Than Fiction, May 3, 2007
At a recent conference I met a gentleman who happens to edit one of those airline magazines that always competes with your legroom in an airplane. A short time ago he sent me an email and asked if I had heard of a book called Same Kind of Different as Me and recommended that I read it. He seemed like a good enough guy and the book had a great cover, so I went ahead and ordered it sight unseen (or nearly so). And what a book it turned out to be.

Same Kind of Different as Me, a book that is factual but could just as easily be fiction, tells the unlikely story of the unlikeliest of friends--Ron Hall and Denver Moore. Told in two voices, the book alternates between telling the story from the perspective of Ron and Denver.

Ron Hall is a wealthy international art dealer who travels the world buying and selling rare and expensive works of art. He has grown rich but has also grown selfish and has grown away from his family. When Ron Hall reluctantly volunteers at a homeless shelter (at the insistence of his wife) he soon comes into contact with Denver, a man his wife is convinced is going to change the city. Denver grew up as a sharecropper in Louisiana, living a life that seemed little different from the life of his ancestors one hundreds years before. He eventually walked away from the cotton fields and found that, while life on the streets of Fort Worth was difficult, it was easier than being a sharecropper. It was here, in a homeless shelter, that the two men met, one serving food and the other being a reluctant recipient of this charity.

Chef Jim and Deborah chatted easily while I mentally balanced the ledger between pleasing my wife and contracting a terminal disease. I had to admit that his idea seemed like an easy way to start--serve the evening meal once a week, and we'd be in and out in three, four hours max. We could minister from behind the rusty steel serving counter, safely separated from the customers. And we could enter and leave through the rear kitchen door, thereby minimizing contact with those likely to hit us up for money. The whole arrangement seemed like a good way for us to fulfill Deborah's desire to help the homeless without our touching them or letting them touch us.

Her bright laugh pulled my attention back into the room. "I think that sounds great, Jim!" she was saying. "I don't see any reason why we can't start tomorrow. In fact, let's just say you can count on us to serve every Tuesday until you hear otherwise."

"Praise the Lord!" Chef Jim said, this time giving Deborah a great big Baptist hug. It did not sound great to me, but Deborah had not asked me what I thought. She never did do much by committee.

At first unable to crack Denver's stony personality, Hall eventually prevails and strikes up a friendship with a man worlds apart. They become fast friends who endure a tragedy together and who soon grow in their love, respect and admiration of each other. Each man teaches the other about life and faith. Somehow the story of the relationship between these two men is fascinating and inspiring. It offers a glimpse into two worlds that are nearly opposite and shows what happens when these worlds come into contact with each other. I can still hardly believe this was not a novel.

While the book showcases a fun sense of humor, there is also plenty of heart.

And yet for all the courage I knew she had, she had shown this glimmer of fear. Oh, how I loved her then. Fiercely. The passion you feel down in your guts where no one else can see and only you know its frightening force. I could remember that there were times in our nearly three decades of marriage that I had loved her less than at that moment, and guilt pierced me like a spike. Though she had always given unconditionally, I had often not been willing to do so in return, She has deserved better than she's gotten from me, I thought, and nearly drowned in a wave of regret thirty years deep.

Between the heart and the humor is some good theology, but, unfortunately, also some that would require believing the word of the author rather than finding any basis in Scripture. For example, there is talk of a "visitation" where a dead person returns to earth, however briefly, to offer comfort and encouragement. This is not something the Bible tells us we can or should expect. There was also some theology that was suspicious and seemed to reveal an understanding of the gospel that was somewhat incomplete. I found these distracting and disappointing, but not fatal to the book.

So while Same Kind of Different as Me is not necessarily a book I'd recommend for its theology, it is a book that I'd recommend for a stirring and unforgettable story, and for the pure joy of reading it. This one caught me by surprise and I enjoyed every minute of it. I can pretty well guarantee that someone will buy the movie rights to this story, so why not buy it now so you can say that you read the book before you ever heard of the movie!

Amazing, August 2, 2006
I finished this book in less than 3 days. I was taken in by chapter 2 and laughed, cried, pondered, and repented the whole way through. It is well written and easy to digest yet full of hidden treasures.

I like that this book challenges those of us who consider ourselves Christian - that we usually aren't as real as we say and certainly rarely have actions that are as revolutionary as Jesus paved the way for.

Both authors are honest in their struggles with themselves, their histories, weaknesses and the strength found in their purpose together.

I most admire that they consider making a difference in one life, and the difference one life can make, important.

This is one of the two most powerful books I have read in my lifetime., November 3, 2006


A friend gave me this book and told me it would "change my life" but I had no idea to what extent!

Having been raised in Fort Wotth, as a young girl, I can remember going to the Union Gospel Mission to help with services for the homeless. They had to attend a service in order to enjoy a free meal. I remember it as being one of the dirtiest, stinkiest and scariest places I had ever seen.

This book takes place at that very mission. It is the true, but almost unbelievable story of three very different people whose lives come together in a way that can only be explained as "God ordained". The things that happen in the lives of these three people are so amazing that you will not be able to put the book down. I have a new love and appreciation for the Union Gospel Mission. It has now become a beautiful place to me...an annointed place where needy people can find food, shelter, love and then come face to face with Jesus.

You will be challenged to look at life differently. I will never be the same since reading this book. I have a new empathy for the underpriveleged in this country. I have a new desire to spend time with the Lord.

This is a book that needs to be read by the masses. I began praying immediately that someone who had the means would make a movie of this story. I have since talked with Ron Hall and it seems that a movie may be in the future.

Denver Moore, the homeless man in the book may be used by God as one of His most faithful messengers of the truth for our time.

Grab a cup of coffee, find a comfortable chair and begin reading. You will be there all night or until you finish it. Grab a box of kleenex, too. You will need it!

You will then want to buy it for everyone you know for Christmas!

Get ready to be changed!!!!

Prepare Your Heart To Be Touched, July 5, 2006
A friend recommended this book to me after she stayed up until 3:30 one morning reading it. Based on her past recommendations, I knew that the book would be good. What I didn't expect was how Deborah Hall's message would continue to resonate with me day in and day out. Deborah wasn't afraid of many things in her life, except missing the call of God. The book, through Ron Hall and Denver Moore's artfully written narratives, reveals the amazing story of how their three lives came together in a way that truly glorified God, even through some very difficult times. After reading this book, you will be thankful that Ron and Denver took the time to put their life stories, along with Deborah's, into a book that blesses all who read it and that hopefully inspires its readers to take off their racial, social, and economic blinders in order to see who people are at the heart level.

Debbie...my twin sister, my best friend, a woman who changed my live!, September 12, 2006
It was difficult reading the book as I had to stand my and watch the person I loved and adored die. She raised the standards high and made me strive to be a better person. After she was told it was time to prepare to die, she was still memorizing scriptures! I hope everyone reading this book falls in love with Ron, Denver, and Debbie. I only wish those of you who read the book had known this wonderful woman. Daphene

A Powerful Message, June 18, 2008
Although they say you cannot judge a book by its cover, that is not always true. And sometimes, just sometimes, I can judge a book by its title. That was so with Same Kind of Different As Me. I had just walked into the bookstore when this book caught my eye. I found the title original, eccentric, and intriguing. Then when I read the back cover, I was presented with the question, "What would bring a homeless black man, a rich white man, and a gutsy white woman with a dream together? I wanted to know.

If you buy Same Kind of Different As Me, do not look at the pictures in the middle until you finish reading the book. It spoiled things for me and caused a major distraction as I tried to finish the novel!

I never liked stories about slavery and the horrible things that happened to blacks because they all ended up the same way when black people ended up with the crappy end of the stick, but it was something about this book that kept me reading. Maybe it was the writing styles, maybe it was the atmosphere the authors created in my mind, or maybe it was the way Ron Hall and Denver Moore made me look at homelessness and generosity in a different way. These were the elements that kept me reading this insightful novel.

"In the twentieth century, slaves were free to leave the plantation, but their debt and lack of education kept them shackled to the Man." This passage shed light on the origin of the black man's struggle after slavery. It spoke volumes about its rippling effects as its residual oppression contributes to problems that some black men still experience today.

There were other passages in this novel that also spoke to me, like the times the rich man felt as if he were the student and the homeless man was teaching him when the wealthy man realized "....we'd enjoy life a whole lot more if we owned a whole lot less." Those words spoke truth and wisdom on so many levels.

Another passage that spoke to me was when the homeless man was describing the rich man's wife: "But it was the way she treated the homeless that made them accept her as their friend. She never asked em no questions, like how come you is here? Where you been? How come you done all them bad things in your life? She just loved em, no strings attached." Not only were those words powerful, but they made me think about the judgment that keeps people from helping others. The rich man's wife, Deborah, didn't have time to judge the less fortunate. All she saw were people who needed help. Her level of sincerity really moved me.

Because of its powerful message, I would definitely recommend this book to others.

This one deserves six stars!, July 14, 2006
Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore with Lynn Vincent is just too good for a five-star rating. This book is in a class by itself. In fact, I would say it's one of the ten best books I've read in my lifetime--and that's a lot of books! This poignant, gripping, heartrending story of the most unlikely of brothers is beyond amazing, and Vincent's writing is superb. From twentieth-century slavery to multi-million-dollar art sales and everything in between, the authors pull no punches when it comes to "telling it like it is." This is faith-in-the-trenches, love-in-the-gutters writing, and it will forever change the life of anyone who reads it with an honest, seeking heart.

Just ok for me, April 10, 2009
This is the story of two men, one a black man who was a sharecropper in the Deep South, the other a white man who was a self made millionaire. About how they got to be where they are and how their lives intertwined and mixed.

The story of Denver is a gut-wrenching story about a man raised in such complete poverty that I am not even sure that I can understand it.

Ron on the other hand starts with next to nothing and finds a calling in selling artwork and makes quite that life for himself and his family. His wife really drives him to get involved in a homeless ministry and to reach out to Denver.

This becomes a defining moment for each man, and the changes that come over them as they share life together. The outcome of all of this is quite remarkable.

As powerful as the story of each of their lives is, this wasn't the most enjoyable book to read. I really wanted to like this book, to be pulled into this moving story but it just didn't happen. I am not sure if it was in the alternating `voices' as each man tells their story in different chapters, or what it was. But it seemed that while this was a very moving story it was told at kind of a surface overly `spiritual catch phrase' manner rather then really exploring their lives.

So while I am grateful for the opportunity to have gotten to read and review this book it was overall just ok for me.

Life Changing and Truly Inspirational!, September 11, 2006
Like a lot of reviewers here, I couldn't put this book down. The story of Deborah, Ron, and Denver moved me beyond words. Deborah, a woman of great faith, was truly open to others and showed such grace and love in a world that often is so lacking and needing of unconditional love. For those that are turned off by words like faith, grace, and love- I must note that I'm a reforming cynic and books like this are part of my rehabilitation process. If like me you are interested in looking at the lives of individuals who are contributing to the betterment of this world, then I highly recommend you read Same Kind of Different as Me. The life of Deborah Hall portrayed in the book is powerful enough to soften even the hardest of hearts. Thank you for writing this book.

Different, but good., January 18, 2009
The Same Kind of Different as Me is the real-life account of the friendship that developed between two very unlikely men--Ron Moore, an international art dealer and a crusty, homeless black man, Denver Moore, who grew up a modern day slave in twentieth century Louisiana.

Slavery in this day and age? In America? I'm afraid so. Only in the 1940s and 50s (since the Civil War actually) it was known as sharecropping, where third and fourth generation black families were held captive in their poverty and deplorable living conditions by being indebted to the Man who gave them work and a place to live--for Denver a shack no bigger than a backyard storage shed.

Their encounter and subsequent friendship came about when Deborah Hall, Ron's wife, developed a passion to help the underprivileged in Fort Worth, Texas. As in all relationships, trust and a true bond didn't happen overnight, but when it did, amazing things began to happen. Trust. Unconditional love. Friendship that didn't last for just a season, but for a lifetime. God's moving in the hearts and lives of an entire community.

Several applications stand out for me.

Refreshing honesty by the authors.
A call to examine our own hearts and motives. Helping the disadvantaged gratuitously may not be the "caring for the poor and needy" that will make a lasting difference.
Am I guilty of prejudice or a judgmental attitude, even unwittingly?
Am I ready to pour my heart and soul into a committed effort to help the poor in my area?
God can do miraculous things when folks hear His voice and call upon Him to move. This speaks to me both as an individual and for us as a nation.
The glory for changing people's hearts and lives belongs to our sovereign God.

For entertainment value, I'd give this book a B. It was a fast read, and I was particularly fond of Denver. For provoking thought and issuing a call to action, I'd give it an A.
For the courage to take their story public and proclaim God's glory--An A+.
... Read more

Editorial Review

The remarkable New York Times bestseller by the "C.S. Lewis for the 21st century" (Newsweek).

A New York Times bestseller people can believe in-by a "pioneer of the new urban Christians" (Christian Today magazine).

Timothy Keller, the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, addresses the frequent doubts that skeptics and non-believers bring to religion. Using literature, philosophy, anthropology, pop culture, and intellectual reasoning, Keller explains how the belief in a Christian God is, in fact, a sound and rational one. To true believers he offers a solid platform on which to stand against the backlash toward religion spawned by the Age of Skepticism. And to skeptics, atheists, and agnostics he provides a challenging argument for pursuing the reason for God. ... Read more

Reviews

A Must-Read for Both Believers and Skeptics, February 14, 2008
There are many people I "know" primarily through their books. I read constantly and find that books allow me to understand the people who write them, especially when the author has written several books. As I read through the corpus of his writings I learn to understand how he thinks and learn to understand what he believes. Even if I have never met an author face-to-face, I often feel like I have met him in his books. Because Tim Keller has written so little, I do not know him in the way I feel I know many of his peers--pastors and theologians who have written extensively. So it was with great interest that I read The Reason for God, only his second book (besides edited volumes to which he has contributed a chapter) and certainly his most significant. Published by Penguin and with a positive review by Publishers Weekly, it has all the makings of a bestseller.

The Reason for God is written for skeptics and believers alike. It is a response to or perhaps an antidote to the the writings of popular authors like Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris. And it is a fine one, at that. While the skeptic has several volumes he can hand to a believing friend (many of them written by the aforementioned authors), the believer has fewer to choose from. So many introductions to Christian beliefs were written many years ago and simply do not resonate with today's skeptics. They assume too much and deliver too little. Keller's volume seeks to fill that void, and it does so well.

The Reason for God arrives at a unique time, for we are at a point when both belief and skepticism are on the rise. "Skepticism, fear, and anger toward traditional religion are growing in power and influence," says Keller. "But, at the same time, robust, orthodox belief in the traditional faiths is growing as well." As each grows, those who hold to each become increasingly convinced that they are in imminent danger. The world is polarizing over religion--or at the very least our culture is polarizing over religion. "We have come to a cultural moment in which both skeptics and believers feel their existence is threatened because both secular skepticism and religious faith are on the rise in significant, powerful ways. We have neither the western Christendom of the past nor the secular, religionless society that was predicted for the future. We have something else entirely."

Attempting to find a way forward, Keller suggests that both believers and skeptics look at doubt in a whole new way. Within the book he does not make the classical distinction between believers and unbelievers, but rather between believers and skeptics. His thesis depends on this distinction between unbeliever and skeptic because, he says, we all believe something. Even skeptics have a kind of faith hidden within their reasoning. Understanding what we believe about belief is crucial. His thesis is this: "If you come to recognize the beliefs on which your doubts about Christianity are based, and if you seek as much proof for those beliefs as you seek from Christians for theirs--you will discover that your doubts are not so solid as they first appeared." He seeks to prove that thesis in the book's first part.

In the first seven chapters Keller looks at seven of the most common objections and doubts about Christianity and discerns the alternate beliefs underlying each of them. This section is titled "The Leap of Doubt" and answers these seven common critiques:

1. There can't be just one true religion
2. A good God could not allow suffering
3. Christianity is a straitjacket
4. The church is responsible for so much injustice
5. A loving God would not send people to hell
6. Science has disproved Christianity
7. You can't take the Bible literally

In the second half of the book, titled "The Reasons for Faith," he turns to an examination of seven reasons to believe in the claims of the Christian faith.

1. The clues of God
2. The knowledge of God
3. The problem of sin
4. Religion and the gospel
5. The (true) story of the cross
6. The reality of the resurrection
7. The Dance of God

The book begins with an Introduction, between the two parts is an Intermission, and following it all is an Epilogue.

The Reason for God is, at least to my knowledge, unique. The reader will soon see that Keller follows closely behind C.S. Lewis whom, along with his wife and Jonathan Edwards, he counts as his primary theological influences. Yet he sets Lewis and Edwards in a new context. And really, much of the book only makes sense within our contemporary cultural context. The arguments that matter here and now are different from those of days past and, I'm sure, different than ones in days to come. But the arguments Keller makes are compelling and reasonable and targeted pointedly at today's skeptics. If you have read our day's leading skeptics you owe it to yourself to read this as well.

Nobody but Tim Keller could have written this book. It seems likely to me that nobody but Tim Keller will agree with everything he says. For example, many believers will be uncomfortable with his defense of evolution--not the naturalistic evolution of so many skeptics, but a theistic evolution that attempts to reconcile rather than ignore the creation accounts of the Bible. Others will take issue with his description of hell and the thread of ecumenism that runs throughout the volume. But if we heed his exhortation to major on the majors, to look to what's most foundational to the faith before focusing on matters of secondary importance, both believers and skeptics have a great deal to learn from this book.

Publishers Weekly has said well that this is a book for "skeptics and the believers who love them." Believers will rejoice in a book that carefully and patiently answers the objections of their skeptical friends and does so with grace and in a way consistent with the Bible. Skeptics will see that even their skepticism is founded on some kind of faith and will be challenged to discern those underlying beliefs. May this book convince us all that we can believe and can believe reasonably, even in this age of skepticism.

Now is the time for REASON, February 15, 2008
This book is filled with excellent arguments and - persuasions - for the existence of God. If you don't believe there's a God, I challenge you to read it with an open mind. If you do believe in God, this book will increase your faith in that proposition and your ability to persuade others of it.

I believe this book is a net positive to the world of Christian thought and I would easily recommend it (and have) to my secular friends who are wrestling with the issues surrounding the question of the existence of God.

However, there are a few caveats that my traditional, orthodox and evangelical Christian friends may want to note.

First, Keller quotes extensively from N.T. Wright. Wright however, does not believe in the doctrine of "justification", i.e. the traditional Christian belief that sinners are redeemed by faith in Christ and that the justification of our sins is brought about through Christ's death and resurrection.

Wright said in his book "What St. Paul Really Said":

"Many Christians, both in the Reformation and in the counter-Reformation traditions, have done themselves and the church a great disservice by treating the doctrine of "justification" as central to their debates, and by supposing that it described the system by which people attained salvation." pp. 158-59

I don't think Keller agrees with Wright on this point, but he references him so frequently in this book and in his sermons that I wanted to bring Wright's position on this most central doctrine of Christianity to your attention.

Also, Keller has some interesting things to say about heaven. On pages 31-32 he says, "In Revelation 21, we do not see human beings being taken out of this world into heaven, but rather heaven coming down and cleaning, renewing, and perfecting this material world."

However, Revelation 21 doesn't say anything about renewing and perfecting THIS world. It in fact says this world will pass away - referring to it as the "first earth" or the "old earth" - indicating that this earth will no longer exist. It will be replaced by a new earth.

Revelation: 21:1 - Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had passed away. And the sea was also gone.

This may not seem like an important divergence from Biblical teaching, but it actually ends up in a place quite different than most Christians would expect.

For more insight into just where Keller goes with this -- in a talk to the church's Entrepreneurs Initiative a few years ago, Keller said this:

"I'm trying to overcome a typical, wrong, unbiblical attitude on the part of Christians, particularly evangelical Christians, toward this material world. ... An awful lot of Christians say, 'this world is going to die, it's going to burn up, and while we're here basically the only thing that's important is to get people saved, and if they get saved eventually they'll be able to leave this world. So it's a temporary theater for salvation. ...

THE WHOLE PURPOSE OF SALVATION IS TO MAKE THIS WORLD A GREAT PLACE. ... God sees this world as not a temporary means to an end of salvation, but actually salvation is a temporary means to an end - to the renewal of creation. ...

SAVING SOULS IS A MEANS TO AN END OF CULTURAL RENEWAL. Does the Christian church understand that? I'm not sure."

There are a lot of deep theological issues here - I'll be the first to admit. But I seem to remember something about the saving of our souls also having something to do with glorifying God and sparing each individual person from an eternity in hell -- separated from God.

Cultural renewal is well and good and certainly a by-product of saved souls, but is it really the "whole purpose" of salvation?

Rationality, as well as beauty and respect, February 26, 2008
I'm a certified member of the Tim Keller fan club. I listen to his sermons. I read everything he writes. I even belong to the Facebook fan club. Few thinkers or practitioners have influenced me more than he has. I am not the biggest fan out there, but I'm certainly a member of the club. This is dangerous, because nobody can live up to all that.

But Keller isn't the first to face the challenges of a growing profile and unrealistic expectations, and thankfully, he continues to use his influence wisely. The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism, now on the New York Times bestseller list, is likely to multiply his influence even more, not only within the church but also within a culture with serious doubts about Christianity.

In a sense, there's nothing new in this book. It's all out there in other places, just like all the ingredients of a meal prepared by a chef are there in the grocery store. In The Reason for God, you have presuppositional apologetics in the tradition of Van Til, as well as generous doses of C.S. Lewis, the subtle but strong influence of Jonathan Edwards, as well as engagement with contemporary thinkers and writers.

What is unique is how Keller brings all together; in other words, the way these ingredients are mixed. Keller aptly deals with common doubts and objections to Christianity, such as "There can't be just one true religion" and "How can a loving God send people to hell?" Behind every doubt is an alternate set of beliefs. "The only way to doubt Christianity rightly and fairly," Keller writes, "is to discern the alternate belief under each of your doubts and then to ask yourself what reasons you have for believing it." Keller does this with each of the objections to Christianity, showing that none of the objections make Christianity impossible or even implausible.

Doubting our doubts about Christianity is only part of the journey. In the second half of the book, Keller offers reasons for faith, demonstrating that the Christian faith makes the most sense of the world. "I ask you to put on Christianity like a pair of spectacles and look at the world with it. See what power it has to explain what we know and see."

What really stands out about this book, besides its content, is the way that Keller engages with these issues. He is civil, respectful, winsome, and ironic, but never hostile. He does not belittle those with alternate beliefs, even as he directly examines and challenges those beliefs. Keller models a way of relating to those who disagree, and provides a model for all of us. He shows how one can possess an robust and orthodox Christian faith, and yet winsomely engage with those with completely different and hostile beliefs.

Keller's wife, Kathy, has said that the mark of a good sermon is that people stop taking notes part way through. It starts rationally, like a lesson, but ends with an encounter with Jesus. The Reason for God is full of rational arguments, but it doesn't end there. By the end of the book we encounter beauty, and some of the most profound expressions of the Christian faith I've read.

Last Sunday, somebody thanked me for making this book available to them. They've been looking for a book like this for some time, and they're loving it. I don't think he will be the last one. The Reason for God is a book that deserves to be read not only by Christians, but by those who have doubts - even by those who are hostile. It covers important issues, and shows not only the rationality but the beauty of the Christian faith. Just as importantly, it does so in a way that is genuinely respectful to the reader no matter what their beliefs. I hope it will be read widely.

Everyone has faith in something., March 1, 2008
The Reason For God by Timothy Keller is a superb book. It presents powerful arguments for the Christian faith, but without the complexity and underlying judgmentalism that has characterized many books on the subject. It makes an obvious but powerful point, that even the loudest critics of faith are themselves "people of faith." Not to believe in a creator, for example, requires a leap of faith. On close examination, each of us inevitably believes in something, even if that something is the belief that there is nothing worth believing in.

What do you believe about your life, why you are here, where you are going? Is life just a mindless fumbling through a maze or does it have purpose and meaning? What does the future hold, a depressing existence and then annihilation or the promise of hope and a future? These questions and many more are answered in plain language with intelligence and respect. It is a powerful book.

Keller is the founder and senior pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan. Redeemer is amazing, attended by more than 5000 each week, mostly in their 20s and 30s. Many are highly successful people with advanced degrees and lots of questions. The church does not rely on music or drama to bring people in, rather Keller has found a way to speak into the interests and concerns of so many people by addressing their serious questions directly: "There can't be just one true religion." "How could a good God allow suffering?" "Science has disproved Christianity." "You can't take the Bible literally." And many others.

You will find them all here and will not be disappointed.

The 'Go-To' Book for Thinking Christians AND Questioning Non-Believers, February 29, 2008
In the late '70s and early '80s, Christians coming of age who wanted a better grasp of theology turned in significant numbers to one book: J.I. Packer's 'Knowing God.' The book was a watershed in how many of us understood the nature of God and His interaction with the world.

There were, of course, other excellent texts for thoughtful laypeople. Francis Schaeffer's work excited the imaginations of that generation of believers. Of course, C.S. Lewis was (and still is) at the pinnacle of modern-day Christian thinkers and apologists.

But it was Packer's book we all read and discussed studied in order to make up for what we should have known about our faith, but didn't.

Thirty years on, Tim Keller's 'The Reason for God' is the new 'Knowing God,' but with a critical difference: This is a go-to book for everyone thinking about Christianity.

Indeed, as Tim says on thereasonforgod.com, the book is primarily for non-believers with doubts about Christianity. My point here is that it is likewise indispensable reading for Christians who regularly interact with others who have serious questions about faith in a secular age.

For that reason, the first half of the book will be new and somewhat challenging, even if you've heard Tim speak many times. Tim's response to the different arguments against God's existence require careful attention, particularly if you refer to and study his footnotes (well worth the price of the book on their own).

The second half will be familiar territory to regular Keller devotees. But here again, the great benefit of this work is that all those themes that have shaped our thinking about the Gospel are now collected in one place.

Finally, the last chapter (`The Dance of God') is pure poetry. Great writing from a great thinker.

The Best Defense for Christianity, March 21, 2008
Tim Keller's new book, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism, is currently #7 on the New York Times Hardcover Nonfiction Bestseller's List - and for good reason. This is an articulate, reasonable, compassionate, and informed defense of Christianity.

Keller's book is written for both believers and skeptics and addresses the seven most common objections people have to Christiantiy.

Part One: The Leap of Doubt:

1. There can't be just one true religion
2. How could a good God allow suffering?
3. Christianity is a straitjacket
4. The church is responsible for so much injustice
5. How can a loving God send people to hell?
6. Science has disproved Christianity
7. You can't take the Bible literally.

Then Keller builds a case for the plausibility of Christiantiy in seven chapters.

Part Two: The Reasons for Faith:

8. The Clues of God
9. The Knowledge of God
10. The Problem of Sin
11. Religion and the Gospel
12. The (True) Story of the Cross
13. The Reality of the Resurrection
14. The Dance of God

This book is so good, it could become the Mere Christianity (C. S. Lewis's famous defense of Christianity written in the first half of the twentieth century) of the twenty-first century. Here's what I like about Keller. He speaks the language and understands the mind-set of postmoderns, because he has worked with them, witnessed to them, and pastored them for nearly twenty years in Manhattan. But he is orthodox in his theology, not shying away from the more difficult aspects of historical Christian doctrine. Instead, he faces these "hard doctrines," acknowledges the difficulty these pose to many people, and then offers nuanced and intelligent answers to the questions.

Keller is also a gifted communicator, drawing from an amazing breadth of philosophy, literature and popular culture. This one's a keeper. I'll read it again and hope lots of others will read it too.

Swimming in the Shallow End, May 5, 2008
The Rev. Tim Keller deserves credit for tackling the most common complaints about Christianity in his new book, "The Reason for God." Unfortunately, I found the book to be very unsatisfying on both a spiritual and intellectual level. Other readers may disagree, of course, but here's why I give it only two stars:

-- The answers to huge questions seem very shallow to me. Yes Keller is clearly a passionate believer, but his "Readers Digest" approach to vast issues of good vs. evil, life vs. death, belief vs. doubt, just don't rise to the challenge. They work well as superficial "talking points" but not as a strong foundation for faith.

For example, can anyone really explain the Christian position on "exclusivity" in 500 words? Can we really get a meaningful answer to "hell vs. salvation" in an essay that's shorter (in page-length) than "Pat the Bunny"? Can we even have faith based on reason?

As a believer myself, I don't think so. Someone who's serious about answering these questions should be willing to spend a whole lot more time digging into the issues -- and debating both sides for greater clarity. I wouldn't object so much to Keller's book if the title had been more honest -- such as "Quick Answers to Common Questions About Christianity." By calling it "The Reason for God," he sets expectations pretty high...yet doesn't really deliver.

-- Another trap Keller falls into is the tendency to sugar-coat the negatives. It's undeniably true that Christianity and most world religions have MUCH to atone for in their respective histories (massive violence, intolerance, torture, greed, fanaticism, etc.). At the same time, they have much to be proud about, from St. Francis to the local soup kitchen, from the sacrifices of Job to the wisdom of Solomon, from the beauty of Arabic architecture to the invention of algorithms in Muslim universities. It's not helpful to minimize these huge examples of light and darkness. We must live with the history of our tradition -- like it or not. (See James Carroll's new movie, "Constantine's Sword," for a moving take on this important topic.)

-- Most importantly, Keller forgets the example of Jesus' own teaching style, particularly in the first half of his book.

Christ was careful to avoid "reducing" spirituality and God to a superficial argument that the clever Pharisees could pick apart. He knew that much of what passes for "logic" is simply mean-spirited sophistry aimed at humiliation. That's why Christ often answered questions with more profound questions. His use of parables transcended the inherent limitations of language ("that's just semantics / that's just how YOU define it") to reach a higher plateau of understanding that still inspires a billion people today.

I went out to Keller's church website to download about 10 of his recent sermons -- just to see if I was missing something in the book. He's an excellent preacher and seems like an excellent pastor. But his sermons seem to fall into the same mistake: raise an enormous question, then rush through a quick answer that doesn't really satisfy. For example, on the question of whether scripture should be "authoritative," Keller concludes that is "just has to be." He doesn't explain (in the book or podcast) what "authoritative" means or what role interpretation plays in Biblical study for the average person.

BOTTOM LINE: If Christ were on a stage tonight debating Richard Dawkins or Christopher Hitchens, I think he'd steer clear of these traps and leave us much more satisfied than Keller's new book. Ultimately, we don't need superficial answers to debating points. We need love, faith and humility -- even love for those who disagree with us.

An Excellent, Comprehensive Overview of the Christian Faith, June 28, 2008
Let's consider issues generally not developed by previous reviewers. Also, it's incorrect to fault Keller for providing answers instead of raising more profound questions, as Jesus sometimes did. Note that, when the Pharisees asked Him which of seven successive husbands would be married to the woman after death, Christ didn't ask any deeper question. He plainly told them that they were wrong, and why they were wrong, in their conception of the afterlife.

"Ironically, the insistence that doctrines do not matter is really a doctrine itself. It holds a specific view of God, which is touted as superior and more enlightened than the beliefs of most major religions." (p. 8)

A common theme throughout Keller's book is how cultural expectations shape out attitudes. For instance, we find God's unilateral forgiveness attractive and hell offensive. In other cultures, it's the exact opposite. (p. 72) The anti-abolitionists who cited Ephesians 6:5 as justification for 19th-century chattel slavery didn't realize that it was incomparably more severe than the indentured servanthood which Paul had in mind. (pp. 109-111, 266-267) We learn that magic was uncommon in the middle ages; it didn't peak until the 16th-17th centuries--at the same time that modern science got started (p. 70)

The early-church-made-everything-up assertion is contrary to reality. The New Testament mentions unflattering things such as Peter's denials, the disciples' jealousies, etc.--the exact opposite of writings designed to promote and popularize a new religion. (pp. 104-105) Furthermore, we now realize that the ancients were very careful to separate fictional and factual writings (p. 204). Also, Jewish thinking anticipated a final resurrection of many people, not just One (p. 207). 1 Corinthians 15:3-6 was written soon after Christ's Resurrection, and it would've been self-defeating and self-refuting to mention 500 witnesses to the Resurrected Christ if such witnesses didn't exist. (pp. 203-204) Pointedly, "'Jewish revolutionaries whose leader had been executed by the authorities, and who managed to escape arrest themselves, had two options; give up the revolution, or find another leader. Claiming that the original leader was alive again was simply not an option. Unless, of course, he was.'" (p. 208) Finally, Gnosticism couldn't possibly be an "alternative Christianity" because the earliest Gnostic gospel wasn't written until at least a century after the four canonical ones. (pp. 102-103)

Keller cites many examples of Christian-led social reform. For instance: "In the late twentieth century the Catholic church in eastern Europe refused to die under Communism. Through `patience, candles, and crosses' it began the chain of events that brought down all those totalitarian regimes. The Polish priest Jerzy Popieluszko...When he was murdered by the secret police, 250,000 people came to his funeral...Many of those who went to his funeral marched past the secret police headquarters with a banner that read `We forgive'. The Christian underpinnings of the resistance movement were unmistakable." (p. 65).

The essence of the Christian faith is: "God did not, then, inflict pain on someone else, but rather on the Cross absorbed the pain, violence, and evil of the world unto Himself." (p. 192)

Good, but incomplete, December 10, 2008
Tim Keller's recent book The Reason for God has received much critical and popular acclaim, landing on several bestseller lists (including Amazon and the New York Times). It's not hard to see why: Keller is a great communicator who writes with an engaging style that is personal and accessible yet still culturally, philosophically, and academically informed. Keller is also effective because he doesn't come across as writing "from above" but is writing from the trenches of spiritual and intellectual struggles prevalent in New York City. I had a difficult time writing this review because while I really enjoyed the book, I found it to be lacking in some areas. Is it a good book? Absolutely. Is it a great book? I might have to read it again to answer that accurately. For Keller's audience and purposes, I do think that it is a very good, solid book.

The first half of the book is devoted to answering some of the most frequent questions of skeptics of Christianity, including topics like science, exclusivity, suffering, judgment, injustice, and human freedom. The second half is devoted to reasons for the Christian faith. I thought Keller is most effective in the first half, especially the chapters on suffering and injustice. He does a great job engaging the postmodern reader, and I especially appreciated Keller's critique against the prevalent fallacies of "strong rationalism." He argues that skeptics' logic and reasoning against Christianity should also be applied to their own belief system (often their reasoning against Christianity is through "strong rationalism"). By doing so, the skeptics should discover that their system is not as solid as it seems.

Some aspects of Keller's work seemed incomplete - not that I expected it to be perfect of course. However, I don't think these are "make or break" issues, and for what I believe Keller's intent to be, are not major concerns for me. But I would like to attempt to flesh them out a little bit here. I do so mindful of Keller's encouragement to "major on the majors" of faith first and foremost, agreeing with him loosely that only after the foundations of the faith are wrestled with and accepted do the "minors" take on larger significance.

Keller argues using a "probability" perspective (mainly in Chapter 8, "The Clues of God") - while the Christian God cannot be absolutely proven, Keller says, He is the most probable answer to many of life's questions. While Keller presents good arguments for the existence of a god, he does not make the leap to reason from a god to the one true God. Thus, I found the name of the book to be inaccurate - Keller does not really give "The Reason" for God, but provides a roundabout argument to why God is the best probable answer.

Another of these issues was Keller's approach to defining sin, as he does not discuss sin in legal or covenental terms, but instead in relationship terms. For example, contrast the Westminster Shorter Catechism's explanation of sin with Keller's (based on Kierkegaard's):

WSC question 14: "Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God."

Keller: "Sin is the despairing refusal to find your deepest identity in your relationship and service to God. Sin is seeking to become oneself, to get an identity, apart from him." (p 162)

1 John 3:4: Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.

While Keller isn't explicitly wrong here, and I agree with his later discussion of the first commandment, I'm not totally on board with his discussion of sin. While Keller does not necessarily present explicitly wrong ideas regarding this and other crucial Christian truths, he seems to present incomplete ideas. For example, he focuses on the atonement as primarily a loving act of God - which is true, but incomplete without explaining the need for sinners to be justified and reconciled before a Holy Judge (i.e. penal substitution).

I also found Keller's discussion about forgiveness (primarily using Bonhoeffer's perspective on forgiveness) to be generally unhelpful (p 191ff). Keller writes that "everyone who forgives someone bears the other's sins. On the Cross we see God doing visibly and cosmically what every human being must do to forgive someone, though on an infinitely greater scale" (p 192). But isn't Christ the only sin-bearer, the once-for-all, sufficient, perfect, atoning sacrifice? We forgive because Christ forgave us, not because we are fellow sin bearers. I agree with Keller when he says that "it is divine forgiveness that is the ultimate ground and resource for the human" (p. 193). But without delving into this perspective on forgiveness more, Keller leaves the reader without a full explanation of the relation of human forgiveness to divine.

Finally, Keller hints at a non-literal or poetic interpretation of the Genesis 1-2 creation narrative, but doesn't really come out and say which he holds to. While I don't think it's necessary for him to do so in the book, he does comes across as uncomfortably accommodating to evolution (theistic evolution, not naturalist evolution).

That said, my overall point here is that though Keller's work might raise questions for some believers, I think it raises more and better questions (i.e. those of eternal significance) for skeptics. Further, Keller has a large, thriving church where he preaches the Gospel clearly and where he does not try to lure "seekers" in with gimmicks and flashiness, but is instead faithful to the Word of God and the Gospel of Christ - and this Word has not returned void.

I realize that my review is weighted toward the negative. Am I being overly critical or nit-picky? Perhaps, though my intentions are by no means malicious. Am I in a place to criticize a widely popular pastor laboring for the Gospel in one of the most anti-Gospel areas of the country? Maybe not, but I also don't want to quietly or even blindly endorse Keller's work just because of his immense popularity. It is a good book, and my biggest reason for it not being a great book is because of Keller's incomplete explanations. I did enjoy the book.

Helpful Resource for Apologetics, May 30, 2008
Everyone likes a good book that provides tools for apologetics, right? Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, has provided an articulate, readable, and helpful book for thinking people who seek to better understand and explain Christian belief. In this work he provides answers to some of the most common objections raised concerning the existence of God, and the "reasons for faith" found in the Christian tradition.

In his introduction, Keller begins by saying:

"There is a great gulf today between what is popularly known as liberalism and conservatism. Each side demands that you not only disagree with the other as (at best) crazy or (at worst) evil. This is particularly true when religion is the point at issue. Progressives cry out that fundamentalism is growing rapidly and nonbelief is stigmatized. They point out that politics has turned toward the right, supported by mega-churches and mobilized orthodox believers. Conservatives endlessly denounce what they see as an increasingly skeptical and relativistic society. Major universities, media companies, and elite institutions are heavily secular, they say, and they control the culture.

Which is it? Is skepticism or faith on the ascendancy in the world today? The answer is Yes. The enemies are both right. Skepticism, fear, and anger toward traditional religion are growing in power and influence. But at the same time, robust, orthodox belief in the traditional faiths is growing as well." (ix)

Because Keller's willingness to acknowledge that both religious and secular outlooks are gaining adherents, he proposes that an alternative to increasing polarization between two extremes is needed. Keller's own ministry has found that what may be emerging is a "spiritual third way." He believes younger Christians, who have wrestled with doubt and come out the other side, "are the vanguard of some major new religious, social, and political arrangements that could make the older form of the culture wars obsolete"(xix).

The book has two major divisions. The first part, titled "The Leap of Doubt," addresses these concerns:

There Can't Be Just One True Religion
How Could a Good God Allow Suffering?
Christianity is a Straighjacket
The Church is Responsible for So Much Injustice
How Can a Loving God Send People to Hell?
Science Has Disproved Christianity
You Can't Take the Bible Literally

In this portion of the book, Keller draws from philosophy, theology, and examples from his ministry to address these objections to religious belief. Each chapter begins with a quotation from persons expressing these objections-presumably persons that could be met on the streets or in cafes in New York City(and perhaps your community). Keller is not afraid to engage leading atheist thinkers, including Ricard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. His responses to these objections are well-reasoned and invite conversation. Because many of these objections are so common, I found Keller helpful. At the very least his answers provide a platform from which one might develop their own responses to thinking people who may have objections to the existence of God.

In the second part of his book, entitled "The Reasons for Faith," Keller presents reasons one might at least consider the existence of God, and whether the truth concerning that God might be found in the Christian story. Here are the chapter headings:

The Clues of God
The Knowledge of God
The Problem of Sin
Religion and the Gospel
The (True) Story of the Cross
The Reality of the Resurrection
The Dance of God

As I hinted above, this book is good. Throughout the book you hear excerpts from Keller's story and ministry, largely drawing from his experience of planting a church in an area thought to be devoid of hope for the proclamation of the Gospel. When Keller told others of his desire to plant a church in NYC, people scoffed. Over time, Keller's church has reached over 5,000 persons. When Keller tells his story, it makes sense. He is an intelligent, thoughtful person.

The worship services which take place at Redeemer have no frills, but are simply composed. Dr. Keller, in his preaching and in his ministry, sought to create a welcoming space for thinking people and provide them with reasoned, compelling answers for believing that the Christian story was true. Keller would make it a practice to remain in their worship space following services so that people could ask questions about the sermon. Sometimes discussion would last over an hour following the conclusion of the service. In these spaces Keller could answer questions, allow his heart to be made known, and challenge his interlocutors when they possessed objections. These conversations also allowed Keller to better understand the city in which he was conducting his ministry.

Keller is Presbyterian, though he does his best to make this book accessible to persons from a broad range of the Christian tradition. I appreciate Keller's book because it is open, thoughtful, and articulate. His telling of the Christian story does not shy away from categories of sin, the need for repentance, and an understanding of the atonement which includes belief that Jesus' death is more than illustrative of the sacrificial type of life we ourselves should lead. Keller asserts that Jesus's death and resurrection possesses a cosmic significance affecting our redemption. In the death of Christ we are justified, as Jesus has paid the penalty for our sins.

I found this book helpful and would recommend it. It includes both philosophical and theological treatments that are intellectually engaging, as well as personal stories which illustrate his key points. If you're seeking to improve your own ability to articulate your faith, or perhaps are seeking a resource to help you engage non-Christian friends, family, or persons in your community, you may find this a helpful resource.
... Read more

Editorial Review

With over a quarter million copies in print, You Mean I'm Not Lazy, Stupid or Crazy?! is one of the bestselling books on attention deficit disorder (ADD) ever written. There is a great deal of literature about children with ADD. But what do you do if you have ADD and aren't a child anymore? This indispensable reference -- the first of its kind written for adults with ADD by adults with ADD -- focuses on the experiences of adults, offering updated information, practical how-tos and moral support to help readers deal with ADD. It also explains the diagnostic process that distinguishes ADD symptoms from normal lapses in memory, lack of concentration or impulsive behavior. Here's what's new:

• The new medications and their effectiveness
• The effects of ADD on human sexuality
• The differences between male and female ADD -- including falling estrogen levels and its impact on cognitive function
• The power of meditation
• How to move forward with coaching

And the book still includes advice about:

• Achieving balance by analyzing one's strengths and weaknesses
• Getting along in groups, at work and in intimate and family relationships -- including how to decrease discord and chaos
• Learning the mechanics and methods for getting organized and improving memory
• Seeking professional help, including therapy and medication

Reviews

Know you're smart but think you're nuts? Then read this!, January 5, 1997
I first bought this book strictly because of it's title. Having spent 45 years feeling crazy & stupid and being accused of laziness most of my life, I decided this book was for me. I didn't realize how very right I was! When I started to read I realized I was reading about myself. I identified with many of the descriptions of ADD from childhood through to adulthood. It was incredible to learn I was not alone in my daily frustration. This wonderful, informative book started me on a road of self-discovery. I was subsequently tested and diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder. The authors describe this "disability" as an "ADD-ed dimension" and they are so right! I now have self-esteem and self pride. My intelligence has been tested and verified .. I'm not lazy, crazy or stupid and I thank the authors of this book for that discovery. This book has changed my life. I can now read a page without losing my place. I don't forget what I'm saying or lose things as often. I have learned that I am one of many who use an additional area of my brain & must therefore learn to "process things differently". I no longer feel timid, ashamed, afraid or just plain different. I can now accept and like myself for the first time in my life.

This book is written in a very "easy-reading" style. There is a wonderful blending of research facts and referenced stories and quips. As an adult diagnosed with ADD at the age of 45, I can attest to the value of this book. I highly recommend "You mean I'm not lazy, stupid or crazy" to anyone who has ever felt they were!

Needs updating, March 10, 2006
While reading some of the previous reviews, I saw one that mentioned "contemporary science" - written in 1999. The first Amazon.com customer review for this book is from 1997. If I'd read it then, I would have rated it higher. But a book that deals with anything medical needs to be updated long before it's a decade old, which this one now is. The chapter on medication is completely outdated; it shouldn't be referred to by anyone who wants to know what options are available now. And while all the scientific/medical questions about ADD/ADHD haven't been answered, more is known now than when this book was written.

The fact that this book has helped many people understand themselves better is great, and I'm not one who equates wanting to understand yourself with looking for excuses. This book has been recommended not only doctor to patient but friend to friend for a long time, and what it has can be helpful - the reason I gave it three stars. But I hope a second edition isn't being held back by the fact that the first one is still being recommended and purchased; it could be so much better if the information were updated.

I personally had a more general problem with the book, which may also be related to its age. I'm primarily inattentive type ADD, and felt like I was a real outsider while reading this book. Some things applied to me, but a lot didn't. And anytime there was a statement like, "We all remember from our childhood..." I'd think, "Nope. Not me." Not that there's anything wrong with a book aimed at people with combined or primarily hyperactive ADD, and I didn't take away a star because of it, but "nowadays" that would probably be stated more clearly in the information about the book, or even on the cover. But back in 1996, that might have been less likely. (I told my doctor that reading this book reminded me of my experience of going to a support group for people with depression and being the only unipolar one there. You're "supposed to" fit in, and you kind of do, but not really.)

If this is the first book about ADD someone reads, it would be eye-opening, and it was probably the best around 10 years ago. But I don't think that's true anymore. A second edition of it would be very useful.

A TERRIFIC resource!, January 18, 2000
"You Mean I'm Not Lazy, Stupid or Crazy! " belongs on the bedside table of every ADDer and of every parent, spouse or teacher who is trying to understand the ADDers in their lives. It was cutting edge when it was written and its information is still right on target.

As an ADDer, ADD Coach, and founder of a company that trains ADD Coaches, I not only recommend "Lazy/Crazy" to anyone who asks for an ADD book recommendation, it has been required reading for OFI's 18-month ADD Coach Training program since the first beta classes in 1994. (Kate joined us several years later and is now President of OFI; Peggy joined us in 1999 and now heads up OFI's Sliding-Scale Coaching Clinic -- all the more reason I can recommend this book WITHOUT reservation!)

An extremely readable book, obviously written from an "insiders" viewpoint, this book made me feel understood and validated -- like great advice from good friends. When I stumbled across it on the "New Books" table at a large Manhattan Bookstore (before I had met either of these authors) I started reading immediately. It was almost an hour before I finally forced myself to close the book, pay for it, and take it home. My copy is well-worn and multi-colored from all the highlighting I do to focus my attention.

DO take the time, as the authors advise, to carefully read the first chapter. Although it is a little "heavier" reading than the rest of the book, the ADD information it provides will prove well worth the concentration it may take to go through it.

(Helpful Hint: If your dominant modality is visual you will either LOVE the graphics or hate them. For my clients in the latter group, a sticky-note covering the graphics allowed them to focus more easily on the text.)

Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, MCC -- founder & CEO of The Optimal Functioning Institute�

Editorial Review

The highly anticipated follow-up to the 2,000,000 copy bestselling inspirational book, The Power of Now

With his bestselling spiritual guide The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle inspired millions of readers to discover the freedom and joy of a life lived "in the now." In A New Earth, Tolle expands on these powerful ideas to show how transcending our ego-based state of consciousness is not only essential to personal happiness, but also the key to ending conflict and suffering throughout the world. Tolle describes how our attachment to the ego creates the dysfunction that leads to anger, jealousy, and unhappiness, and shows readers how to awaken to a new state of consciousness and follow the path to a truly fulfilling existence.

The Power of Now was a question-and-answer handbook. A New Earth has been written as a traditional narrative, offering anecdotes and philosophies in a way that is accessible to all. Illuminating, enlightening, and uplifting, A New Earth is a profoundly spiritual manifesto for a better way of life—and for building a better world.

About the Author

ECKHART TOLLE is a contemporary spiritual teacher who is not aligned with any particular religion or tradition. In his writing and seminars, he conveys a simple yet profound message with the timeless and uncomplicated clarity of the ancient spiritual masters: There is a way out of suffering and into peace. Eckhart travels extensively, taking his teachings throughout the world. ... Read more

Reviews

A New Earth is Born, November 26, 2005
If you got the concepts in the Power of Now, and love the simple, easy-to-understand message of that book, you will find a "going deeper" happening with this one.

I've always been one to disagree with spiritual teachers about the ego - that it's basically all bad. If it's bad, why did God create it? My feeling is if it is here on Earth, it belongs, even though we may not understand why.

That said, Eckhart clearly defines, with excellent examples, how our identification with the ego (and not the ego itself, mind you) keeps us from simply being in the present and instead tied to thoughts, concepts, mind-stuff, endless identification with people, places, and things. He shows us the many forms and faces that the ego takes up, and shows us the fallacy of identifying with forms in the first place.

To identify so completely with form is to identify with that which is doomed to extinction, causing us loss and sadness. Wouldn't it be better if we simply observed things from an aware state, and not get so caught up in them? This is Eckhart's goal, to get us to a place where we can see the benefits of raising our awareness, and actually wanting to do so.

Ah, easier said than done, I hear you say. Within the pages of A New Earth, Eckhart gives us precisely the tools we need to recognize and become aware of own folly. From that higher state of awareness, the flowers of enlightenment can bloom. And voila, a New Earth is born.

I find this book a great comfort.

Some good points made, but not a keeper for me, February 29, 2008
I have mixed feelings about "A New Earth". While I thought some very good points were made, I didn't find it easy to read because the style of writing is so dense. Many of the ideas that Tolle presents are not original (e.g. how we interpret people or events is a result of our own thoughts or egos, we must strive to live in the present moment), but they are still well made and thought-provoking.

Some parts of the book do get hard to follow. While Tolle acknowledges this, he also tells us that if we find the book incomprehensible and meaningless, it means that we have not begun the process of awakening - i.e. any fault is with the reader, which strikes me as a cop out. Tolle also implies that his view is the only correct way of viewing the world, with sentences like: "If you don't become speechless when looking out into space on a clear night, you are not really looking, not aware of the totality of what is there."

My main criticism of this book is that I didn't find it of much help in a practical sense. Tolle talks a lot about how you can effect change in yourself by bringing awareness to situations. This has not been my personal experience - while I agree it's the first step, I think sometimes we need a little more "how-to" guidance if we are to make real change. Often when I was reading this book I'd think: "wow, that's such a great point he's just made", but then it would get kind of lost as the book moved on. And ultimately it comes across as being a bit selfish. This idea that your spouse may leave you and your friends may drift away when you achieve spiritual growth, but that's all for the good.

To get the most out of "A New Earth", you probably want to read it slowly and let each chapter sit with you for a while before moving onto the next. Even better, have someone to discuss it with as you go and help you to explore the apparent contradictions e.g. when Tolle says on one hand that you don't want to dwell on the future but stay in the present, and then on the other hand he says that you must have a goal or vision that you are working towards. There is definitely a lot of interesting material in here, but I have found other books to be more accessible and useful.

Buddhism repackaged, April 14, 2008
This is an interesting book to review because I can tune in and see what is happening to people who read it and get a close up look at the author using his philosophy to answer questions. While I applaud Oprah for this novel approach to bettering the human race, I take issue with both this author and his book.

I read Tolle's first book and found it to be a boring rehash of Buddhism. Because Oprah was so high on his second I figured I'd give him another try and join the book club. I thought it would be interesting to see a book "in action" and discuss it with others. I even sent a copy to my sister who could use a bit of computer recreation since she now lives in a very small town. This book is better than the first in that it is a better compilation of Buddhist thought. However, it rambles constantly, draws conclusions from encounters that are not necessarily justified and the attitude of its author (who sees himself as enlightened and continuously "conscious" and egoless), is laughable. Tolle's vanity is nothing short of astounding. Buddhism isn't a pill, it is a practice and awakening has many layers. In spite of this, Tolle has tons of people saying that they have awakened. On one hand adherents claim to be valiantly battling their ego's while on the other they flaunt their "awakening", telling others who claim to be in serious pain to simply read page such and such or tell their "pain body," to effectively shut up and go away. Yikes!!! While it is true that you can't blame the messenger for what people do with the messenger (Jesus protect me from your followers!) Tolle adopts a similar attitude toward others on the streaming video. His dead pan delivery of jargon in response to questions does not impress me as enlightened or egoless. It might behoove him to remember that those Zen stories he includes in the book were once used by master to deliver highly specific teachings that met the needs of particular students. He has turned awakening into a race....to what I am not sure, but I do know that enlightenment is not a competitive event. A few months from now there are going to be a lot of people with one hell of a philosophical hangover caused by all those subconscious drives they never bothered to examine and thought they'd left in a dumpster somewhere.

I keep waiting for the day when someone writes a version of Buddhism for the working mom. I think that person should herself be a mother with at least one ADHD child. She should be clinically depressed and have a couch potato for a husband. If she manages to help the child grow into someone with a good marriage and a real profession, I'll buy all of her books. Unfortunately what we keep getting are philosophies created by self-satisfied, introverted, childless, hermits like Tolle. There is nothing wrong with an introverted, childless, hermit being self-satisfied. What is wrong is suggesting that his way of being represents THE path to enlightenment for everyone. I would say that all he has found in Buddhism is a treatment for his (self acknowledged) form of depression and suicidal thoughts. I am glad he is well and happy and wish him the best....but I won't buy anymore of his books because they are just Buddhism repackaged and linked to an attitude I am not fond of.

A very difficult book to read, March 24, 2008
I had very high expectations for this book but when I received it and started reading I found it was VERY! difficult to read. It was difficult in that, after reading about 100 pages I felt there was almost no substance. It just seems to go on and on and on without a point being reached. Maybe its because Im a bit older now but, I like books that come to a point. Get to meat of what you want to say, support it, and be done with it. Dont talk it to death.

I think that is book says something important. I also think it could be summed up faster and supported better and still only be 100+ pages in length.

Nothing New Here for Readers of Bhuddism or Taoism, March 21, 2008
The insights Tolle talks about have been around for at least 2000 years. Basically he is talking about principles of Bhuddism and Taoism that have been studied and taught for generations. His "enlightenment" has been shared by adepts by the thousands.

If you've never been exposed to these teachings, this will be valuable.

If you've read any contemporary books on Bhuddism or Taoism or mindfulness, this will just be old stuff rewritten. It isn't new revelation by a modern prophet.

The Master Class They Didn't Teach You at College, April 4, 2008
Eckhart Tolle is a brilliant human being. His ability to hold complex concepts in his mind about enlightenment, human nature and behavior while weaving in examples from the Bible, Buddhism, Taoism, as well as the world's greatest thinkers and artists, is impressive and illuminating. In addition to being a spiritual teacher, Tolle is also a scholar. The richness of his ideas and the way he presents and ties them all together reminded me of philosophy & religion classes I took in college (though none of those classes taught what Mr. Tolle is teaching!).

In "A New Earth, Awakening to Your Life's Purpose," Tolle carefully and thoroughly describes all the facets of living your life with presence and awareness, rather than living out of the roles and inner thoughts by which we define ourselves. At first, I found his ideas difficult to follow because of the terminology he uses ("egoic dysfunction," "pain-body," "form" vs. "formless," etc.), but he always defines clearly what he means. Hanging in there to fully understand all of the lingo was worth it! In fact, I really enjoyed some unexpected, simple and beautiful explanations of concepts that are often hard to describe. For example, his explanation of a human being:

Human is "...the functions you fulfill, whatever you do--all that belongs to the human dimension". Being is "found in the still, alert presence of Consciousness itself, the Consciousness that you are." "Human is form. Being is formless. Human and Being are not separate but interwoven."

"A New Earth, Awakening to Your Life's Purpose" is an exciting and important book to read, not just for your own personal enlightenment, but for the implications it suggests for the world at large. If you are interested in both of these factors, then two other authors that are essential to read are Ariel & Shya Kane. Their books Being Here: Modern Day Tales of Enlightenment and Working on Yourself Doesn't Work: A Book About Instantaneous Transformation dovetail Tolle's in a way that is so wonderful and congruous: the Kanes talk about very similar concepts, but in a very simple, clear and profound way that actually allows you to experience enlightenment and awareness. I strongly recommend reading the Kanes' books, in addition to Tolle's, to truly 'awaken to your life's purpose'!

Distressing Distortion, April 15, 2008
I was disturbed and alarmed to think that Tolle's book "A New Earth" has received such praise from so many people as a result Oprah Winfrey's endorsement. I read it on the recommendation of not one, but two friends, which perhaps is what upsets me more than anything.

If I try to be open and detached, I can see that people who are genuinely seeking spiritual growth can find some wisdom here. The book is grounded in belief in a spiritual reality beyond the vision of our egos, it does a good job of describing how much suffering comes from egotism and how much insanity grips our world today, and it is wise to advise that one cultivate an attitude of presence to others and awareness of life.

However, in honesty, I found myself distressed by several things. This book is a homily (satsang) not a book of science or philosophy - it is repetitive and sometimes condescending, and makes any number of claims that are simply not true or unsupported by any body of knowledge. Contrary to Tolle's perhaps artistic interpretation, "ego" is not an independent entity in the world with its own collective volition; an individual's ego is not the source of all evil (but in fact is a necessary aspect of the development of a healthy person); there is no such creature as a pain-body, let alone the intentionality ascribed to it; etc. etc.

By objectifying and demonizing ego, feelings, time, and other normal human realities, Tolle is fragmenting and condemning most of the life and reality that we are given, the precious uniqueness and complexity of life as a human person. The book is profoundly NOT coming from an incarnational religious philosophy. The Judeo-Christian religious traditions teach that God is immanent, that God is found in our world, and that we discover that we are held by the loving God in the experiences and feelings and even the pain of human life.

I do not know the Buddhist tradition well enough to be able to see if this great wisdom tradition is also being presented in superficial or distorted ways. I find myself wondering about that; it would seem that there is room for a more embodied and compassionate Buddhism than what I find here.

Tolle's presentation of spiritual traditions and human psychology is alienating and ultimately very sad to read. I said to my husband the other night, "If I were to attempt the kind of awakening and detachment from my emotions and experiences that Tolle seems to be recommending, I would never be truthful with you about my real feelings. I'd appear to be serene, but we would have no true intimate relationship, heart to heart."

But the saddest thing is that this book could lead someone to seek God by attempting to stamp out one's humanity and relatedness. When we are touched by God, it is by grace and love, and it is in the dignity of our real, imperfect life and personhood.
I hope I can find common ground with those of my friends who have found inspiration from this book. I want to acknowledge the good in it, but also, in integrity, to give it my honest response.

I must be really dim, March 20, 2008
I have tried and tried to read this book, and just cannot get into it, get it, be inspired by it, stay with it, have an "aha" moment--and I have given this book more chances than I've ever given any book. I am puzzled. Maybe I'm just dim. I don't get it.

A Thousand Mirrors, February 21, 2006
I have read Eckhart Tolle's previous works and believe him to be one of the most important spiritual teachers of the 20th and 21st centuries. I had waited very patiently however for this book which he took most of last year to write because when someone of his caliber takes so much time to write a book about enlightenment and the ego you know it's got to be good. The title didn't grab me so much though as the content. This book in one fell swoop has given me more food for thought concerning who I am and who and what this personality is up to than any other spiritual book I've ever read. It's a sobering look at who I am and how devious the ego can be. It has helped me see many of my problems are due to my ego instead of it being all those others in my life. If you're ready to face yourself and who you are up to now you've come to the right place. This book will show you all your games and guises and help you get back to the real you underneath it all. It may be the best step on the most ultimate path we all must eventually take towards a New Earth and our true purpose in life.

All about Eckhart, May 4, 2008
While there are elements of truth in what Eckhart Tolle is saying, his emphasis on himself as an awakened or enlightened being is very suspect to me. Also, his implication that we should (and can) all just wake up by listening to his brilliant words seems to me to be a superficial fix to a subtle and thorny problem. Anyone can be mindful for an instant, staying mindful, though, can be the work of a lifetime. As several reviews have noted, his writings are largely warmed-over Buddhism.

For those of you looking to wake up, I'd recommend reading Mindfulness in Plain English; it's getting at the same issue using a much more structured, time-tested approach, and best of all, it's free to download on the Web --just google it.
... Read more

Editorial Review

If you've ever thought, "There must be more to life than this," The Art of Non-Conformity is for you.

Based on Chris Guillebeau's popular online manifesto "A Brief Guide to World Domination," The Art of Non-Conformity defies common assumptions about life and work while arming you with the tools to live differently. You'll discover how to live on your own terms by exploring creative self-employment, radical goal-setting, contrarian travel, and embracing life as a constant adventure.

Inspired and guided by Chris's own story and those of others who have pursued unconventional lives, you can devise your own plan for world domination-and make the world a better place at the same time.

... Read more

Reviews

Insightful and Empowering
Chris Guillebeau rocked the online world with his manifesto, "A Brief Gude to World Domination." This book is both useful and thought-provoking, providing both personal anecdotes and helpful suggestions for anyone who's not satisfied living life in the way everyone says you need to.

The book is divided into three sections. Part 1, The Remarkable Life, delves into setting one's own terms for living. This includes fear management and finding ways to "fight authority" without falling into the traps of ineffective sign-holding or getting beat up and arrested for smashing windows and burning down buildings. Part 2, Reclaiming Work, gives various strategies for making one's way without being permanently stuck in a cubicle doing mind-numbing work that is useless and meaningless. Part 3, The Power of Convergence, discusses finding one's legacy work and letting go of things which no longer serve you, be they excessive e-mails, clutter in your home or tasks you don't want or need to be doing.

Unlike other books of its kind, the Art of Non-Conformity features both description and prescription, offering useful suggestions and examples to help pave the way without being preachy. It is refreshingly idealistic without smacking of fantasy. It has an international perspective, and draws on inspiration of many people doing some great work around the world.

As a former wage slave turned freelance writer, the Art of Non-Conformity gave me many things to ponder, and I've been reflecting on changes I need to make both in my daily activities and long-term vision. I was also left with a list of useful resources and interesting people to look up. An added bonus is some great information on what Guillebeau terms "travel hacking," which gave me some great ideas for an upcoming trip of mine.

"Don't waste your time"
The previous reviewers have done great job summarizing the contents, and I'd simply like to add that one of the key messages of this book is "Don't waste your precious time for doing something you don't love or enjoy". He values his time - "4,440 minutes to fill with things you like to do every week" (from Chapter 9: Radical Exclusion and the Quest for Abundance"). Naturally, he doesn't want to waste your time either, if this book is not for you. On page 7, he has a list of characteristics he wants his readers to have, which I recite here:

1.You Must Be Open to New Ideas
2.You Must Be Dissatisfied with Status Quo
3.You Must Be Willing to Take Personal Responsibility
4.You Must Be Willing to Work Hard

If you read these four points and think "I am not that person", then this book probably isn't for you. For the rest of us, it's a must read. I am a mother of two young children, have my own business and plan to relocate the entire family within a year so our kids can have the experience of growing up in a culture so different from the United States. I encounter lots of questions or sometimes objections when I tell others about my goal, such as "What about your husband's job?" "Why would you leave this (wonderful/comfortable) life here in the U.S.?" "Isn't it risky?" "Aren't you worried?" At times I do think that I might be "crazy" for wanting this, but reading his book gave me a renewed sense of commitment towards my goal. Lastly, it's an enjoyable read as his writing style is very personal, yet direct. He doesn't sugar-code the truth but he also backs up the truth with his own experience and examples. If you have read this review this far, I highly recommend you give it a try.

The Art of Non-Conformity: Set Your Own Rules, Live the Life You Want, and Change the World
I should start with a disclosure. I have a PhD in Sociology and I teach at a community college. These two facts color my reading of Chris Guillebeau's The Art of Non-Conformity: Set Your Own Rules, Live the Life You Want, and Change the World in a way that other readers might not share.

I spend my days reading about and studying the gatekeepers and vampires that Guillebeau discusses and I am aware of even more devious and negative forces than he identifies. As a sociologist, however, one of the things that pleases me most about the book is the acknowledgment that other people exist. Far too many books in this genre forget the context in which one has to live an unconventional life. Guillebeau does not. He not only understands the need for dealing with those who would pressure a person to conform, but the need for a social structure to succeed (a "Small Army" he calls it) and the understanding of how one's actions affect the lives of others ("world domination"). We do not live our lives in a vacuum and Guillebeau's approach meets this context head on.

The thing that saddens me most about the book is that Guillebeau is not really that unconventional. Much of his advice and approach can be found in basic common sense and old fashioned understandings of how human beings should value their life, their time and other people. Most of what I read in this book I've heard before in other places. (Of course, I've lead a fairly unconventional life up to now and I share an influence in Barbara Sher, most notably her classic book, Wishcraft).

This saddens me because in our society this has become radical. It is radical now for a young person to ask themselves questions about their values, their talents, their desires, their legacy. It is radical to live apart from a centralized social and economic structure that is designed to encourage conformity and consumption. It is radical to question and create. It is radical to explore and discover.

Guillebeau is correct. It is radical and it will be met with resistance.

At community college I meet adult students of all ages who often are in school as an effort to change their lives. Unlike university settings, many of these students have already experienced some of their life and have already experienced disappointments. They have children. They have jobs. They struggle.

And as a sociology professor I have more bad news. I have to tell them that it is not the truth that education and a degree are magic entry into the middle class. I have to tell them that they are competing with other workers who have head starts on them because of social class structures and that the data connecting "a good education" with "a good paying job" is spurious because young people from middle and upper-middle class families with economic and social connections already in place get educations and degrees too, and then rely upon their parent's business connections to find the good paying job. In other words, the conventional life that Guillebeau so eloquently describes is often an illusion, available only to the few and the game is rigged in favor of that few.

But I remind them that there is good news in sociology as well. The good news is that the world in which we live is of our own making collectively. Most of what we perceive to be set in stone is merely the sum total of decisions made by individuals who are accepting scripts about life that can be questioned. In the questioning there is power. There is power to resist, power to drop out, power to change, power to be something different. The answers do lie in the unconventional and the nonconformity.

This book will not make you rich in the conventional sense. It is not a "10-easy steps" to life satisfaction. It is an honest account of a life well lived with some excellent pointers on how to get started living such a life. But in the end we must all live our lives as we choose within the context of everyone else living their lives as they choose.

So I am grateful for this book as a teacher and as a fellow traveler. It is a primer that I think anyone who is considering the question "What do I do?" should read. It is a book that I will be recommending a lot, as I have Guillebeau's website since finding it last year. It is a book that has helped me in making some decisions about my own path. It is a book that is needed in this time and this place.

--Pattie Thomas, Ph.D.

Much More Than "Blog To Book"
I've been a huge fan of Chris since I stumbled upon his blog post, "28 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started Traveling." Over the last two years, I've followed his travels, his advice, bought a few of his digital products and have looked up to him as a mover-and-shaker in the "change the world for the better" community.

Which is why I was so nervous when I first opened this book.

I wondered to myself, Would Chris simply reformat and regurgitate his old posts and ideas? After delivering such stellar content on his blog and through his digital products, how could he possibly captivate me further in traditional book form?

Boy was I surprised. This book is chock-full of awesomeness. If you're like me and interested in pursuing a life on your own terms, it's a must-read. Having browsed a variety of books in this niche, I can tell you that it's not a traditional "self help" book. Through interesting case studies, personal anecdotes and calculated, powerful advice, Chris shows us that we can all take life by the reins and live remarkably, helping others in the process. It's an endearing book, one that I've already started to reread and take notes. My brain can't stop churning.

AONC Transforms Internal Burning Questions to External Reality
Chris Guillebeau in his blog of the same name (AONC) took the burning issues inside of us like "I hate my job" " I want more out of life" "I'm sick of living a materialistic existence" "I want to be free to travel or do what I love" and he gave thousands of his readers the insight of someone who isn't taking the conventional path (with helpful guideposts)--and the Hope that "Yes, I don't have to go down the traditional path!"

The Art of Non-Conformity (the book) goes so much further to respond to questions like:

� Can I really live life on my terms and not follow the conventional path (what about my job/school, money and bills)?
� Can I re-arrange my life to follow a life-long dream or goal and make it work?
� How will I know which dreams (and goals) are on the right track?
� How do I deal with the fear of the unknown?
� How do I create a legacy?

Chris' writing is thoughtful, charming, motivating--probing yet open--and it's what he does best. When I found Chris through his 279 Days to Overnight Success" manifesto, and despite the bold title (the book has some, too) I was caught off-guard by his insightful and well-organized ideas to becoming an "overnight" success. This AONC book has the same distinct style.

Really, who can't use Chris' To-Stop-Doing-List, so we can finally chuck the "To-Do" list? Isn't it about time we consider AONC topics like:

How to Fight Authority and Win
Building Your Own Net
Redefine Your Place of Employment
The Power of Your Own Small Army
Radical Exclusion
Contrarian Adventures

If you (like me) already love Guillebeau's blog and incredibly popular manifestos: "A Brief Guide to World Domination" and the sequel "279 Days to Overnight Success," I'm sure you'll love "The Art of Non-Conformity."

If this is your first encounter with AONC, I recommend this book for its straight-forward style, it's honest and introspective look and a focused plan that's less about the AONC phenomenon and more about you.

UPDATE: People who read the blog may know this already, but Chris is doing what he calls an "Unconventional Book Tour." He's touring basically all 50 US states (and 10 provinces in Canada)through January 2011 with one stop in each place. You can meet Chris and other local AONC fans, get your book signed and talk about "World Domination" AONC style. If you search on Google For Unconventional Book Tour, you'll find the schedule to sign up. I'll be at the one in Missoula, Montana and as a fan of the blog, look forward to meeting Chris and like-minded people.

How non-conformity will change the world
This is one of the best books I have ever read.

It isn't about nonconformity for nonconformity's sake. It's about nonconformity for the sake of making the world a better place. Conformity maintains the status quo, and I don't know if you've seen the news lately, but the status quo isn't looking like a boatload of rainbows and puppies.

We need a change, and Chris's book is a call to action. It's a perfect mix of inspiring and informative. Heck, I'm a professional nonconformist, and even I learned plenty of new things.

Not only that -- I learned things I'm ACTUALLY GOING TO DO.

Most books are written to be read. Chris's book is written to be acted upon.

Read it. Do it. Change the world.

This is Exactly What I Wanted to Read
So much has been written about living a better life, a real life. And so much of it sounds like everything else.

It's all the same, just noise.

But Chris Guillebeau is different. From a relative unknown just a few years ago, it seems this young man has taken the world by storm. His style, approach, insight and ideas are so fresh and effective that nearly every pro in the business has tipped his or her hat to his ability.

From business demigod Seth Godin to best-selling author Gretchen Rubin, everyone agrees that Chris is worth listening to...if you want to live an unconventional life, that is.

I have been waiting for his ideas to be outlined in one place, so I've been eagerly awaiting this book. And it didn't disappoint. If you want to change your life--finally escape the rat race/cycle/lifeless routine--The Art of Non-Conformity will show you the way, step by step.

From setting real goals and breaking free of authority to putting your own tiny empire in place, Chris will show you exactly what he thought and did to create the life every unconventional thinker dreams of.

This is one of the best books of its kind that I've ever read. (And don't get me started on the design!) ... Read more

Editorial Review

Newsweek called renowned minister Timothy Keller “a C. S. Lewis for the twenty-first century” in a feature on his first book, The Reason for God. In that book, he offered a rational explanation of why we should believe in God. Now, in The Prodigal God, he uses one of the best-known Christian parables to reveal an unexpected message of hope and salvation.

Taking his trademark intellectual approach to understanding Christianity, Keller uncovers the essential message of Jesus, locked inside his most familiar parable. Within that parable Jesus reveals God's prodigal grace toward both the irreligious and the moralistic. This book will challenge both the devout and skeptics to see Christianity in a whole new way. ... Read more

Reviews

Excellent!, November 1, 2008
"This short book is meant to lay out the essentials of the Christian message, the gospel." So begins Timothy Keller's new book The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith. Keller targets both seekers who are unfamiliar with the gospel and longtime church members who may not feel the need for a primer on the gospel.

Keller's book, as the provocative title suggests, is built on one of Jesus' most famous stories: the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15). Keller consents that "on the surface of it, the narrative is not all that gripping." But, he contends that "if the teaching of Jesus is likened to a lake, this famous Parable of the Prodigal Son would be one of the clearest spots where we can see all the way to the bottom." Keller has taught from this passage many times over the years, and says, "I have seen more people encouraged, enlightened, and helped by this passage, when I explained the true meaning of it, than by any other text."

The book is laid out in seven brief chapters which aim to uncover the extravagant (prodigal) grace of God, as revealed in this parable. Keller shows how the parable describes two kinds of "lost" people, not just one. Most people can identify the lostness of the "prodigal son," the younger brother in Jesus' story, who takes his inheritance early and squanders it on riotous living. But Keller shows that the "elder brother" in the parable is no less lost. Together, the two brothers are illustrations of two kinds of people in the world. "Jesus uses the younger and elder brothers to portray the two basic ways people try to find happiness and fulfillment: the way of moral conformity and the way of self-discovery." Both brothers are in the wrong, and when we see this, we discover a radical redefinition of what is wrong with us. "Nearly everyone defines sin as breaking a list of rules. Jesus, though, shows us that a man who has violated nothing on the list of moral misbehaviors may be every bit as spiritually lost as the most profligate, immoral person. Why? Because sin is not just breaking the rules, it is putting yourself in the place of God as Savior, Lord and Judge just as each son sought to displace the authority of the father in his own life." As these quotes hint, Keller's exposition of the two sons lays the groundwork for a penetrating analysis and critique of both moral relativists on the liberal left and religious moralists on the conservative right, showing that the latter are just as lost as the former. What both need is Jesus, whom Keller presents as "the true elder brother," the one who comes to our rescue at his own expense. Through his grace, we are given hope and invited to the great feast of the Father.

As with Keller's preaching, this book is intelligent and winsome, combining thoughtful reflection on both text and culture with searching heart application. Keller's book is effectively illustrated with a liberal use of stories and quotations from literature, movies, and the arts. Most imporantly, the book orients the reader's heart to the hope of the gospel of God's grace revealed in Christ.

One more note: for readers who may have felt intimidated by Keller's recent book The Reason for God, don't shrink away from The Prodigal God. It is probably only 1/3 of the length and much easier to read. I highly recommend it to unbelievers, seekers and established Christians.

What does 'Prodigal' Mean again?, October 30, 2008
When I received a copy of The Prodigal God I was greatly intrigued by the title. To be honest I thought the author was trying to be a little too cute in his choice for a title. As a result I jumped right in and in effort to figure our where he was going, could not put the little book down.

Author Tim Keller recently wrote the bestselling book The Reason for God to reach out to skeptics. Here in The Prodigal God it seems as though he is reaching out to both those who are flagrantly irreligious and to those who are by common estimation, morally and religiously together.

Keller helpfully reminds us (me) of the definition for prodigal: "recklessly extravagant, having spent everything". Many of us may have a definition that centers on a returning wayward son rather than the reasons why he was actually returning. Keller aims to remind us of the God-centeredness of this parable and by application the stinging rebuke that it is intended to have upon the Pharisees and all of their self-righteous grandchildren.

Throughout the book Keller deals with the characteristics of the younger brother (morally bankrupt), the older brother (morally upright) and the Father (representing God who is abundant in grace to the contrite and opposed to the proud).

A strength of this book is the way in which the author keeps the gospel out of the commonly constructed religious categories. The gospel is never about what you and I do but about what God does. Therefore to try to put Jesus and his message into some sort of parallel religious system simply does not work.

Keller writes:

It is typical for people who have turned their backs on religion to beleive that Christianity is no different. They have been in churches brimming with elder-brother types. They say, `Christianity is just another religion' But Jesus say, no, that is not true. Everybody knows that the Christian gospel calls us away from the licentiousness of younger brotherness, but few realize that it also differs from moralistic elder brotherness.

further...

The elder brother's problem is his self-righteousness, the way he uses his moral record to put God and others in his debt to control them and get them to do what he wants. His spiritual problem is the radical insecurity that comes from basing his self-image on achievements and performance, so he must endlessly prop up his sense of righteousness by putting others down and finding fault. As one of my teachers in seminary put it, the main barrier between Pharisees and God is `not their sins, but their damnable good works.'

Keller reminds us that what we really need is a true elder brother who will go and retrieve wayward, reproachable brothers:

We need one who does not just go to the next country to find us but who will come all teh way from heaven to earth. We need one who is willing to pay not just a finite amount of money, but, at an infinite cost, bring us into God's family, for our debt is much greater. Either as younger brothers or elder brothers we have rebelled against the father. We deserve alienation, isolation, and rejection. The point of the parable is that forgiveness always involves a price-someone has to pay...Our true elder brother took and paid our debt, on the cross, in our place....There Jesus was stripped naked of his robe and dignity, so that we could be cloted with a dignity and standing we don't deserve. One the cross Jesus was treated as an outcast so that we could be brought into God's family freely by grace. There Jesus drank the cup of eternal justice so that we might have the cup of the father's joy. There was no other way for the heavenly father to bring us in, except at the expense of our true elder brother.

In the chapter entitled "The Feast of the Father" Keller reminds us that salvation is experiential, material, individual and communal. The gospel is to transform our individual lives from the inside-out and then transform our communities.

Throughout the book Keller seems to continually reset the need to properly understand the gospel. He even says on occasion that if you think you get it you probably don't and if you are amazingly overwhelmed by the complexities of grace then you are probably beginning to get it. The burden then is for beleivers to continually find themselves tasting and seeing that God is indeed glorious.

He quotes Luther,

A fundamental insight of Martin Luther's was that `religion' is the default mode of the human heart. Your computer operates automatically in a default mode unless you deliberately tell it to do something else. So Luther says that even after you are converted by the gospel your heart will go back to operating on other principles unless you deliberately, repeatedly set it to gospel mode.

I really enjoyed this book. Keller is a terrific writer. His illustrations are extremely well thought out and culturally relevant. The book has a lot of very helpful things to say about the nature of God's grace and the nature of modern day Phariseeism. For this purpose this book is highly recommended. I need books like this and so do my friends. Keller makes a lot of brief, succinct statements that warrant your further consideration. It is these types of pregnant statements that help a little book like this to make a very large impact for a long time.

Another Great Book by Keller, October 30, 2008
After the publication of The Reason for God, Newsweek hailed Tim Keller as "a C.S. Lewis for the twenty-first century." That is a lofty comparison and one I'm sure must make Keller quite uncomfortable. Yet at some level the comparisons are becoming undeniable. Keller's ability to communicate to believers and unbelievers alike and to do so on an intellectual level clearly parallels that of Lewis. Where Keller's first book offered an explanation as to why we should believe in God, his second, The Prodigal God, focuses on Jesus' best-known parable (and arguably the best-known and most-loved story of all-time) to challenge both believers and skeptics.

In this book Keller makes no claim to originality. He states forthrightly that the message he conveys here is based on a sermon first preached by Dr. Edmund Clowney. That simple sermon, a fresh take on the parable of the Prodigal Son, changed Keller's life and in many ways shaped his ministry. Over the years he has often taught from this parable, both at his church and elsewhere, and he has seen God's hand of blessing in this message. And here he offers it in the form of a short book.

Traditionally, readings of the parable of the Prodigal Son have focused on the younger son and his reconciliation with his father. We learn from such readings that God is willing to receive all those who wander from him. Yet too often we overlook that third character--the older brother. Were the story only about the father and the younger son we would expect that the Pharisees, among those who first heard Jesus tell this parable, would react with joy. Yet we know from Scripture that they walked away in disgust and disbelief. Why? Because the parable pointed to them as examples of the older son. As Keller says, Jesus' purpose in this parable "was not to warm our hearts, but to shatter our categories."

He begins by ensuring the reader has a sense of Jesus' original audience as he taught this parable. There were two groups near Jesus at the time. The first was tax collectors and sinners while the second was composed of Pharisees and teachers of the law. The tax collectors and sinners correspond to the younger brother--people who left the traditional morality of their families and social groups and engaged in what others would consider wild living. The religious leaders, on the other hand, correspond to the older brother, representing the moral and obedient who have never turned from the traditions of their culture and religion. Where the first group seek God through some kind of self-discovery, the second group seeks him through a type of moral conformity. Jesus' message is that both of these approaches are wrong and in this parable he offers his radical alternative. "There are two ways to be your own Savior and Lord," says Keller. "One is by breaking all the moral laws and setting your own course, and one is by keeping all the moral laws and being very, very good."

While Keller focuses attention on both of the brothers, he gives more time to the elder brother. He wants the reader to know that a self-imposed standard of morality is not the same as truly knowing and following Christ. He wants those who are outwardly religious to search their hearts to see if there is an inner faith that goes along with the outward conformity. He challenges Christians with the fact that churches tend to be havens for the older brother kind of believer. "Jesus' teaching consistently attracted the irreligious while offending the Bible-believing, religious people of his day. However, in the main our churches today do not have this effect. The kind of outsiders Jesus attracted are not attracted to contemporary churches, even our most avant-garde ones. We tend to draw conservative, buttoned-down, moralistic people. The licentious and liberated or the broken and marginal avoid church. That can only mean one thing. If the preaching of our ministers and the practice of our parishioners doesn't have the same effect on people that Jesus had, then we must not be declaring the same message that Jesus did. If our churches aren't appealing to younger brothers, they must be more full of elder brothers than we'd like to think."

It is rare that a book effectively spans an audience of both believers and skeptics, but Keller bridges that gap. For skeptics this is a presentation of the gospel message of human sin and God's extravagant grace; for believers it is a recounting of a story that never grows old. For skeptics it is an encouragement to be like the younger son by turning to the loving father who welcomes all who come to him; for believers it is a means of examining hearts to see if we have become like the older brother, so secure in our position that we take the Father's love for granted and even resent it when that love is extended to those whom we feel are less deserving of it.

Though it is unlikely that The Prodigal God will achieve the same level of numerical success as The Reason for God, it remains an exceptionally useful and valuable contribution. While the book's audience is broad, it may well prove most beneficial to Christians. It will set the gospel before them in a fresh way, forcing them to do some difficult but necessary heart work.

A Must-Read from Keller, November 1, 2008
I can not recommend highly enough Tim Keller's The Prodigal God, which was just published this past week. The book is both easy on the eyes at 160 pages (an easy afternoon's read) but challenging to the heart. Keller takes us back to Jesus telling the story of the Prodigal Son, but he reminds us that "prodigal" does not mean "rebellious" or "wayward" but rather lavious and "recklessly spendthrift". As such that definition fits the father in the story as much as the son. Keller, helps each of us relate to either the younger son (as those who rebel against God in outright and outward rejection of God), or to the older son (as those who rebel against God by trying to manipulate Him by our moral behavior). As he does he shakes our understanding of what it means to be lost and helps us all see how we have run away from home. While we might not consistently express the attitudes and actions of one brother or the other, Keller explains: "Are we to conclude that everyone falls into one or the other of these two categories? Yes and no. A great number of people have temperaments that predispose them to either a life of moral conformity or of self-discovery. Some, however, go back and forth, trying first one strategy and then the other in different seasons of their lives. Many have tried the moral conformity paradigm, found it crushed them, and in a dramatic turn moved into a life of self-discovery. Others are on the opposite trajectory."

Keller, thus, uses Jesus' story to help explain the culture wars we are experiencing today and to challenge each of us to examine how we approach God. His use of contemporary illustrations are remarkable, but most impressive is his helping us see the Gospel anew and know and feel the need for us to be refreshed in it continually. This book is a must read for both new and mature Christians as it does rediscover the heart of the Christian faith.

The Gospel for Believers, October 30, 2008
The parable of the prodigal son, found in Luke 15, is one of the best known stories of Jesus. In short, a son leaves home and squanders his inheritance. When things get bad, the son decides to return home to work as a servant. To his surprise, his father welcomes him back and throws a lavish feast to mark his return to the family. The father in this story represents God, and the son represents sinners who are forgiven and embraced despite their past.

But this isn't the full story. There are, of course, two sons in the story, and the targets of this parable are not the "'wayward sinners' but religious people who do everything the Bible requires." Jesus told this story "not to warm our hearts but to shatter our categories," writes Tim Keller.

In The Prodigal God, Keller helps us understand:

* There are two ways to rebel against God: the younger brother way (openly rebelling) and the elder brother way (keeping moral laws and never rebelling). Both are self-salvation projects, but the second is more dangerous.
* The gospel is radically different from religious moralism. The gospel is for the rebellious, but it's also for the righteous and their "damnable good works."
* The gospel provides what we need to change, and it provides us with all that we truly hope for.

Keller writes:

"During the years I was working on these two books, my provisional titles were 'The Gospel for Non-believers' (The Reason for God) and 'The Gospel for Believers' (The Prodigal God). This second book is my way of doing what Martin Luther directed us Christian ministers to do. 'This...truth of the gospel...is also the principal article of all Christian doctrine, wherein the knowledge of all godliness consists. Most necessary it is, therefore, that we should know this article well, teach it unto others, and beat it into their heads continually.'"

In some ways, The Reason for God expanded on Keller's approach to apologetics. You got more than you would encounter just listening to his sermons. The Prodigal God, on the other hand, is more like a distillation of his preaching. You get less than you'd get in a year of listening to his sermons, but you get at the heart. It's a much smaller book too, by the way.

If you are familiar with Keller's preaching, then the material in this book will not be new to you. But don't underestimate its power. The gospel is for both the irreligious and the moralistic. It may just be what we moralistic elder brothers need to join the Father's feast for the very first time.

Wonderful Re-examination of a Multi-layered Parable, January 7, 2009
I was always troubled growing up with the various teaching I received that placed an emphasis on the younger brother in this parable to the near exclusion of the older. I believe Keller has done a wonderful job in righting this imbalance.

For the other reviewers who express the thought this book might also reach skeptics or the jaded, I would have to say while the insights are thoughtful, the basic thesis still requires someone to believe in Jesus as deity. For those who do not, this re-examination of one parable may not persuade.

An Essential Read for both the new Christian and the Academic Theologian, November 10, 2008
I am unable to weave words the same way that the other reviewers are, such as Tim Challies, so I will keep this short. Keller has written a book that could not have come at a more perfect time for the church. During a distinct, marked growth in Reformed Denominations, it is essential that we take this book on the parable of the two lost sons and take a fresh look at God's grace and what it means for both 'types' of people discussed. It is far too easy to feel right in our reformed dogmatics, as if we have some sort of special revelation, basically a form of gnosticism. And a the same time we can so easily complain that 'we' have been right all along and we do not get this or that while our younger brother returns and receives a party. Moving through this book it is easy to see how I am both the prodigal son who came back home and the elder brother who stayed behind. I encourage everyone to read this book and hear the message of God's Grace given in a unique and quite refreshing way!

Prodigal God Review from Greenleafblog.net, December 17, 2008
I wouldn't say that this book radically changes my view of the gospel, I have been on a journey of discovering the true gospel for a few years now, and I assume that this journey will continue my entire life. However, The Prodigal God, Tim Keller's latest, definitely sharpens my view of the gospel.

Keller clearly gets at the heart of the Christian faith using Jesus' parable of the Prodigal Son, or as Keller calls it, the Story of Two Lost Sons. Keller chooses to aim much of his attention towards the "elder brother," who is equally as lost and unworthy of the father's love as the openly rebellious younger brother. The younger brother and the older brother are archetypes that Jesus uses to point out the route to spiritual fulfillment taken by all people. They either follow the quest for fulfillment in personal discovery and the pursuit of passions or they follow the road of moralism and duty. Neither is the answer, according to Christ, and both are worthy of the wrath and disinheritance of the father, yet the gospel is that the father goes to each one and initiates restoration.

Keller describes why each son, and why everyone who seeks happiness through either spiritual path, is lost. He writes, "Because sin is not just breaking the rules, it is putting yourself in the place of God as Savior, Lord and Judge just as each son sought to displace the authority of the father in his own life." The younger brother sought to find salvation for himself through seeking external pleasure and satisfaction through self-discovery. The older brother sought to find salvation through personal morality and effort. He was was angry because he felt he was owed the inheritance of the father. When the father invited the younger brother back into the family it came at great cost to the older brother, a cost he was not willing to pay since he felt he has earned his inheritance. The older brother attitude, to Keller, is more dangerous than that of the younger since the younger knows he is lost, while the older thinks he is saved by his own merits.

One of the most important contributions of Keller's book is the idea of the "True Elder Brother." Keller notes that commentators and teachers of this parable often say that the forgiveness of the father was free and use it as an offer of free grace to all who would believe. While the grace was free to the younger brother, it was costly indeed to the older brother. All that remained of the fathers wealth rightfully remained to him, so it was at his expense that the younger brother was brought back into the family. Keller writes that although the older brother resented this, Jesus point in telling the parable was to point to the "True Elder Brother," himself. Jesus is the older brother who paid the price for the inheritance of sinners. That is a truly beautiful picture of the gospel.

This is a short (133 pages) and easy to understand book. I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in the Christian faith, to new believers and to long-time Christians who think they have the gospel figured out. It would be equally beneficial at clarifying the heart of Christianity for all three parties.

A Good Read, A Great Message, November 19, 2008
This week I gladly received The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith through the mail. What a blessing. The book arrived yesterday during the 9:00 o'clock hour and I read through it in one sitting. Written in a warm and engaging style, Timothy Keller's reflection on the story traditionally known as "The Parable of the Prodigal Son" contains a challenging message for individuals and the church corporate as followers of Jesus Christ.

Keller's book opens with a brief word on the popularity of this short parable and a justification for the author's preference to title this story "The Two Lost Sons." Keller explains the power of this narrative as he has experienced it in his own life. He tells of his hearing Edmund P. Clowney preach this text some thirty years ago and awakening him to a new and deeper understanding of the Christian faith, coming to find that within this short story the abundant grace of God is revealed not just to the younger brother, but to the older brother as well. This grace did not only come at a cost to the younger brother, who carelessly wasted his inheritance, but cost the father as well. The older brother was not exempt, either, as humbly welcoming the younger brother back home would have cost him a great deal. The insight gained by reflecting on this passage has greatly informed Keller's ministry at Redeemer Church in Manhattan, helping their community better embody the message of grace which is found in this famous utterance of Jesus.

Following a translation of the parable, Keller's book is divided in to seven parts. First, Keller explains the biblical and cultural context in which this story takes place, helping the reader to better recognize the finer nuances of Jesus' storytelling. Keller points out the type of people who had come near to hear this story, showing that the crowd consisted of religiously devout and religiously marginal persons. He demonstrates how each segment of the crowd would have identified with a different brother in the story. Here Keller muses on "why people like Jesus but not the Church," pointing out that Jesus seemed to draw unto himself all kinds of people-particularly those in his culture of the lowest piety who are depicted as the "younger brother" in Jesus' story. Keller muses, "If the preaching of our ministers and the practice of our parishioners do not have the same effect on people Jesus had, then we must not be declaring the same message that Jesus did. If our churches aren't appealing to younger brothers, they must be more full of elder brothers than we'd like to think."

Keller's discussion then moves to the Two Lost Sons. He explains the way in which each son had developed a wayward relationship with their father. Both elder and younger son are fair game for critique. Keller questions why this passage has not received a more well rounded treatment, noting that many times this story is told in a way that emphasizes how the younger son was welcomed home by the father to the neglect of the father's appeal to the elder brother. From here, Keller explores how Jesus' story redefines both sin and lostness, noting that the text is revolutionary in this regard. In his discussion of sin, Keller notes how each son had rebelled, "but one did so by being very bad and the other by being extremely good...It's a shocking message: Careful obedience to God's law may serve as a strategy for rebelling against God." Keller moves us to a deeper understanding. Rather than regarding sin as a list of wrongs, Keller points out that rebellion takes many forms, including those who in the tradition of the elder brother seek to be obedient for their own gain rather than for the glory of God. Keller sees the older brother's obedience in the story as undertaken for the purpose of controlling the father. How often we also fall in to a similar pattern of behavior.

Keller's chapter on redefining lostness was perhaps the most poignant, bringing forth a deep sense of emotion in my own soul. Here he explores the anger and superiority of the elder brother and the "joyless, fear-based" faith which can come to typify religious belief when one seeks to control God rather than express love and devotion for the Divine. This chapter, which stands at the heart of the book, may be the most important for those of us who stand within the church, and perhaps have obtained the attitudes and posturing of elder brothers. Keller's reminder that elder-brother lostness is just as wrong and destructive as younger brother lostness is important.

From this point Keller explores the nature of the gospel. Keller uses this parable to demonstrate God's relationship to us and how we might repent in a well-rounded way. In the story we are often reminded of how the younger brother turned from those things that he did wrong, and we feel compelled to do the same. Keller reminds us of the other extreme, saying, "To truly become Christians we must also repent of the reasons that we ever did anything right." The gospel calls us to acknowledge all that God has done for us freely and by grace. Christ has accomplished all things necessary for our salvation. Even the faithful need a reminder that our hope ultimately rests in God; we should not seek to become our own Savior and Lord. According to Keller it is Jesus, our true elder brother, who leaves us in a state of awe and wonder concerning the grace of God.

Keller's book closes with a two part reflection on the nature of our longing for home and an eschatological vision for the redemption of individuals and for all creation which will be celebrated in a heavenly banquet described in this parable and elsewhere in Scripture. Keller is very clear in presenting a view of the atonement consistent with his heritage (Presbyterian), and does an excellent job of painting a picture of the experiential nature of salvation in the here and the hereafter.

Keller's book is a gift for those of us longing for deep reflections on Scripture. This book is worthwhile reading for those seeking insight in to one of Jesus' most well known parables, and will serve as a challenge to your faith. I would recommend this book.

A Profound Read, November 25, 2008
Others have reviewed this book in some detail - thoughtfully and eloquently - so my comments will be brief...
This is a deeply significant book from Tim Keller. I found it to be a profound read and one that speaks to Christians and seekers in both a challenging and hopeful way.
I have listened online to Keller's preaching over the last couple of years and The Prodigal God highlights 2 helpful aspects of Keller's approach that have been consistently present in much that he speaks and writes:
* he is able to connect the ancient truths of the gospel to the contemporary secular world
* he is able bring these same ancient truths alive in fresh and powerful ways for long term believers who may have grown jaded in their faith.
Highly recommended. This will be a Christmas gift to all my friends.

... Read more

Editorial Review

"Clear some space on your bookshelf for Mitch Albom's, Have a Little Faith, the story of a faith journey that could become a classic.Those who were born into faith, have lost faith, or are still searching will all be engaged and challenged by this powerful story of "finding faith" in relationships with others and with something greater than ourselves.Never satisfied with easy answers or soft platitudes, Mitch explores some of life's greatest mysteries and unanswered questions with great honesty, depth and self reflection. "
--Jim Wallis,CEO and Founder of Sojourners and author of The Great Awakening

What if our beliefs were not what divided us, but what pulled us together?

In Have a Little Faith, Mitch Albom offers a beautifully written story of a remarkable eight-year journey between two worlds--two men, two faiths, two communities--that will inspire readers everywhere.

Albom's first nonfiction book since Tuesdays with Morrie, Have a Little Faith begins with an unusual request: an eighty-two-year-old rabbi from Albom's old hometown asks him to deliver his eulogy.

Feeling unworthy, Albom insists on understanding the man better, which throws him back into a world of faith he'd left years ago. Meanwhile, closer to his current home, Albom becomes involved with a Detroit pastor--a reformed drug dealer and convict--who preaches to the poor and homeless in a decaying church with a hole in its roof.

Moving between their worlds, Christian and Jewish, African-American and white, impoverished and well-to-do, Albom observes how these very different men employ faith similarly in fighting for survival: the older, suburban rabbi embracing it as death approaches; the younger, inner-city pastor relying on it to keep himself and his church afloat.

As America struggles with hard times and people turn more to their beliefs, Albom and the two men of God explore issues that perplex modern man: how to endure when difficult things happen; what heaven is; intermarriage; forgiveness; doubting God; and the importance of faith in trying times. Although the texts, prayers, and histories are different, Albom begins to recognize a striking unity between the two worlds--and indeed, between beliefs everywhere.

In the end, as the rabbi nears death and a harsh winter threatens the pastor's wobbly church, Albom sadly fulfills the rabbi's last request and writes the eulogy. And he finally understands what both men had been teaching all along: the profound comfort of believing in something bigger than yourself.

Have a Little Faith is a book about a life's purpose; about losing belief and finding it again; about the divine spark inside us all. It is one man's journey, but it is everyone's story.

Ten percent of the profits from this book will go to charity, including The Hole In The Roof Foundation, which helps refurbish places of worship that aid the homeless. ... Read more

Reviews

More Than Just a Little Faith, October 14, 2009
Mitch Albom has been one of my favorite sportswriters for years; his style is eloquent, yet concise and very witty. His words are well-chosen when he writes and this particular effort is no exception. It's terrific.

This is a remarkable, true story of contrast, of two men of God; one an aging rabbi, and the other, an African American pastor working in a ghetto. Two men---two different faiths; two entirely different backgrounds. In the end, the message is clear: Faith ties us closely together and can give us the chance to accomplish things we never dreamed possible.

Albom's anecdotal tale of his own personal experience with faith---losing it and regaining it---carries an inspirational message for anyone, regardless of religious affiliation, or lack thereof. We come away with a better understanding of how life can be so meaningful, if we'll only give it a chance.

Read this book; you'll be moved, as I was.

An Agnostic Has Hope, October 30, 2009
As an agnostic, a book titled Have a Little Faith had so little interest to me. But since Mitch Albom is my favorite author I figured how bad can it be and if I read it with an open mind, just maybe I'd be able to get something from it. Clearly, I made the right choice. Like all of Mitch's books, Have a Little Faith is brilliantly written. He captures the reader from page one and takes the reader on his journey with a dying rabbi (Reb) and a man who turns his life around (Henry). The only bond between the two is there faith in God -- one being Jewish and the other being Christian. In between a couple of other characters are introduced -- particularly Cass who has a beautifully defined role in the story. This book does not preach nor does it favor either religion. It merely suggests (as it does to Mitch) to look at yourself and perhaps refocus on the important things in life -- whether it be family, friends or faith. In a time where the world seems to be in a frenzy -- loving one another doesn't seem like a bad thing.

Mitch: please keep turning out these masterpieces.

Reading This Book Should be One of the Requirements of Life, October 7, 2009
This is one of the only books that I've ever read that I couldn't put down! Really! If it had not been for the normal demands of life I would have finished it in one sitting. Instead, I had to put it down for an evening and spend the next day waiting to be able to get my hands on it to finish it. Mitch Albom is blessed with an incredible ability to capture thoughts and stories that touch the soul. Have a Little Faith is one of the books that should be required reading for life; particularly now with so much going on in the world around us. His conversations with two great, yet unknown, men of God are lessons in how to deal with the normal challenges and struggles of life. Don't read this book if you're afraid to feel the urge to shed a few tears of joys but read this book if you want to understand the answers to the questions that you ponder daily from the perspective of two men who have answered them from paths of life that, although divergent, were filled with experiences that captured the essence of what life is all about.

Reveals Great Intimacies that Touch the Heart, October 13, 2009
"Will you do my eulogy?"

This is the question that Rabbi Al Lewis asks Mitch Albom at the start of his first nonfiction book since TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE. And this question is the start of an eight-year relationship between Albom and the good rabbi.

After years of going through the motions attending synagogue on high holidays with his family, Albom is surprised one day to have "Reb" tap him for the ultimate honor of delivering his eulogy when the time comes. As a child, Albom performed all the rituals of the Jewish religion by rote, all the while praying for a dog and rewriting the Ten Commandments to include "Honor thy older siblings" with his younger brother in mind. As an adult, he married a Christian and declared himself an atheist. But rekindling his relationship with the rabbi brought back a flood of memories from Hebrew schools and services. And Albom intersperses these often humorous childhood reflections throughout his book as he describes how his reconnection with the rabbi evolves.

Strained, almost perfunctory visits morph over time into happily anticipated and cherished exchanges. As they meet over the court of the next four years, the "larger-than-life man of God" who stood at the lectern each week "was shrinking down to human size." Albom learned the history of the man who for so long had been a mysterious figure in the hallway at school. The Reb shares how he became a rabbi (in a line of many rabbis in his family), how he met and wooed his lovely wife Sarah, how they tragically lost a child, and how he nurtured and loved his congregation, flaws and all. He revealed to Albom all the nuggets he had gleaned from 60 years of ministering his people: that ritual IS religion; that "From generation to generation, these rituals are how we remain...connected"; "it is far more comforting to believe God heard you and said no, than to think that nobody's out there"; and (my personal favorite) the meaning of happiness is to "be satisfied," "be grateful."

During this time, Albom met another man of faith, Henry Covington. Henry is the pastor at the "I Am My Brother's Keeper" ministry in Detroit, Michigan, a poverty-stricken church and shelter that ministers to the homeless and downtrodden. His path to his congregation and service couldn't have been more different from Rabbi Lewis's. Henry was a drug dealer, a criminal who one night found himself hiding behind a bush, holding a gun, fearing for his life (and that of his family) and praying to God to let him make it through the night. And when he did, Henry committed his life to helping others. He helped Albom get over his own prejudices and skepticism, and he shared his gems of faith: "You are not your past" --- words Henry knew all too well to be true.

These two men --- so different in their experiences, their upbringing and their religions --- shared the common threads of faith and hope. And their convictions, their love, and even their senses of humor remind Albom of what it means to be "in love with hope." His note at the end offers that his book is a "hope that all faiths can find something universal in (this) story." Albom writes, as he always does, with a loving hand, revealing great intimacies that touch the heart. Like TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE, HAVE A LITTLE FAITH reminds us that, despite our differences, we are all human beings experiencing life, love, hatred and death; with any luck in our lifetimes, we will "be satisfied," "be grateful."

--- Reviewed by Roberta O'Hara

Get a Little Faith!, September 29, 2009
I am in LOVE with HAVE A LITTLE FAITH! I've been a fan of Mitch Albom's books since TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE, and have been anticipating this - his first non-fiction book - since its release.

In a nutshell, Albom profiles two people: a rabbi who he has been asked to write a eulogy for, and an inner-city convict turned pastor. Two very different worlds, two very different religions, but one strongly shared similarity : FAITH.

This book REALLY made me think about my OWN spirituality and what faith means to me these days. The question Albom asks is: "what if faith wasn't what divided us, but what brought us together?" In a world where SOOO many wars are started in the name of religion and holier-than-thou attitudes prevail amongst so many different groups, it seems like all of our problems would be solved if only we could just say, "Hey, I have faith, you have faith...however we get there doesn't matter. What matters is that we both BELIEVE." Doing good for others is sometimes the greatest way to experience pure joy. If we all gave a little more of ourselves unselfishly, I do believe that peace would prevail.


HAVE A LITTLE FAITH is REALLY a good read. Beyond the story and the characters (which in true Albom style, jump off of the page and into your heart), the message is deep. It's a book that will stay with you for quite awhile. You'll want to highlight parts and dog-ear pages like I did. It's found a home next to my other perennial favorites like THE FOUR AGREEMENTS, THE ART OF HAPPINESS and THE GAME OF LIFE. It's very, very good.

Revived my Faith in Albom, October 20, 2009
I enjoyed 'Tuesdays with Morrie' written 10 years ago, not really was a fan of 'The Five People You Met in Heaven', so when I saw this new book by Albom, I was a bit hesitant to be quite frank.

I started the book at 6pm, and by 9 pm I had read it cover to cover. I was intrigued, mesmerized, inspired, and content with the read. I think Albom again has captured what he has always had the ability to do: write about the human spirit.

I highly recommend the book to all. Give it a try.

The Divine Spark Inside Us All., November 19, 2009
A book to lead you towards believing in something bigger than yourself - where spreading faith and hope and making a difference in the lives of others is what it's all about. This is a warm-hearted, inspiring book where the talented author Mitch Albom examines how faith shines differently in people's expressions. Mitch writes about the spiritual journey of two holy men, one a rabbi close to death and the other an inner-city pastor. Each of these holy men express their faith in different ways but, none the less, their faith supports and sustains many of their congregation through trying and difficult times. And of the author's own journey, well that evolves into one of grace, compassion and meaning in his own life.

While reading Mr. Albom's work I was reminded of Ariel and Shya Kane's book "Being Here: Modern Day Tales of Enlightenment". The Kanes' book is also rich in real life stories filled with compassion, inspiration and sharing of life's magical moments. Both of these wonderful books hold a place of honor on my bookshelf. I know they would be a gift to anyone who reads them.

Now more than a little..., October 24, 2009
Have A Little Faith is one of the most meaningful books I have read on God in our everyday lives and how others strive to make this happen in theirs.

The book is readable, persuasive and heart warming. It comes at a very meaningful time for me in my revisiting of my faith and spirituality. But it will touch a chord in all those who read it.

The author shares himself with us and the characters so we feel right there when everything is happening. It is focused on Reb, a Rabbi and his Christian counterpart, and the sameness in the path of all religions is very comforting.

Dont stop writing now, Mr. Albom - you have a lot to give! Thank you.

Another Gem by Albom, September 29, 2009
This book touched me personally having just lost my mother. As I have come to expect from Mr. Albom his writing seems to be written especially for me. Maybe that is because he writes the way all of us expect to be spoken too or maybe because his stories are about things we all live through on a daily basis. The story goes back to what all of us remember, our childhood. I am lucky that I had loving parents and was afforded the opportunity to live in one place for my entire childhood. When Mr. Albom speaks about going home you can tell he has great memories of the places he visits in the book. As he relives parts of his past you will do the same as he wanders through different places. While the places he visits may be different than what I remember there are still places that will always hold a special place in my heart. The change we see in one of the main characters in the book is something that should be held up in a great light as it can happen. We only hear about the bad things in the media but there are people that change their life everyday and this book is a testament of that change. Regardless of the things we do as children you can always change and there is time. Mr. Albom thought the time he had with his Rabbi was short but as it turned out he learned an entirely different side to both men. This book is already making the rounds through my family and I am sure as you read it you will do the same.

Deeply Moving and Inspirational, October 12, 2009
As a full-time working mother of a 3.5 year old, I don't get much time to read, so I am pretty particular as to which books I do. My mother was fortunate to receive an advanced copy of "Have a Little Faith". She brought it to my house and left it on my kitchen counter. I picked it up and from the moment I read the back cover page, I was incredibly intrigued and moved by this story. I wanted to read the book in one day, but I didn't. I savored it over a two week period, reading a little bit each day. The wisdom, philosophy and insight into life and people in general is priceless. I consider myself spiritual, not necessarily religious. You don't have to be to enjoy this book. Although it has a religions context, it's message is clearly about being good, doing good and seeing good in other people....and having faith, of course. I have shared my copy with several members of my family and have told others of this book. Thank you Mitch Albom for writing "Have a Little Faith" and thank you Hyperion Books for publishing it. ... Read more