Esther

A coming-of--age novel set in the 1960s

Revisado: 02-09-17

What about Jenna Lamia’s performance did you like?

Jenna Lamia spoke masterfully using the many voices, accents, and inflections needed to effectively narrate this novel.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I laughed and cried and experienced a range of emotions in between.

Any additional comments?

I read the audible version of this story written from the young pre-teen daughter's point of view. It's about her life, first with an eccentric southern belle mother who couldn't stand being displaced in Willoughby, Ohio and a father who couldn't bear the strain of having what he defined a "mentally ill" wife. His solution was to take a job on the road and as a result, he was rarely home. Consequently, their daughter CeeCee was very much neglected by both parents and scorned by the prim and proper religious community. The saving grace was her kind, elderly neighbor, Mrs. Odel, who provided school lunches and shared Sunday brunches with CeeCee. Then, tragedy struck when the mom died suddenly in a freak accident. The father quickly agreed to a great aunt’s offer for CeeCee to live with her in Savannah.

Upon arrival in Savannah, CeeCee finds herself surrounded by an entire community of supportive, independent, and loving women who hearten her to feel the grief of her own lost life, her sadness over the loss of her mother, and the anger with her remiss father. Oh, this was the fulsome life in which her mother could have thrived — and for which she had longed — to revitalize her ailing spirit! Now CeeCee understood her mother’s eccentric ways much better. Why, the entire community was allowed to express their varied eccentricities and yet still find acceptance. Just look at the feuding neighbors, Ms. Goodpepper and Ms. Hobbs who provided constant amusement to CeeCee’s life, as their differences — and even some similarities — became hilariously evident.

CeeCee’s Aunt Tootie provides a secure home environment. She teaches her neice about the internal fire embodied in each person and which must be recognized and embraced in order to thrive. Oletta, Aunt Tootie's beloved cook and friend teaches CeeCee the gracious hospitality, etiquette, and good manners of southern folk from the colored community’s point of view, which included an important life lesson about revenge.

One might think this is a gloomy story but not so. CeeCee’s antics had me laughing and crying as the caring females gently — and sometimes firmly — assisted in her adaptation to her grand new life in Savannah. With outstanding narration by Jenna Lamia, Beth Hoffman has gifted us with her debut novel — such a jewel — I read it twice and highly recommend it!

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I rarely read novels unless I feel some resonance

Revisado: 01-23-17

Would you listen to The Language of Flowers again? Why?

Liked it so much I read it twice!

Any additional comments?

I rarely read novels unless I feel some resonance with the story line. One lesson I learned from my own tortured life is that that when abandoned, the Universe provides what I call “earth angels” to enable survival and — if circumstances permit — the thriving of the soul.

Could this be true of Victoria, as well? I just had to find out. How could someone so thoroughly let down by the system as Victoria possibly trust anyone — ever — again? How could she find the conviction to engage in the challenges of living a “normal” life? Could Victoria survive without flashing back to some horrid event — some perceived “proof” of failure — to slap her down one more time? Could she ever live as a contributing member of the community without sabotaging everything she ever touched? Can someone who feels misgivings for humanity ever learn to grow, then to love, and even to set down roots? Could she ever feel understood and loved by another?

At the age of eighteen, Victoria was cast out of family services as homeless and jobless. The Language of Flowers was the only true and pure thing Victoria had in her life. Could she communicate in the world of flowers and build a life for herself?

Vanessa Diffenbaugh brilliantly portrayed a true-to-life story of a girl utterly let down by a failed system. Victoria had to feel her way along using the only language she knew to surround herself with special souls whose imperfectly perfect ways enabled her development and growth to love where her own mother could not — and to become grounded much like moss — without roots.

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Teachings for Embodied Awakening

Revisado: 01-17-17

What made the experience of listening to The Self in Full Bloom the most enjoyable?

Mukti is a spiritual teacher who has a well-rounded background of vital learning tools which include yoga, acupuncture, and Chinese medicine where she learned the yin-yang metaphor for life. She illustrates the masculine and feminine, the give and take, yin-yang of awakening, which really benefited me.

My early childhood experiences included bullying and beatings to elicit my obedience. Until I was able to break free of some of those dysfunctional patterns (like leaving the family religion) many of my life’s endeavors were harsh and demanding. In my search for healing, I engaged some practitioners of energetic healing modalities. Some of them helped but others brought the very opposite results. Mukti gently and lovingly “encouraged” and “soothed” me to relax into my body. As teacher, she used vital tools which included knowledge of how to move me out of the active mind and into accessing my heart and my lower belly on the journey to awakening. By degrees, she explained the two-step practice of meditation and self-inquiry which actually complement each other during the process of self-discovery. Meditation became much easier for me once I got past the unhelpful pattern of working hard to stop thought, and instead, offering the mind freedom to explore where the mind figured it needed to be. She used valuable illustrations such as comparing the over-stimulated mind to a horse stuffed into a tiny stall by force. Instead, she suggests setting the horse free into a spacious pasture to let it “do” whatever it needed during meditation. Surprisingly, such freedom enabled a naturally calming environment within the self, which I found soothing and yet at the same time, vitalizing — again, her yin-yang training became evident.

Mukti insists there is an aspect of you that is not at odds with itself. That part of your nature which expresses harmoniously all the facets of what you are doesn’t want anything from you. It sees no need to fix you. It sees no need to correct anything in you. It doesn’t need you to manage, it doesn’t need you to track, there is nothing for you to do, other than simply receive this invitation to simply “be — let down and let be.” How utterly soothing is that?

I’m finally learning what being grounded feels like, after being admonished by healers, “You’re not grounded!” — but without demonstrating or explaining what it was to actually “be” grounded. Mukti’s gentle, nurturing, loving, soothing words led me into my heart and my lower belly, to my ground of being, to where my own divine nature provided the experience and proved to me who I AM, who I BE, where I felt the invitation to “come and drink life’s water free” as coming from a place of love, — not from religion, not from scripture — from pure love from within the depths of my Self.

“The Self in Full Bloom” gives listeners the opportunity to discover directly the ground of being and to live in alignment with life. On that basis, I recommend the audible version of this work to anyone who wants to feel closer to their own divine nature.

What other book might you compare The Self in Full Bloom to and why?

Her husband Adyashanti's works are comparable.

What does Mukti bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Her voice is wonderful for the meditations in her audible books. I could close my eyes and watch what was happening behind my eyelids.

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Ever experience a Dark Night of the Soul?

Revisado: 01-17-17

If you could sum up Seeing in the Dark in three words, what would they be?

Have you ever experienced a “dark night of the soul”? Colleen Deatsman is a teacher and a healer who knows from personal experience what it is like to be devastatingly ill. She felt utterly fatigued, depressed, frustrated, disconnected, and lost. For ten years, Colleen was one of the hopeless who suffered from a chronic illness. Traditional medicine could not effectively treat her symptoms. Prescription drugs were more risk than benefit. Side-effects were worse than the “disease.” Determined to live life fully again, she embarked on a journey of self-healing and spiritual awakening that led to her complete recovery.

I can relate to all of the above and that is why I bought this audiobook.

Her book details non-traditional do-it-yourself techniques. Through detailed descriptions, her own convincing story, and an easy to follow step-by-step format for the reader to grasp, Colleen moved from agonized disability to full recovery and spiritual illumination. Her journey to wellness is clearly outlined in this book. She convinced me that if she, an ordinary woman could heal herself with her techniques, so could I. I’m just as ordinary as anyone!

The word “shaman” means “one who sees in the dark.” Shamans consciously choose to live in two different worlds at the same time. They have one foot here in the everyday world of work and responsibility and one foot in the world of the spirits. The fact is, we all live in these two different worlds, but are commonly not aware of the other, less visible one. Interestingly, this world exists right beside us, perhaps just outside of our usual perceptions.

Seeing in the Dark presents the wisdom tradition and shamanic way of life which is in complete harmony with the natural world. The only things that are unnatural is that our current governments and religious leaders have conditioned humanity in an entirely different way — in a truly unnatural direction. Nevertheless, the shamanic path has weathered the cataclysmic changes of eons of human history and is even more vital and relevant today than it was in ancient times. In times when stress, tension, and the fast pace of life overwhelm us, this path shows us how to slow down, reconnect to the sacred, and harness our personal power — skills that will be needed for the uncertain days ahead.

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Profoundly spiritual life lessons

Revisado: 01-15-17

Any additional comments?

Of Water and the Spirit author’s village elders believed that it is utterly impossible to survive being caught between two conflicting belief systems.

We have all heard horrific stories about children of the first peoples being ripped away from the security and love of their family and village, and unceremoniously deposited into residential schools. It happened in North America, and now Malidoma Patrice Somé relates his experience in Upper Volta, Africa at the hands of the Jesuit priests. Perhaps child kidnapping at the mercy of religious fanatics is a world-wide phenomenon. It’s like this: a child has his/her secure foundation nicely set in place, then along comes someone who thinks they are superior, takes the child, and then transplants him/her into an extremely harsh alternate setting. There, the so-called “advanced” or “civilized” white people attempt to destroy his/her early foundational bonds and replace them with something utterly loathsome.

After fifteen years of mind control and re-conditioning, the author was able to escape from the madness of the seminary school. It took Somé eleven days to find his way back home from the Jesuit school. Upon arriving home, he discovered he could no longer communicate with his family or the village because he had “lost” the language — which was literally beaten out of him — by Jesuit priests, no less. After fifteen years in the white religionists’ hell hole, any future in his village appeared bleak.

The author may have very well felt that upon his return he didn’t fit into either world. Now he was a man caught between two worlds — a less than comfortable realization. Here he was, now with two conflicting foundational belief systems — and here he was standing on his home ground with unplanted feet. Was survival possible?

Fortunately, the tribal elders in Somé’s village decided over a period of a few months that he was worth ‘salvaging’ and decided by small majority that an initiation back into his community was in order.

Now I dare to pose the question: White man’s colonialist religion is “civilized“?

I, too, believe as do the elders of the Dagara community that it is utterly impossible to co-exist while caught between two conflicting belief systems.

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First ray of hope to heal body trauma

Revisado: 01-15-17

Any additional comments?

I’m always looking for new information on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), having been diagnosed with it many years ago. I’ve been working with therapists ever since. When I read the work of Bessel A. van der Kolk, M.D., I believe he is an awesome font of information on the subject. Having been a sufferer himself apparently, PTSD was quite a motivator for his choice of academic studies! What I especially appreciated in this book is learning of the new treatments he has been developing that are more “somatic” in nature than talk therapy and drugs.

As I understand it, PTSD is a shock which the body has somehow endured and which requires special attention because the “injury” can be reactive. Somehow sufferers must work to release the shock, which gets embedded in the brain, the emotional response, and even the biology of the body. His book gave me several ideas of what somatic kinds of treatments with which I can get engaged, besides talk therapy, which is incomplete by itself. Some of his current projects include yoga for PTSD, theater to build confidence and self-esteem, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), and other treatment combinations. He has done much drug testing as well, and his studies indicate it is usually preferable to work with the body directly without the use of drugs.

Sadly, trauma sufferers frequently pass on their stress to their partners and children. His studies now show that he has had success with patients who have been able to work through the issues and the sufferers have been able to reclaim their lives. Where PTSD once sucked the pleasure out of the lives of sufferers, his patients have had success in overcoming their blockages to personal happiness. This book offers proven solutions way beyond drugs and talk therapy in helping his clients salvage their lives.

By actually “re-arranging” the brain’s wiring, his treatments offer hope to Veterans and their families, adult children of alcoholics, as well as people who were abused sexually, physically, or mentally. Such experiences inevitably leave their scars, all which require healing. People from all over the world now visit his clinic for solutions to their suffering.

He shows how the areas of the brain controlling pleasure, engagement, control, and trust which have been shut down by trauma can be reactivated through the innovative treatments discussed in his book. Trauma “sufferers” have literally been transformed into “survivors” as a result of the doctor’s work in the field of healing trauma. I recommend this book to professionals and lay people alike who are interested in learning about overcoming the ravages of personal trauma. I listened to the audible version and can testify that this book is easily understood whether or not one has academic designations after their name.

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Not my usual read, but found it intriguing

Revisado: 01-15-17

What made the experience of listening to The Art of Asking the most enjoyable?

Audible book contains some of Amanda Palmer's music. Not my usual genre, but her music expresses from the deepest recesses of her heart. It was captivating. It made me cry.

Any additional comments?

I first heard of this exceptional author when I watched her TED talk. “When we really see each other, we want to help each other,” says author, artist, and performer Amanda Palmer. As I began reading her book, it was easy to see why I was drawn to her. She is wide open — completely transparent — and I absolutely and easily fell in love with her.

I liked Amanda Palmer as soon as I began listening to this audible book. I love the inflections in her voice which tells me that she is a truly caring human being. Not only is she known as the “Eight-foot bride,” she is a creative musician who thinks outside the boxes that our parents, religions, politicians, corporations, etc. have devised — boxes in which we get lost and confused. She found her niche and flows with life. She found her own way to connect with her audiences by becoming a friend to her fans. The book is filled with her songs about her human-ness and I couldn’t help but love her. She is so real and down-to-earth. She inadvertently — or intuitively — created a new way of marketing herself by just being real. In the end, we might all wish to re-create ourselves to suit our Self, rather than step onto horrible treadmills created for us by fearful taskmasters, agents, employers, managers, and labels. Let’s not give our power away to these self-professed gurus and experts. Rather, let’s look within and find our own way. Let’s define our own success and stop allowing others to tell us what our success in life is supposed to look like. She’s amazing.

I certainly do admire her spunk. Imagine standing on a box in the middle of a busy city, dressed as a white-faced bride, and silently using your eyes to ask people for money. Or touring Europe in a band and finding a place to sleep each night by asking strangers on Twitter. For Amanda Palmer, actions like these have gone beyond satisfying her basic needs for food and shelter. They’ve taught her how to turn strangers into friends, build communities, and discover her own giving impulses. In fact, she has a page on her website where people can what she calls “shamelessly promote” their own event. And because she had learned how to ask, she was able to go to the world to ask for the money to make a new album and tour with it, and to raise over a million dollars in a month.

Her book The Art of Asking, Palmer expands upon her popular talk to reveal how ordinary people, those of us without thousands of Twitter followers and adoring fans, can use these same principles in our own lives. “Don’t make people pay for music, let them!” says Amanda. In other words, become your own media promoter. In a passionate talk that begins in her days as a street performer, she examines an entirely new and surprising relationship between artist and fan. Her openness and transparency have completely revolutionized and changed her life for the better.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material which includes photos of the Eight Foot Bride will be available (pdf format) in your Audible Library section along with the audio.

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Serious subject lightened with a sense of humor

Revisado: 01-15-17

Any additional comments?

I loved reading Goddesses Never Age and in my case, it was the Audible version. Christiane Northrup is a board-certified OB/GYN physician who understands the challenges that women face in our fast-paced and sometimes less than forthright world in which we live.

Dr. Northrup explains that our well-being is determined by our beliefs to a greater degree than by our biology. She has positive suggestions about getting older and demonstrates what we might expect from our later years, regardless of what our early years of not-so-healthy societal conditioning dictated. What she learned in medical school is not the full truth. Interestingly, she was able to heal her migraines by trusting her instincts instead of following pharmaceutical protocol. For example, the pharmaceutical industry teaches that a women’s body is a ticking time bomb just waiting for a disaster to happen and the solution would always be prescription drugs.

In her 40s she had to deal with a fibroid tumor that grew so large it made her appear pregnant. When she was in the hospital to have it removed, she affirmed, “When I awaken, the circumstances that created this will have passed.” Two years later she was divorced. She feels certain that her dysfunctional marriage was the root problem for such a diagnosis in her female organs. How many women have their sexual organs and their breasts surgically removed, even in the name of “preventative” medicine these days, ensuring the pharmaceutical industry customers for life, as women become dependent on patented drugs to “restore hormone balance” or so says the literature and the commercials. Breast disease screening is not benign, in fact it is a harmful procedure. Screening finds things we die with, rather than die from.

I recommend this book to all women who wonder how to identify priorities to help their life become more manageable, but it goes much deeper than the damage control concept such as avoiding much of the industry propaganda. Dr. Northrup is living proof that mature women can be full of vitality. She believes in illuminating everything that can go right with the female body, including teaching women how to truly flourish.

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