REVIEW: THE ALCHEMIST BY PAULO COELHO

Okay, so basically this has been the longest I have neglected my blog E-V-E-R, and I wanted to thank all of you so much who still have checked in from time to time!

I have been busy reading business and spiritual books, and am about to start Life Coach training with Martha Beck in January, and figured that you all probably didn't want to read reviews of this kind of thing, SO, when I actually get novels read I will review them but not sure what frequency that will be!

Last month I went on an incredible retreat with my mentor and friend Laura Gates at the gorgeous Ratna Ling Centre just north of San Francisco.

It was a life transforming experience, and just before I went my husband said, "You have to read The Alchemist."  A book I've had for YEARS and still had not read, but gave it to him several years ago and he read and LOVED it.  So, I was like, "Yes, yes, I know I will read it."  And he looked at me and said, "No, hon, you have to read this book right now, at exactly this time in your life."  And once I did, I completely understood what he meant.

What a book!

I think this book will resonate with pretty much anyone, unless you have no heart or soul or have never felt any yearning of any kind, and if that's you, then you are probably a rock and cannot read this text anyway.  But it will especially resonate with people, like me, who are actively in search of your

purpose, or purposes, in life at this moment.  In the book, Coelho refers to it as being on a quest to find your Personal Legend.  How beautiful is that?

We open with a young shepherd named Santiago who has a recurring dream that he must travel to a nearby town, where he meets a gypsy who tell him there is a treasure in the Pyramids of Egypt.  On his way he encounters may people and teachers and, yes, even a hotsy totsy girl with whom he falls in love.

It is such a beautiful story and has so many layers of meaning that there is no way I can delve into it with any great skill here, but I will say this... there is one part in the book where the Alchemist tells him to listen to his heart.  Like really listen to it.  To walk and listen to it beat, and listen to the messages that it is trying to convey all of the time to him.  This was just beautiful.  You know how now-a-days there is this thing to follow your dreams, your heart, courses, workshops, retreat... but when someone simply says, "Really listen to your heart.  Be still.  Be quiet and listen."  There is something restful and peaceful about that.  Cutting out all of the noise.  And just BEING STILL.  Like I was able to do at Ratna Ling.

Here are some fun facts about this book:

• Coelho wrote The Alchemist in only two weeks in 1987. He explained he was able to write at this pace because the story was "already written in [his] soul"
• According to The New York Times, The Alchemist has been translated into 67 distinct different languages. This gave Coelho the position as the world's most translated living author, according to the 2009 Guinness World Records.^[7]
• Paulo Coelho is a strong advocate of spreading his books through peer-to-peer file sharing networks. He put his own books on file-sharing networks like BitTorrent, and noted that The Alchemist received a boost in sales due to this.^[10] He stated that "I do think that when a reader has the possibility to read some chapters, he or she can always decide to buy the book later."^[10] Currently, chapters from The Alchemist can be found on Google Books and Coelho's agency Sant Jordi Associados.^[11][12] Entire copies of his books, including translations, can also be found on Pirate Coelho, a blog off Coelho's main blog. (No longer available. Only Audio versions are still open for download.) ^[13] Also available on YouTube.^[14]

The moral of the story is this:

An old king tells Santiago, "when you really want something to happen, the whole universe conspires so that your wish comes true". 

And that, my friends, I believe is truth. 

:0)

RATING:  5 STARS

The power of the name J.K. Rowling...

Hi all!
Oh my god, I cannot BELIEVE how long it has been since I have posted her!  What the F??!!  ANYway, mostly it is because I have been reading a lot, but business, coach-y, and entrepreneurial books and let's face it, that's not why people stop by here.  You all stop by here to see what books I'm into, what's good, what sucks, you know, bookish stuff!

But in case any of you are like me and love business, and are starting or well into your own business ventures, here is a list of some of the best ones I have read in the last couple of months:

Steering by Starlight by Martha Beck

Can I just say that I LOVE LOVE LOVE the way Martha Beck writes?  She is hilarious, and she
breaks stuff down in a super digestible way.  This is my all time favourite of her books, and if you are stuck and not sure what you want to do with your life, this is a great book to get some traction in that department.









The Energy of Money by Maria Nemeth PhD

This book is incredible, I am about 3/4 through it and
it has already started to transform my life.  It is not just about money, but Maria speaks a lot about "monkey mind" which goes by many names, some call it your Inner Critic, Martha Beck calls it your Inner Lizard, I like to call mine "Liz".  Basically, it is that voice inside your head that never lets up.  It is constantly telling you why you are not good enough, why you shouldn't do stuff, it's the panic button in your brain that basically stops you from living your biggest best life, and it is totally manageable!  You will never get rid of your lizard, but you can learn tool to turn it down.  Super powerful.  Everyone should read it, and it should be required reading in high school fo sho.





Now, onto J.K.  AKA:  Money Bags Rowling and The Cuckoo's Calling.  She very successfully wrote and published a book under a pen name, Robert Galbraith, and sold 1500 copies.  1500.  That's it.  That's all.  Then somebody "leaked" who the real author was and within 24 hours sales of that books went up 156,000%.

156, 886 % to be exact.  

I'm not making this up, you can read all about it here. 

And you know what?  Within about a nanosecond of hearing that she actually wrote it, I, who had never even heard of the book before but coincidentally had been sniffing around for a mystery kind of book, downloaded it on my Kindle.  I, who actually really did not like A Casual Vacancy.

BUT, I am happy to report that I am about 14% in, which I have no idea what that translates into actual

physical realish pages, and I am thoroughly enjoying it.  Like really really enjoying, as in I love the main guy, and his assistant chick, and I love the story so far.

Here is the blurb, which I have not even read, and even though I am copying and pasting it here from Amazon.com, I still have not read it.  I want to go in fresh!

The Cuckoo's Calling is a 2013 crime fiction novel by J. K. Rowling, published under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.

A brilliant mystery in a classic vein: Detective Cormoran Strike investigates a supermodel's suicide.

After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Strike is down to one client, and creditors are calling. He has also just broken up with his longtime girlfriend and is living in his office.

Then John Bristow walks through his door with an amazing story: His sister, thelegendary supermodel Lula Landry, known to her friends as the Cuckoo, famously fell to her death a few months earlier. The police ruled it a suicide, but John refuses to believe that. The case plunges Strike into the world of multimillionaire beauties, rock-star boyfriends, and desperate designers, and it introduces him to every variety of pleasure, enticement, seduction, and delusion known to man.

You may think you know detectives, but you've never met one quite like Strike. You may think you know about the wealthy and famous, but you've never seen them under an investigation like this.

All in all I am super happy with it so far, because I still have some lingering sadness that I did not like her last book.  I am a Harry Potter Rowling total Potterhead, in fact my daughter and I were just in Portland for Leakycon!  So, I go in with some pretty big expectations of wanting to love every word she writes. 

What are you guys reading this summer, I am dying to know!

Write a book? Why not?

Hey all,

Like many of you fab bloggers out there who have already or always wanted to write a book, I have wanted to be an author since I was about 8 years old, and have written a bit of this and that.  I even signed up for NanoWrimo once!  Anyway, Danielle LaPorte is an amazing coach-y motivational goddess and as it turns out she co-created this amazing thing called Your Big Beautiful Book Plan.  This thing is so chock full of great info, much of it super valuable, and plenty of actual examples of query letters, hook pages, and book plan content that it is worth every single penny and then some.  In fact, it's a steal at the price.

Your Big Beautiful Book Plan also has a multi-media platform with plenty of video and audio recordings of Danielle and her co-creator Linda interviewing top hot authors like Jonathan Fields of Uncertainty:  Turning Fear and Doubt into Fuel for Brilliance.  There are worksheets, and over 400 pages of utter yumminess to get you inspired to finally write and get your book out into the world!

This is an affiliate link and I am super proud to be an affiliate, truly.

Here is the blurb from the gals themselves:

Your Big Beautiful Book Plan is a digital program for people who want to get their word into the world — where it belongs. If you are on the prowl for a literary agent, ripe ‘n ready for publication, and secretly yearning to incite a bidding war for your prose…or stepping into the writing & publishing game for the sheer love of it, Your Big Beautiful Book Plan is a companion, a roadmap, a Bible for your book’s entire life cycle — from the blinking cursor to your first book signing tour date.

Creators Danielle LaPorte + Linda Sivertsen have landed six-figure book deals, independently authored + co-authored over a dozen titles (including several NY Times bestsellers), and helped thousands of writers devote themselves to DONE. We’re talking life’s work, in print and pixels. Decade-long dreams, on the shelf and on screen. The big Why, poured into words. These ladies love this stuff. And you’re going to feel the love.

MAILBOX MONDAY - APRIL 29, 2013

Mailbox Monday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by various peeps and this month it is being hosted over at Mari Reads.  

It was my birthday last week, so my lovely daughter bought me the 3rd in the Infernal Devices trilogy by Cassandra Clare!

So far it is as fabulous as I would have hoped, and I had forgotten where the last book left off, but it gets you up to speed in a nice subtle way. 

What was in your mailbox this week??

REVIEW: THE FAULT IN OUR STARS BY JOHN GREEN

The Fault in our Stars by John Green
Purchased

I heard about John Green a few years back in those early months of my blog, and I just knew I would love him, but didn't realize how much until my thirteen year old daughter thrust this book into my hands.  Back then I took out his book that was making the book blog rounds, Paper Towns, and read the first chapter and loved his wit, his writing style, and storytelling ability.  But for whatever reason I had to return it to the library and put John Green on my must read list someday when my TBR pile was down to a reasonable few dozen. (insert maniacal laugh here)

My thirteen year old was asking for this book when it first came out, and finally she had enough money to buy it herself, and as any mother would celebrate, she read it in just a few days, could not put it down, and said the one thing that is music to every book-addicted-mother's ears after going to bed, "Just one more chapter, Mom!"

At one point in her reading she slowly came into my bedroom and said, "I'm so sad.  This book is SO SAD!"  But didn't tell me, knowing she wanted me to read it.

Once she was done, I started, and this book is one you will get into immediately.  Like, within the first few sentences.  Summarizing the plot is nearly impossible because there would be spoilers o'plenty, and I would never do that to you!  I think the only way to safely summarize it is to quote the jacket cover here:

"Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis.   But when gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten."

The thing with John Green is, he's kind of a genius.  And when I say "kind of" I mean he TOTALLY COMPLETELY FREAKING IS!  I love the way he writes, and he successfully enters into the mind of a teenage girl with the ease of, well, a teenage girl, and how he does that is anybody's guess.  There are so many gems in here that teens will love it as well as parents of said teens.  It rings true in many ways, and some ways that many of us hope we never have to find out, like:  What does it actually feel like to be  teenager with a terminal illness?  What is that like for their parents?  Their friends?  Somehow amidst the heart wrenching premise, John Green manages to make things funny.  Hilarious, even.  Not unlike the academy award winning film A Beautiful Life that brilliantly and mysteriously managed to make us laugh out loud within the storyline framed by the holocaust.  John Green actually makes us laugh in the midst of children having cancer, I'm not even remotely kidding about this.  Not to mention that in his acknowledgements (which I actually like to read) he thanks the "Nerdfighters, for being awesome" and a heart.  AND he is a Potterhead, and I want him to marry my daughter even though he is too old and already taken.  LOVE. HIM.

I also just love his whole writing "thing" he's got going on, like this:

"I did not speak to Augustus again for about a week.  I had called him on the Night of the Broken Trophies, so per tradition it was his turn to call."

The "Night of the Broken Trophies".  I love this.  This may not make sense right now, but once you read it, you will understand the reference, but that's not important here, what IS important, however, is the fact that he describes an event as the Night of the Broken Trophies, which in and of itself is so deliciously funny, and not in a ha-ha way, but in a clever witty way, which is awesome.

Hazel's whole attitude is witty as well, but in a dark way, which makes it charming and blatantly honest:

"And yet still I worried.  I liked being a person.  I wanted to keep at it.  Worry was yet another side effect of dying."

Hazel is as real a teenager as any literary fake one I have ever not met.  Her "voice" is believable, and maybe it is because I happen to have a teenage girl in my midst it hit me more in the centre.  And when I would get to certain parts I would text her and say:

ME:  omg, I just got to the part with (the thing and the stuff and the woo)
ELLIE:  I KNOW, RIGHT?  I WAS JUST LIKE, GAH.  CAN'T WAIT TO TALK TO YOU ABOUT IT!!

And later---

ME: (so and so stuff and things)  Sobbing.  Stupid book.
ELLIE: OH MY GOD NOW YOU KNOW MY PAIN.  CAN WE PLEASE CRY TOGETHER?  PLEASE??

And even later---

ME:  Just finished The Book.  One of the best books I have read, like, ever.  And even more stellar because you gave it to me.


This book has heart, soul, smarts, awesome nerdiness that I uphold as sacred, and did I mention HEART?

The only caveat I will add here is there needs to be a little packet of kleenex attached to the back, like the kind your grandma would carry in her purse, with the sides all discoloured and the plastic all feathery from being in there for so long.  A person needs the kleenex when you read it.

So, just go and buy it, and read it, then tell everyone about it.  Okay?  Okay.  ;0)

RATING:  5 out of freaking 5 stars!!

REVIEW: THE GIVER BY LOIS LOWRY

The Giver by Lois Lowry

Kindle


I have had this book on my kindle for a couple of years now, when it was floating around the blogosphere.  I had intended to read it plenty of times, but the other day when my 13 year old daughter came home and told me they were reading it in LA, and said how cool it would be if we both read it so we could discuss it, how could I say no?

To put it bluntly.....


IT WAS FRIGGEN AWESOME.


I loved everything about this book.  First of all, I'm a huge fan of this kind of world.  Dystopian at it best, and weirdly disturbing, but not too much.  In fact, on the surface it appears that the people in this "land" have created Utopia, but it doesn't take long to realize.... um.... not so much.

The novel follows Jonas in this twelve year, and similar to The City of Ember, each twelve is assigned a job.  Jonas, however, is given the most unique job of all -  Receiver of Memory.

He begins his training with The Giver and he really does come across just like the photo on the cover.  Or like Jeff Bridges, who will be playing him in the upcoming film adaptation.  Which I think is the absolute perfect Dude choice.

The Giver starts nice and easy, and we soon realize that Jonas is starting to notice flashes of strangeness in his environment, and this is when we learn what his world is currently like, and how different it is from the memories he will soon experience and hold precious.

I really cannot give a summary of the plot without totally giving away the story, so I will only say that it is a super fast excellent read, and has very good book club discussion possibilities, or even just discussions with your children who might be reading it in class.

Loved it.


RATING: 5/5

TEASER TUESDAY: MARCH 12, 2013

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme hosted by Should Be Reading!  And anyone can play, you don't need a book blog!

Here are the rules:


Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

"He heard voices calling to one another.  Peering from the place where he stood hidden behind some shrubbery, he was reminded of what The Giver had told him, that there had been a time when flesh had different colors."

~  The Giver by Lois Lowry

For more Teasers, click here.