Reviews written by Julie Clayton

The future of medicine is rushing in and author Pamela McDonald, an integrative-medicine nurse-practitioner, is pointing the way. The Perfect Gene Diet is not a “diet” in any sense of weight-management. Rather, it is a guidebook for healthy living (food, environment, and mental/emotional health) based on what gene (pair) type we have for the biochemical process of moving and processing fats, proteins, and cholesterol.

Specifically, this book focuses on the “Apo E” gene, and apparently it is “widely known that each genotype requires its own balance of carbohydrates, fats and proteins for optimal health.” The Apo E is an inherited gene, and with heart disease being the number one cause of death in the United States, and the alarming rise of Alzheimer’s and chronic illness, this is the gene being focused on. A simple blood test, along with an advanced cholesterol test, will determine your Apo E gene pairing (all genes come in pairs), and with this information you can then apply the comprehensive dietary and integrative health information contained in this book.

I expected that this would be challenging reading, perhaps dense and filled with medical jargon and tedious research results, but in fact The Perfect Gene Diet is easy to read and understand. Personal stories from the author and patients brings it alive, and self-inquiry exercises, along with lifestyle behaviors, meal plans, and individualized recipes specific to your gene type provide clear and useful direction for an optimal health program. The author does not promise that eating right for your gene type will cure you of ailments or guarantee an illness-free life. What she says is that a health program, compatible with our Apo E geneotype, will reduce the likelihood of developing the prevalent debilitating diseases.

And although there may indeed be dietary combinations in certain ratios that are better for some than others based on our genes, the basic and now well-known elements for a healthy body, mind, and spirit seem to prevail no matter how we look at it: eat lots of whole and green foods, move your body, and practice tools for creativity and spirituality. Still, medical research brings increased understanding of the complex inner workings of the human body, and will continue to offer inroads for targeting both disease and health. The Perfect Gene Diet is a pioneering indicator that we’re just beginning to find our way through the genetic maze.

This is another worthwhile, well-written self-help book, filled with sound guidance, useful techniques, and real life anecdotes that are easy to relate to and understand, written by psychic Jeffrey Wands. A section on feng shui and energies within your home and relationships was an unexpected surprise that I especially enjoyed. It has all the right ingredients: it is well written and it certainly covers the basics for changing and improving our life. And although the spiritual precepts offered are no longer new—or news—the same ideas and insights keep showing up in self-improvement media, which suggests that truth is being spoken here.

But I cannot help but ask myself, “Do we really need another self-help book ?” And the answer is clear: on the human journey of awakening to our limitations and potential, each person is uniquely positioned within the stream of life. Many people are already in the flow, and are navigating the currents and enjoying the changing landscape as they move along. Others have only just realized that there is a stream of life, and that they are in it, either paddling upstream or being swept away, or perhaps letting go to the magic of the currents. In other words, beginning to realize that—and how—they are captain of their personal destiny.

So for these folks I say by all means read this book, and others, to help you to understand and orient yourself to the transformation that occurs when you set sail in the current of life.

“Coming again and again to the same place, mindful and with intention, writing practice becomes a spiritual act. When you enter into your writer’s soul, you are treading upon sacred ground.”

Perhaps the highest compliment I can give to this book is that even if I weren’t a writer or interested in writing, I would read this book! It is filled with literary tidbits and quotations from other writers, creative inspiration, and humor—in addition to the “writing prompts” for each day of the year. And if you are a writer or an aspiring writer, this book will ignite your passion and practice. It is rich and lively: an intimate, compassionate companion that tends your creative soul.

Typically, the corporate world is still dominated by men with unexamined masculine attitudes and conditioning. Women within this subculture have essentially three choices about how they navigate any kind of success: adopt the prevailing masculinized practices, withdraw and betray themselves, or own their intrinsic value and take initiative. Authors Sally Helgessen and Julie Johnson shed light on the disparities between women’s vision and men’s in the business world, and they do so with insightful clarity, as well as substantial research and anecdotes. Still, the business world is merely representative of a greater and fundamental imbalance that exists in most societies: the absence of valuing the feminine experience. And for me, it is this larger message that this book delivers—albeit indirectly—that gets my passion aroused.

What is the feminine experience? Naturally, the answer is complex, but I think it’s safe to begin by saying that the feminine intrinsically perceives the world as a relationship-oriented realm. When relationships are the lens through which reality—people and nature—is seen, this shifts everything that relates to meaning, values, vision, and action.

Many women are already redefining leadership and business across the globe, not by trying to change the existing power structures, but by reconstructing the power paradigm in local practices that have global reverberations. Thanks to such women, and women such as the authors of The Female Vision, we all benefit from their courage to cultivate a leadership of living as an interconnected community, united in the task of progressive social change.

“Addressing the complexities of our common future requires us to see the world from a full perspective, employing a wide lens as well as a sharp focus.” The Female Vision is a must-read for both.

Alice: “Mad Hatter: No wonder you're late. Why, this watch is exactly two days slow.”

For the uninitiated, the prospect of watching a film with people talking about consciousness might seem solemn or tedious. And certainly there were moments—and speakers—that I personally gravitated toward more than others in The Consciousness Chronicles. But for this viewer, exploring consciousness is like popping down rabbit holes and finding oneself in magical realms of imagination and possibility. In this particular Alice-in-Wonderland world of consciousness, the enlightening—and often groundbreaking—ideas offered in this film are like the Mad Hatter hurrying us along to the party!

If not exactly a tea party, The Consciousness Chronicles is certainly an expedition into the far reaches of consciousness: the final frontier for humanity. In-depth interviews with twelve scientists and researchers from the “Toward a Science of Consciousness Conference” in Tucson, Arizona, explore such mysteries as altered states, time, quantum theory, and the nature of consciousness itself. The discourses range from didactic to prosaic and from complex to straightforward; each speaker speaks to the impact of their premise on ordinary reality.

The diversity of concepts and theories presented in Volume 1, this two-DVD set, illuminates the rich fecundity of exploring the tapestry of the mind. The thread of connection is that each model of reality is another inroad to understanding the what, how, and why of consciousness, inviting rigorous discussion and thought-provoking reflection. Each interview runs about twenty minutes and is segmented with questions that are specific to the inclinations from that particular speaker: the questions are momentarily illuminated on the screen, which is helpful for keeping viewers on track. We don’t actually see or hear the interviewer, which gives the impression that the speaker is talking directly to us.

As this DVD set indicates, consciousness is studied from multiple fields of inquiry largely within the “hard sciences,” and yet often as a stepchild of the so-called “real” classical parent: physics, biology, neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, anthropology, chemistry, neurobiology, research science, astronomy, and so forth. Frequently, consciousness is not pursued as an interest itself but as something undeniable that arises from asking other cognitive questions. No matter how it comes to the forefront of our attention, the study of consciousness is nothing less than the study of the nature of existence and reality—and probing the mystery may be as close as we ever get to definitive answers.

Mad Hatter: Have I gone mad?
Alice: I'm afraid so. You're entirely bonkers. But I'll tell you a secret. All the best people are.

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
and wisdom to know the difference.
Serenity Prayer


The Wisdom to Know the Difference is like a photo mosaic: a picture made up of many smaller pictures. The small tile images can be seen up close, but at a distance, another image can be seen. In this book, we see snapshots of the personal lives of a small group of demographically and culturally diverse people, including the author, as they face the basic human challenge of discernment: the wisdom to know the difference between what we can (and should) change, and what we must (surrender to and) accept. Well-articulated personal interviews are blended with varied spiritual perspectives and psychological insights that address the spiritual challenges in ordinary life; the larger image revealed is a reality of wisdom and hope.
This book is beautifully written and crafted, truly a literary masterwork in the self-improvement genre.

“Each new generation has a chance to alter two basic definitions of reality in our world—what is acceptable and what is possible.” ~ Rev Jim Wallis

I really tried to love this film and I think I would have—if I could have understood what theoretical nuclear scientist Amit Gotswami Ph.D. was actually saying. Is it just me that I needed subtitles to translate the thick East-Indian accent?

Gotswami has always been a revolutionary scientist, daring to step outside of mainstream science, and from the description about this DVD his daring continues: “”While mainstream science remains materialistic, there are a growing number of luminaries who have re-discovered that the foundations of reality are rooted not in the material world but in the realm of consciousness itself.”

So with my apologies and the utmost respect for this quantum activist, I beg the producers to consider re-making this film with subtitles, so that we can all benefit from the life-changing concepts that I know are just a moment away.

We seem to be intrigued, and almost obsessed, with the idea of the paranormal; certainly this is the case for the Aykroyd family. Peter Aykroyd, father of actor Dan Aykroyd (Ghostbusters, 1984) spent his childhood surrounded by mediums and observing séances that his grandfather conducted in their living room. Fifty years later, Peter came across a collection of journal writings from Grandpa—a treasure that he discovered was part history, part legend.

A History of Ghosts interweaves Peter’s narrative of his family’s paranormal experiences (and conjecture), along with independent research, into an exploration of the burgeoning Spiritualist movement and mediumship. Written from a somewhat skeptical point of view, Aykroyd debunks some of the fakirs from those early days and shows how the commonly used parlor tricks were achieved to convince the participants that they were communicating with the dead. Still, the author has an open mind (how could he not?) and he also demonstrates how some events cannot be explained by science, or any other rational understanding.

Informative and entertaining, A History of Ghosts will en-trance you!

Long before "Heroes" was a popular television series, author R.J. Hamilton was writing a story in his mind about a young man with extraordinary powers. The protagonist of Self Convictions, Brandon Hudson, has the power of telekinesis. Not tamely moving pens across a table, but a great force that seems to come from inside of his head, someone else's voice and unchecked emotions, willing him to commit murderous and appalling acts. As Brandon grows from childhood to early adulthood, he discovers the strength and intensity of his "alter-ego" powers, as well as a growing tension of both loving and hating what they--he--can do. Each act seems more hideous than the last, and yet he manages, just barely, to retain his sanity--and some conscience.

The story moves along at a good clip, so you may have to force yourself to slow down and savor the unexpected and original storyline developments, which I won't divulge -- better that you should enjoy finding out for yourself.

As a first-time author, R. J. Hamilton is a natural writer with loads of talent and imagination; I anticipate that the next installment in this series will be even more compelling and well worth the wait. But please don't make us wait too long, R.J.!

Maybe I was just procrastinating from my tasks, or maybe I just have delusions of finding "the answer" to all of my existential questions; in any event, I jumped right into this book and began calculating my name and birthdate numbers, and plotting them on the chart. The good news is that I was able to get to the juicy "who am I" bits without any preliminary reading. The not-so-good-news is that I still haven't found "the answer."

Author Norman Shine presents a unique perspective on numerology and how numbers can reveal personal truths. As with any system of divination, there are bound to be elements missing from getting a complete individualized picture, as well as generalizations that may not hold true for everyone.Still, there is fodder for the soul here and many examples of how the numbers play out for well-known figures, which provides interest and a context for understanding the power of numerology. This book is worth adding to your "instant gratification" collection-- and of course, there is depth and richness that you can take your time with and savor.

As the title implies, this book is an investigative inquiry into noteworthy, recorded UFO sightings, the essays often penned by those who were direct witnesses. These personal accounts, along with the author’s own research and documentation of statements—many from retired military personnel—are eye-opening and invite careful re-consideration of the party line that UFO’S are not real. The author has spent ten years examining this still unexplained mystery, and with the help of a former White House Chief of Staff has managed to separate fact from fiction, shaking loose the ethos of misinformation touted by the US government.

The author is an investigative journalist with a passion for truth, not a fanatic for either camp, and this is clearly evidenced by her lucid and logical presentation of “irrefutable evidence.” Any position she holds on the UFO phenomenon is simply one of pushing against the wall of resistance and cynicism coveted by so many scientists, journalists, or academics. Her point is not that they should believe—or not believe—in UFOs, simply that “An extraordinary phenomenon demands an extraordinary investigation.”

UFOs is a compelling and important contribution to the investigation of ufology—and the evidence presented is fascinating.

Just when I was losing faith in the veracity of the principles of spiritual enlightenment, I opened this brilliant book, "I AM," and all faith was restored. I opened the book randomly, anticipating a quick read of yet another Cliff's Notes variation on the you-can-create-your-reality theme, and instead was instantly transported into a world of matter, energy, evolution, and intention. Moving from my desk to the balcony with a fresh cup of tea, I settled in and read the entire book in one sitting, only returning to the pages that I had originally skipped over after I had reached the end of the book.

More than just affirming, “I AM” engendered within me a peaceful state of all-rightness with the world, a state of being the author defines as: "a balanced state of mind, due to the fact that who you believe yourself to be (I AM) has been met through your sensory perception with its exact experience in reality." Yippee! If I were a cat, I'd be purring.

The usual words I might choose to describe a book of this nature, such as inspirational, powerful, empowering, or transformational seem too flat and cliché, although indeed each would be an accurate representation of the insights offered. Although one can certainly categorize the contents as self-help (more like self-realization), I think a more accurate description is personal metaphysics. Author Howard Falco is like a wise metaphysical psychologist who delivers a profound discourse about the nature of reality, creation, and meaning—and guides us along the journey of discovery toward our individual wholehearted existence within this evolutionary playground.

Falco turns the eternal question, "who am I?" upside down, and mirrors the possibilities for reflection that are waiting at our doorstep…leading us to the core truth of self-realization so that we can say: "This is who I AM!" "This is what I AM!" "This is why I AM!" And, "This is who I CAN BE!"

This is a delightful, uplifting book that will have you celebrating your body, freeing your mind, and energizing your spirit. Using the properties of the elements as guidelines for clearing out the energetic elements of our being, one for each week, Denise Linn blends Earth wisdom with modern psycho-spirituality for healthful living.The 28-day program offers many stimulating ways to engage with your commitment to physical transformation and radiant health. This book is well-written, easy to follow, lighthearted, and filled with wisdom and inspiration.

This book drops you into the busy day-to-day life of a thirty-something mother of five, who has learned to keep her sanity with great equanimity and humor by devising important rules for herself. You will chuckle, gasp, and grab your favorite snack to keep you company as you vicariously weave and bob through the perils and promises of parenting with the author and her brood. Even if you're not a parent, this book will entertain and inspire you, and give you great appreciation for all the Moms of the world who manage to keep their head and heart in the right place, against overwhelming (and understandable) odds of "losing it" on a daily basis.

It seems that there is a revolution going on that I was unaware of -- a green revolution, and I'm not talking about the environment. I'm referring to the dietary lifestyle of juicing your greens--as in, putting leafy green vegetables into a blender (preferably a high-powered blender, such as a Vita-Mix juicer), in combination with various fruits, and drinking it on a daily basis. Like most people, I had learned that you don't mix fruit with any other food group, but the distinction between vegetables (most of them quite starchy) and leafy greens, got lost in the shuffle. Leafy greens, such as kale, spinach, beet root leaves and so forth, in fact combine well with fruits, especially because most greens are quite bitter and therefore unappealing.

Synchronistically, just before reading Green Smoothie Revolution, I had bought a masticating juicer -- a different breed from a blender, but a step up from your department store variety juicer, and had intuitively added some mango and apple to my Italian kale. It was quite tasty. One of the benefits of blending over juicing is that with a blender, you keep all of the fiber that gets squeezed out in a masticating juicer. You also add water, which means that you can make enough to get you through the day, rather than making each juiced drink anew.

And the benefits or blending or juicing? Since I am not personally addressing a serious or debilitating health issue, I can't offer personal experience that will knock your socks off. However, I do believe the myriad testimonials from people who have cured serious and chronic illness by making this dietary addition to their lifestyle. I believe, because if you do the research --and you can start by reading this book-- you begin to understand that the nutrients in leafy greens are primarily absent from the American diet due to our food choices and cooking methods, that almost all of the nutrients we need to be healthy are within the greens family ("chlorophyll...in essence, liquid sunshine"), and that even animals enjoy greens and will instinctively gravitate toward them when they are unwell (this book includes some green smoothie recipes for dogs and cats as well).

Green Smoothie Revolution is packed with benefits, including numerous smoothie recipes. I'm such a believer that I predict that if everyone in this country got their daily dose of fresh leafy greens, we would eradicate many of the chronic ailments that plague our modern culture, and overall we'd have not only greater health but greater well being and energy to attend to the things that matter most in our lives and in the world. All that, packed into a few lousy leaves!

I can say that within a few weeks of simply adding juiced greens and vegetables to my diet, and without any other dietary changes, I lost a few pounds, my eyes began to clear, and my whole digestive system seemed to get a boost. Not quite world peace, but perhaps a step in the right direction!

Reading this book is like having a conversation with someone who knows and understands the mind-body relationship intimately. The emerging paradigm in health care—which is that physical health is interconnected with our emotional and spiritual well being—just seems obvious and accessible when it is articulated so fluidly.

We’re not surprised then, when author gently leads us along a pathway to wellness by getting to the root cause of unwanted core emotional issues such as anger, guilt, resentment, or ego-driven behavior. Such issues, and their derivatives, can manifest in the guise of illness, stress, and pain: while there are many valuable and valid approaches to treatment and reversal of illness, unless our core issues are addressed, and our “Source” activated, it is unlikely that we will achieve the full bloom of our health and wellbeing.

Medical intuitive Dave Markowitz shares his client's stories and his years of experience to illustrate how to get to the core issues, how they can affect our health, how to transform them, and how his clients benefited from their new understanding about the mind-body connection—and how anyone else can too.

I've always considered animals to be our "teachers" in many ways; in "Choosing To Be" the author takes this intuitive concept to another level. Her Maine Coon cat and his kitten muse "channel" Buddhist wisdom and philosophy, which guides the author's meditation practice (her last-ditch effort to transform her depression) to greater depths and heights. Although written as a story, the cast of characters and the plot are true; reading this book casts a delightful spell as we journey with the author through the introspective turmoil of finding understanding, healing, and inner peace.

In this second and revised edition of "The Findhorn Book of Meditation," author Darren Main gives clear guidance for a seated meditation practice. You would think that an entire book wouldn't be necessary for this, but anyone who has embarked on a meditation practice knows that although it is a simple technique, meditation profoundly affects our physical, emotional, and psychological being. To this end, the author brings contemporary examples from his own meditation teaching practice to demonstrate the hows and whys of meditation. This slim volume is an easy read, but chock full of salient insight and direction: ideal for a novice and affirming for seasoned meditators.

Simply enlightening! The author manages to distill "big picture" concepts of life into manageable pieces, and to succinctly demonstrate how they relate to daily life. All of the key elements that make a successful book are within these pages: elegant design, easy to read and understand, and filled with meaningful research, techniques, and inspiration for spiritual enlightenment.

I was prepared to dismiss this book as yet another capitalization on the the new age wave of self-improvement. Instead, I found that the exercises offered to "seize the moment" are straightforward and yet powerful, socially relelvant, and easily incorporated into daily life with minimal effort beyond a willingness to do them.

In dream work a similar method is used to achieve lucidity in the dream state: an anchor of some kind (usually verbal, kinesthetic or visual) is associated with the desire or intention to achieve lucidity, and repeatedly activated or thought of throughout the day. The idea is that by instilling this anchor into conscious awareness, it "bleeds through" into the dream state and acts as a trigger for us to recall the goal of being lucid.

If you desire to seize the moment, or experience the "power of now" as Eckhart Tolle calls it, the exercises in "The Next Ten Minutes" will undoubtedly facilitate this, and over time, your patterns of awareness will expand and transform--and you will become more lucid in the waking state.

Zukav has pioneered many ideas on consciousness over the years, and those of us who know and love his work will be eager to read this book as well. Personally, I think this particular book is better suited for people new to the ideas around spiritual partnership than seasoned seekers. He does a good job of drawing analogies and giving examples, many from his personal relationships, so he gets full kudos for his candor. Still, there is little that is new here, including the idea of we humans "becoming" multi-sensory beings, although I appreciate his reinforcing this consciousness. Worth reading, but for some of us there might be some skimming through to get to the good stuff that really gets our juices going.

So many books…so little time. You’ll want to create the time to read this book, however. Author Reed Critchfield says that Finding Your Own Truth is the result of thirty years of seeking, studying, research, prayer and life experience—and it shows. This is a considered, timely, open-minded, frank, and insightful “consultation” for finding your own truth and for living a life that has both personal meaning and collective purpose.

A former military commander, linear thinker, and avid planner, it seems somewhat incompatible that this author would write such a wide-ranging and tolerant book about esoteric subjects or abstractions such as divination, spiritual awakening, or collective destiny. In fact, his structural predisposition serves the readers well, reassuring us that he has carefully considered each of the precepts, as well as providing practical charts, exercises, and plans for achieving specific goals. This is not a “how-to” book though, and as the author explains, while he has attempted to “maintain logic…the Truth is not linear…ideas and concepts tend to fold back in on themselves…”

Finding Your Own Truth is like having a wise and friendly personal consultant for some of the biggest questions and concerns about living a life of purpose and meaning, while awakening us to our relationships “with others, with the Earth, the Cosmos and God.”

This book pretty much delivers what its subtitle says: the ultimate guide to juicing remedies. Beginning with a comprehensive overview of juicing history and benefits it also offers practical advice for a juicing lifestyle, which is followed with an alphabetically arranged list of physical ailments and the juice combinations and recipes best suited to address them. Finally, the authors offer a juice cleansing regime and beauty program to jumpstart your health improvement. I did notice that many of the suggested juice recipes were identical or similar for many of the ailments; I attribute this to the wide scope of healing benefits that the specific vegetables or fruits offer.

There are many good books on juicing available, but if you have Juice Alive you certainly have all the information you need to heal, nourish, and invigorate your health and well-being.

The introduction describes this book as a journey of awareness, a journey of coming home. The journey, the author says, is one that leads us to our True Nature: our “nakedness.” Our True Nature is free from the “stories, notions, emotions and pent up baggage of the habitual mind,” revealing the pure truth and reality of our existence. Once revealed, we experience the pure mind of universal consciousness, for this is something each of us essentially IS.

The book is divided into 450 brief “passages” of wisdom and insight, designed to assist the reader in self-discovery of their own spiritual journey toward non-duality and wholeness. The format is certainly reader friendly and allows the opportunity to pause and consider the wisdom each passage offers without losing momentum. And yet, in many instances the division of understanding being offered is obviously arbitrary and the book is actually a sequential flow of ideas that builds upon itself. For this reason there were moments when I felt that understanding was sacrificed for the sake of being faithful to the abbreviated format.

I certainly recommend this book to anyone with a keen desire to mine the boundaries of human finiteness and simultaneously ascend into the infinite-ness of universal being.

This is a small book with a big message. How do we awaken to the spiritual transformation that will liberate us from the fears, anxieties, and limitations that hinder personal growth? With stories, practical wisdom, and insights, author Guy Finley demonstrates once again that he is a masterful guide and source of inspiration for anyone wanting to choose the fearless path that is our heart’s calling.

This is yet another practical guide for taking care of ourselves in mind, body and spirit, that identifies four steps for "renewing your energy, health and life." It is nicely laid out and easy to follow and relate to. Within this genre of self-improvement books that essentially skim the surface of consciousness, it holds its own and will no doubt it will reach the people who will most benefit from it.

Great book! I devoured it in one sitting, dropping all of the things on my "to do "list" without even a blip on the guilt radar. A dentist by trade, the author is a metaphysician at heart who migrated from the confines of Catholicism into thirty years of self-realization inquiry. The result is elegantly captured in this book: a captivating personal narrative intertwined with the emerging cosmic myth...You know, the one about the illusion of humans being separated from our Source, from our spiritual nature, and evolving into our higher, heart consciousness.

I don't mean to sound glib, for this is indeed the new myth of humanity. And whether or not it is "true," this state of awakened awareness is the elixir that will liberate us from all that keeps us small and divided--and into a potential that we can barely imagine right now. I happen to believe the spiritual/cosmic/god-as-self story whereby human consciousness is creation/God expressing itself, and am full of admiration of appreciation for all the creative and inspired voices who light this path.

Read this book: you will be entertained, inspired, and intrigued. Author Dr. Gene Pascucci embraces the reader with a luminescent cloak of compassion and cognition that lingers long after the last page has been turned.

And the cover--brilliant! It's "layered lenticular photographs" of Jesus and the author; each image "shapeshifts" into the other, against a backdrop of sunset on the ocean.

Once again, Maria Dancing Heart has written a heartfelt and inspiring book about befriending death. Her stories and learned wisdom from years as a hospice counselor draw us into the beauty, mystery, and light of the ultimate passage of life: dying. Of the multitude of treasures that live within this slim volume, perhaps the most impactful is its contribution to the wave of awakening consciousness. Specifically, the veils of taboo and silence around death and dying that are held so dearly in this culture drop away effortlessly through the author's words, and we are uplifted into reverence and joy for life itself--in all of its variations and conditions. And the more we can say yes to life, the more we can say yes to the most important day of our life.

Julia Cameron's groundbreaking book, The Artist's Way, bridged creativity and spirituality touching the lives of many. Her most recent book, The Creative Life, is written like a "creative diary," using the author's life as an illustration and inspiration for living life as a creative process. I'm sure I will be most unpopular when I say that I just didn't get it. Her daily life is shaped by so many unconventional (and interesting) people, opportunities, and experiences, that I was left feeling disconnected from her intention and comparatively limited in my own life's creative opportunities. The colloquial saying "that's more information than I needed" is what came to mind when I read this book. Yes, it is well-written, but I kept waiting for the author to bring me back to the point and how it was relevant to me and my creative inspiration--and it didn't happen. As Simon Cowell says, "Sorry."