Download or read book Memoirs of a Spiritual Outsider written by Suzanne Clores and published by Conari Press. This book was released on 2000-10-11 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cultivating a spiritual practice among hip, urbane Generation Next-ers is "as unpopular as letter writing," muses author Suzanne Clores. Yet her exploration of nontraditional religions and her conversations with other seekers offer a fascinating glimpse into the hearts and minds of young women searching for meaning in a secular world. Fed up with a life that is comfortable yet lacking in substance, Clores sets out to find "authentic spirituality." By examining her own and other women's postcollege longing for spirituality, she attempts to unravel the dilemma of a generation that didn't grow up with a religious emphasis. The result is one of the first books to mirror young women's yearning for a spiritual path they can fully and wholeheartedly embrace.
Download or read book The Saddest Music Ever Written written by Thomas Larson and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2010-09-15 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An exploration of the cultural impact of Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings, the Pieta of music, and its enigmatic composer. "Whenever the American dream suffers a catastrophic setback, Barber’s Adagio plays on the radio.” —Alex Ross, author of The Rest is Noise In the first book ever to explore Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings, music and literary critic Thomas Larson tells the story of the prodigal composer and his seminal masterpiece: from its composition in 1936, when Barber was just twenty-six, to its orchestral premiere two years later, led by the great Arturo Toscanini, and its fascinating history as America’s secular hymn for grieving our dead. Older Americans know Adagio from the funerals and memorials for Presidents Roosevelt and Kennedy, Albert Einstein, and Grace Kelly. Younger Americans recall the work as the antiwar theme of the movie Platoon. Still others treasure the piece in its choral version under the name Agnus Dei. More recently, mourners heard Adagio played as a memorial to the victims of the 9/11 attacks. Barber’s Adagio is truly the saddest music ever written, enrapturing listeners with its lyric beauty as few laments have. The Adagio’s sonorous intensity also speaks of the turbulent inner life of its composer, Samuel Barber (1910-1981), a melancholic who, in later years, descended into alcoholism and severe depression. Part biography, part cultural history, part memoir, The Saddest Music ever Written captures the deep emotion Barber’s great elegy has stirred throughout the world during its seventy-five-year history, becoming an icon of our national soul.
Download or read book In My Own Words written by Elizabeth Clare Prophet and published by Summit University Press. This book was released on 2009-01-01 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From modest beginnings, Elizabeth Clare Prophet rose to become one of the world's most compelling, charismatic and controversial spiritual leaders. Her life and accomoplishments have been chronicled by others. But never, until now, has there been a firsthand account. In this book, Elizabeth Clare Prophet tells the story of the search for her life's mission during her first twenty-two years. It provides an unflinching view of the struggles and triumphs that helped define her life. This memoir is a glimpse into the life and character of an extraordinary figure in new Age spirituality. It offers an intimate look into what it means to be a mystic in today's world.
Download or read book An Extraordinary Theory of Objects written by Stephanie LaCava and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2012-12-04 with total page 147 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A haunting and moving collection of original narratives that reveals an expatriate's coming-of-age in Paris and the magic she finds in ordinary objects An awkward, curious girl growing up in a foreign country, Stephanie LaCava finds solace and security in strange yet beautiful objects. When her father's mysterious job transports her and her family to the quaint Parisian suburb of Le Vésinet, everything changes for the young American. Stephanie sets out to explore her new surroundings and to make friends at her unconventional international school, but her curiosity soon gives way to feelings of anxiety and a deep depression. In her darkest moments, Stephanie learns to filter the world through her peculiar lens, discovering the uncommon, uncelebrated beauty in what she finds. Encouraged by her father through trips to museums and scavenger hunts at antique shows, she traces an interconnected web of narratives of long-ago outsiders, and of objects historical and natural, that ultimately help her survive. A series of illustrated essays that unfolds in cinematic fashion, An Extraordinary Theory of Objects offers a universal lesson—to harness the power of creativity to cope with loneliness, sadness, and disappointment to find wonder in the uncertainty of the future.
Download or read book Our Hearts Are Restless written by Richard Lischer and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2023-01-05 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The personal narrative, be it autobiography or memoir, tells what it is to live and die in the world. Spiritual memoir adds two further dimensions. First, belief or unbelief in God is not incidental to the narrative but crucial. The narrator and other characters must determine how the judgment or grace of God will influence the conduct of their lives. Some memoirs tell how the narrator came to faith; others examine what Augustine calls "the life of faith." Second, spiritual memoir entails the (usually) implied offer: "What happened to me, dear reader, can also happen to you, but in a different way, of course." This is the gospel of memoir. Our Hearts Are Restless explores the nature of spiritual memoir via a close reading of twenty-one memoirs or memoir-like works. The author engages in personal reflection with the memoirists and facilitates roundtable discussions among them. The work displays the diversity of spiritual memoir by following seven paths: conversion (e.gs., Augustine, Merton), mystical vision (Julian of Norwich, Emily Dickinson), excruciating doubt (Bunyan), devastation (Abelard, C.S. Lewis), life-long pilgrimage (Harriet Jacobs, Dorothy Day), daily adventures and challenges (Lamott), and nomadic, sometimes angry expressions of faith (Baldwin, Rodriquez). The names above are meant as samples of the book's diversity. If there is a theological argument in this study, it is this: there is no argument and no authoritative theology apart from the lives of God's people and the circumstances in which they live. "The glory of God," said St. Irenaeus, "is a human being fully alive.""--
Download or read book The Measure of a Man written by Sidney Poitier and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-10-13 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "I have no wish to play the pontificating fool, pretending that I've suddenly come up with the answers to all life's questions. Quite the contrary, I began this book as an exploration, an exercise in selfquestioning. In other words, I wanted to find out, as I looked back at a long and complicated life, with many twists and turns, how well I've done at measuring up to the values I myself have set." In this luminous memoir, a true American icon looks back on his celebrated life and career. His body of work is arguably the most morally significant in cinematic history, and the power and influence of that work are indicative of the character of the man behind the many storied roles. Sidney Poitier here explores these elements of character and personal values to take his own measure--as a man, as a husband and father, and as an actor. Poitier credits his parents and his childhood on tiny Cat Island in the Bahamas for equipping him with the unflinching sense of right and wrong and of selfworth that he has never surrendered and that have dramatically shaped his world. "In the kind of place where I grew up," recalls Poitier, "what's coming at you is the sound of the sea and the smell of the wind and momma's voice and the voice of your dad and the craziness of your brothers and sisters ... and that's it." Without television, radio, and material distractions to obscure what matters most, he could enjoy the simple things, endure the long commitments, and find true meaning in his life. Poitier was uncompromising as he pursued a personal and public life that would honor his upbringing and the invaluable legacy of his parents just a few years after his introduction to indoor plumbing and the automobile, Poitier broke racial barrier after racial barrier to launch a pioneering acting career. Committed to the notion that what one does for a living articulates who one is, Poitier played only forceful and affecting characters who said something positive, useful, and lasting about the human condition. Here, finally, is Poitier's own introspective look at what has informed his performances and his life. Poitier explores the nature of sacrifice and commitment, pride and humility, rage and forgiveness, and paying the price for artistic integrity, What emerges is a picture of a man seeking truth, passion, and balance in the face of limits--his own and the world's. A triumph of the spirit, The Measure of a Man captures the essential Poitier.
Download or read book Leaving Church written by Barbara Brown Taylor and published by Canterbury Press. This book was released on 2013-01-25 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tells how a renowned preacher left her ministry to rediscover the authentic heart of her faith. A moving reflection on keeping faith amidst the relentless demands of modern life.
Download or read book The Art And Craft Of Storytelling written by Nancy Lamb and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2008-12-15 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Master the Power of Story When you consider the thousands of years of storytelling that comprise our literary tradition, it's easy to feel overwhelmed by the shadow of so many works. But there are common threads that link all stories--from Beowulf and Hamlet to Gone With the Wind and The Godfather to the story you're drafting right now in your head. These threads form the foundation that supports story--a foundation Nancy Lamb shows you how to access and master. Whether you're writing a novel, a memoir, or a screenplay, The Art and Craft of Storytelling offers time-tested ways to translate a concrete idea into a polished work. In this book, you will find strategies for: • Creating a successful a beginning, middle, and end while moving smoothly from one stage to the next • Crafting memorable characters, choosing the best point of view for your story, and constructing authentic, compelling dialogue • Integrating and navigating the more subtle elements of story, such as voice, tone, premise, and theme • Understanding genres and subgenres and how they apply to your story • Structuring plots that transform a ho-hum story into a page-turning read The Art and Craft of Storytelling gives you all the tools you need to contribute your own story to our great tradition, to open new worlds to your readers, and to introduce new ways of thinking. This is the power and purpose of story. And by your writing, this is the tradition you honor.
Download or read book The Book of Help written by Megan Griswold and published by Rodale Books. This book was released on 2019-01-22 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSLLER • WINNER OF THE NAUTILUS BOOK AWARD • “In a world full of spiritual seekers, Megan Griswold is an undisputed all-star. What a delightful journey!”—Elizabeth Gilbert, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Big Magic and Eat, Pray, Love The Book of Help traces one woman’s life-long quest for love, connection, and peace of mind. A heartbreakingly vulnerable and tragically funny memoir-in-remedies, Megan Griswold’s narrative spans four decades and six continents—from the glaciers of Patagonia and the psycho-tropics of Brazil, to academia, the Ivy League, and the study of Eastern medicine. Megan was born into a family who enthusiastically embraced the offerings of New Age California culture—at seven she asked Santa for her first mantra and by twelve she was taking weekend workshops on personal growth. But later, when her newly-wedded husband calls in the middle of the night to say he’s landed in jail, Megan must accept that her many certificates, degrees and licenses had not been the finish line she’d once imagined them to be, but instead the preliminary training for what would prove to be the wildest, most growth-insisting journey of her life.
Download or read book Overseas American written by Gene H. Bell-Villada and published by Univ. Press of Mississippi. This book was released on 2005 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A moving exploration of what it means to be an American born and reared abroad
Download or read book Cherry written by Mary Karr and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2001-09-01 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Mary Karr comes this gorgeously written, often hilarious story of her tumultuous teens and sexual coming-of-age. Picking up where the bestselling The Liars' Club left off, Karr dashes down the trail of her teen years with customary sass, only to run up against the paralyzing self-doubt of a girl in bloom. Fleeing the thrills and terrors of adolescence, she clashes against authority in all its forms and hooks up with an unforgettable band of heads and bona-fide geniuses. Parts of Cherry will leave you gasping with laughter. Karr assembles a self from the smokiest beginnings, delivering a long-awaited sequel that is both "bawdy and wise" (San Francisco Chronicle).
Download or read book The Search to Belong written by Joseph R. Myers and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2011-01-04 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A practical guide for those struggling to build a community of believers in a culture that wants to experience belonging over believingWho is my neighbor? Who belongs to me? To whom do I belong? These are timeless questions that guide the church to its fundamental calling. Today terms like neighbor, family, and congregation are being redefined. People are searching to belong in new places and experiences. The church needs to adapt its interpretations, definitions, and language to make sense in the changing culture.This book equips congregations and church leaders with tools to: • Discern the key ingredients people look for in community • Understand the use of space as a key element for experiencing belonging and community • Develop the “chemical compound” that produces an environment for community to spontaneously emerge • Discover how language promotes specific spatial belonging and then use this knowledge to build an effective vocabulary for community development • Create an assessment tool for evaluating organizational and personal community health
Download or read book Faces of Love Death and Transformation written by Connie Marshall and published by Reality Press. This book was released on 2008-05 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: OPEN THE DOOR TO TRANSCENDENCE In the rain forests of northern Peru, studying with shamans, a woman completes her journey of the heart. This book is the story of that journey. Great love and great loss often go hand-in-hand, looking for ways to cope with the immense challenges of losing a loved one and day-to-day survival, Connie Marshall established a connection to a non-ordinary reality, opening a portal to allowing her to transcend the inevitable crumbling of life structures and move to new levels of understanding. Face of Love is a touchingly candid memoir that takes the reader on the author's journey in search of love, self-awareness and the discovery of past lives. Philip Gardiner, Author, Gateways to the Otherworld Connie Marshall has courageously and whole-heartedly shown the way to a deeper examination of her life, providing insights and practices for all people on the path to self-discovery to consider. OH Krill, Author, Montauk Babies This is an intriguing, deeply moving story full of interesting characters and plenty of serious conflicts. The characters are well developed and come alive on the page. The drama is filled with action and dialogue. The author creates good suspense through the way she presents the anecdotes, keeping the reader anticipating what is going to happen next. Skillfully woven memories from childhood trigger similar feelings in current situations, tying everything together in a well-knit manner. William Greenleaf, Author, The Tartarus Incident, Starjacked, Clarion, The Pandora Stone and Time Jumper When a memoir manages to empower its readers, it's a sign of a tale well told. Connie Marshall's book is utterly original and vibrantly erotic: it's a time-traveling memoir tracing a woman's past and present life stories with mysterious dignity. This book chronicles the highs of true love, the lows of failed marriages and the mixed blessings of living on this earth in human form. Marshall's mesmerizing tale vividly illustrates how life's sufferings can serve as a doorway into positive transformation, compassionate action and ultimately, peace of mind. A perfect book for women of all ages -- and the men who yearn to understand them. Kyle Roderick, Managing Editor, www.findbliss.com
Download or read book How I Found God in Everyone and Everywhere written by Andrew Davis and published by . This book was released on 2024-08 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The spiritual journey is interior to each person, but not meant to be walked alone. Much can be gained from trailing the spiritual narratives of those who have traveled ahead of us, for the God they have found, we may never have considered. How I Found God in Everyone and Everywhere, Volume 2 again captures for a general audience the spiritual shift away from popular notions of a God "up there" and "out there" and toward immanent and inclusive understandings of a God in our very midst. It is built around the fascinating personal journeys of a close-knit group of prominent contributors, leaders including Christopher M. Bache, Jude Currivan, Amit Goswami, Kabir Helminski, Karen Johnson with Hameed Ali (A. H. Almaas), Sheri Kling, Berverly Lanzetta, Ervin Laszlo, Jay McDaniel, Raymond Moody, Peter Russell, Rupert Spira, and Becca Tarnas. As these diverse spiritual memoirs testify, the spiritual journey leads many of us today to the discovery of a divine reality that, it turns out, we already inhabit, one that encompasses us all.
Download or read book Voices of the Women s Health Movement Volume 2 written by Barbara Seaman and published by Seven Stories Press. This book was released on 2012-02-14 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An unprecedented and definitive collection of rabble-rousing writings on women’s health, Voices of the Women’s Health Movement explores a range of provocative topics from reproductive rights to sexuality to motherhood. Trail-blazing advocate Barbara Seaman and health activist Laura Eldridge bring the revolutionary ideas of several generations together in this powerful new book celebrating women’s bodies, and women’s voices. The more than two hundred contributors include Jennifer Baumgardner, Susan Brownmiller, Phyllis Chesler, Angela Y. Davis, Barbara Ehrenreich, Germaine Greer, Shulamith Firestone, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Erica Jong, Molly Haskell, Shere Hite, Susie Orbach, Judith Rossner, Alix Kates Shulman, Gloria Steinem, Sojourner Truth, Rebecca Walker, Naomi Wolf, and many others. With Voices of the Women’s Health Movement, for the first time, every woman and girl can experience in one place the powerful history of stirring words and strong female perspectives that have inspired countless women to take control of their health and their lives. Volume Two highlights include influential writings on sex, rape and violence against women, body image, informed consent, self-help gynecology, patient advocacy, and the mind-body connection.
Download or read book Voices of the Women s Health Movement Volume 1 written by Barbara Seaman and published by Seven Stories Press. This book was released on 2012-02-14 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An unprecedented and definitive collection of rabble-rousing writings on women’s health, Voices of the Women’s Health Movement explores a range of provocative topics from reproductive rights to sexuality to motherhood. Trail-blazing advocate Barbara Seaman and health activist Laura Eldridge bring the revolutionary ideas of several generations together in this powerful new book celebrating women’s bodies, and women’s voices. The more than two hundred contributors include Jennifer Baumgardner, Susan Brownmiller, Phyllis Chesler, Angela Y. Davis, Barbara Ehrenreich, Germaine Greer, Shulamith Firestone, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Erica Jong, Molly Haskell, Shere Hite, Susie Orbach, Judith Rossner, Alix Kates Shulman, Gloria Steinem, Sojourner Truth, Rebecca Walker, Naomi Wolf, and many others. With Voices of the Women’s Health Movement, for the first time, every woman and girl can experience in one place the powerful history of stirring words and strong female perspectives that have inspired countless women to take control of their health and their lives. Volume One highlights include influential writings on birth control; menstruation; pregnancy and birthing; motherhood; menopause; abortion; and lesbian, bisexual, and transgender health.
Download or read book The Art of Memoir written by Mary Karr and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2015-09-15 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Credited with sparking the current memoir explosion, Mary Karr’s The Liars’ Club spent more than a year at the top of the New York Times list. She followed with two other smash bestsellers: Cherry and Lit, which were critical hits as well. For thirty years Karr has also taught the form, winning teaching prizes at Syracuse. (The writing program there produced such acclaimed authors as Cheryl Strayed, Keith Gessen, and Koren Zailckas.) In The Art of Memoir, she synthesizes her expertise as professor and therapy patient, writer and spiritual seeker, recovered alcoholic and “black belt sinner,” providing a unique window into the mechanics and art of the form that is as irreverent, insightful, and entertaining as her own work in the genre. Anchored by excerpts from her favorite memoirs and anecdotes from fellow writers’ experience, The Art of Memoir lays bare Karr’s own process. (Plus all those inside stories about how she dealt with family and friends get told— and the dark spaces in her own skull probed in depth.) As she breaks down the key elements of great literary memoir, she breaks open our concepts of memory and identity, and illuminates the cathartic power of reflecting on the past; anybody with an inner life or complicated history, whether writer or reader, will relate. Joining such classics as Stephen King’s On Writing and Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird, The Art of Memoir is an elegant and accessible exploration of one of today’s most popular literary forms—a tour de force from an accomplished master pulling back the curtain on her craft.
