August 2008 Newsletter
Online Issue # 19

Good Books

The Second Journey:
The Road Back to Yourself
by Joan Anderson
Hyperion, 2008
hardcover, $23.95

Joan Anderson's first book, A Year by the Sea, chronicled the “awakening” she experienced when she made the decision to walk out of her old life and live for a year on her own on Cape Cod. Her account of that year touched thousands of women and led to Anderson traveling around the country offering weekend workshops and writing several more books: An Unfinished Marriage, A Walk on the Beach, and A Weekend to Change Your Life. Now, ten years later she finds herself at another crossroad stretched dangerously thin by her own schedule and expectations.

In her latest book, Anderson embarks on a second journey that takes her back to her true self by way of Iona, an island off the coast of Scotland. Her struggle to take her own advice and carve out time and space for herself is complicated by the demands of success, her aging mother, her own health, grandchildren, children and husband. She knows she is living a life that has somehow become not her own; it is this crisis that intersects with an out of the blue invitation to come to stay in a cottage on Iona, a place her immigrant father had insisted she visit.

The month she spends living on the island, exploring and discovering its ancient secrets, turns out to be a spiritual journey of remembering herself. Removed from the never ending pressures and entrenched patterns of life back home, Anderson is free to decide for herself, however she is not free of herself. The outer and inner paths she travels are intricately connected and her telling of both makes for compelling reading.

As soon as I finished reading The Second Journey I went in search of all of her books. I found A Year by the Sea and was immediately happy because I did not want the story to end. Anyone facing the dilemma of living in a life that no longer fits or has become too full to enjoy will benefit from Anderson's book on beginning the second journey.  

”There are the outlived events and relationships that we must celebrate and then let go of, and there are the unlived experiences that we must search for, welcome, and live into.”

-Joan Anderson

Creating Money:
Attracting Abundance
by Sanaya Roman & Duane Packer
H J Kramer published in a joint venture with New World Library, 2008
paperback, $13.95

“This powerful book shows you the way not only to abundance but to something far more important: a life well lived, full of joy and satisfaction, for you are following your inner guidance every moment, and doing what you love to do.”

-Marc Allen, publisher of New World Library
from the foreword

Creating Money, first published ten years ago, has been revised and published as a joint venture with New World Library, after selling over half a million copies. I accidentally discovered the book on my way to locating another title on a nearby shelf. It turns out to be one of the best books I've read about attracting abundance.

The authors attribute the book's spiritual and energy teachings to their spirit guides Orin and DaBen. If you can easily accept that, or forget it, I think you'll find the book instructive and fascinating.

Creating Money includes four sections: Creating Money - “a step-by-step guide to the art of manifesting,” Developing Mastery - working and moving through “any blocks you may have about allowing abundance in your life,” Creating Your Life's Work - making money and creating abundance through “doing the things you love,” and Having Money - creating “joy, peace, harmony, clarity, and self-love with your money, letting it flow and increase.” This arrangement of topics doesn't distinguish the book from many other books about money. What's different is the way Creating Money helps readers to acquire, and act on, new beliefs and thoughts about money and a string of related topics: abundance, attraction, manifesting, magnetizing, success, fulfillment, trust and worth. After all, we create our reality through what we believe, think, and say. In the words of Louise Hay, “It's only a thought and a thought can be changed.”

Each chapter is interspersed with well written, easy to locate affirmations in large type. A few examples follow: My prosperity prospers others. I choose beliefs that bring me aliveness and growth. I allow myself to feel successful. I know what I love to do and I do it. At the end of every chapter you'll find an exercise or playsheet that allows you to thoughtfully apply the chapter's teaching to your own life. There is a complete list of these exercises following the table of contents.

“The only way you can truly love and support others is to support their aliveness and growth, and one of the best ways to do that is to support your own aliveness and growth.”

-Sanaya Roman & Duane Packer

The following books remain on my reading list:

A Life At Work:
The Joy of Discovering What You Were Born to Do
by Thomas Moore
Broadway Books, 2008
hardcover, $24.95

I haven't read another book by Thomas Moore since Care of the Soul, so I was excited to find this book on the work we are born to do. If it had been another Care of the Soul spinoff, Care of the Soul at Work, I wouldn't have picked it up. I'm hoping it contains fresh material and insights.

The Five Secrets You Must Discover Before You Die
by John Izzo
Berrett-Koehler, 2008
paperback, $15.95

I picked this up on impulse when I saw “As Seen On Public TV” on the cover. I didn't see the television series myself, but I'm attracted to the idea of interviews with 200 people, ages 60-106, who were identified by those who know them as “the one person they knew who had found happiness and meaning.” Izzo distills what he learned from the interviewees into Five Secrets, which are probably things we already know, but need not to forget. That could make for a great read.

The Passion Test:
The Effortless Path to Discovering Your Destiny
by Janet Bray Attwood & Chris Attwood
Hudson Street Press, 2007
hardcover, $23.95

I've had this book since it came out last fall and I keep meaning to read it and review it. If it interests you and you don't want to wait any longer for me to get to it, go ahead and see what you think of it. Passion is an attractive concept that often mystifies us when we try to identify it in our own lives. If you don't know your own passion(s), where do you start and how do you find them? Maybe the Passion Test will help.

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