Love Walked in by Marisa Del Los Santos

Ms. Santos comes from a background of writing poetry and it shows beautifully in her words. Her writing is to linger over. She holds a double black belt in similes and other literary devices. Her clever and appropriate choice of adjectives is a gift. In an interview the author said she was aiming for ‘’fresh’. I think that she hit the bullseye.

So this is chick lit. Who knew? This is an anti-Cinderella/Show White story. The Mother and step mother get along. The step child accepts the adopted step parent immediately. Actually, I had a problem with that. I can't see how a child who loses her mother would just walk into the arms of a stranger and bond. Okay it was fiction. There is another character that acts inconsistently – he’s perfect in every way except he’s cold to children. Huh?

On Suffering:

“So much heartbreak and disorder. How can the world hold all of it?”

On Parenthood:

…as far as I could tell no matter what the circumstances, parenthood is thrust upon a parent. No on is ever quite ready; everyone is always caught off guard. Parenthood chooses you. And you open your eyes, look at what you’ve got, say “Oh, my gosh,” and recognize that of all the balls there ever were, this is the one you should not drop.

On Mindfullness:

…fears were a roaring, blinding storm that could lift her up and suck her in before she knew it was happening. “My mother might be dead,” shrieked the storm, and in that second Clare would be overtaken, lost, whisked out of the sunlight world in which other people lived.

She found that if she paid extremely careful attention to what was around her, really concentrating, and noticing every detail, the terror would fall back.

The Secret’s new Clothes

The Secret by Rhonda Byrne

Okay I admit I didn’t read this book from cover to cover. I just skimmed it. I don’t think I could have read every word because it just made me too angry.

Let me explain. Do I believe in positive thinking? Absolutely. I think that affirmations can be scary they work so well. Do I think that everything is connected? Yes. But I do believe that Buddha had this idea first some time ago. Do I believe that all people who get sick actually make themselves ill with ‘stinkin’ thinkin’’? No. If only the universe was simply ordered. Do I think that our thoughts create waves that go out into the ether and can do things like make a distant butterfly wing flap? No. That is call magical thinking in my book. And while it can be fun I wouldn’t mistake it for reality.

If Oprah admires and promotes people like Rhonda Byrne and Gary Zukav she’s an idiot. They are just regurgitating new age hippie voodoo bullsh*t.