My Buy Essay

Posts Tagged ‘non-fiction’

Are you a step-parent, parent, sibling, grandparent or friend of a deceased person? Then this book is for you!

A delicately written and moving piece of work that is electrically charged with Katlyn Stewart’s love and grief for her daughter. Join in the celebration of life through Katlyn’s tale recounting her daughter’s life and learn about the grieving process.

Katlyn discusses the loss, grief, comfort and understanding that one encounters in their journey through grief. She shows how even the smallest of moments in daily living is greatly altered. The author tenderly reveals the loss of identity one experiences and the necessity of finding support and re-evaluating what is important. Very difficult times in the grieving process are heightened during a variety of holidays and Katlyn walks the reader through paths that help to ease the pain.

Startling facts are also discussed. For instance, did you know that 80% of grieving couples divorce after the loss of a child? Or that employers typically allow only three days for an employee to grieve? Have we ever stopped to consider the differences between how children, teens, men and women grieve? Are you feeling at a loss for what to do for a grieving family? All these issues, and more, are within the pages of this book.

I shed huge crocodile tears as I experienced my own loss during the reading of Song of Cy. I know I will draw strength from its content when dealing with the loss of my ailing parents in the near future. The author has developed an excellent book that deserves very high ratings.

ISBN#: 1-5937-4349-1

Author: Katlyn Stewart

Publisher: Whiskey Creek Press

The Jewish Pilgrimage &ndash An Exploration of Reality, Mainly in Verse

The Jewish Pilgrimage by Geoffrey Hoffman is clearly written to inspire philosophical discussion. This book depicts the author’s personal journey to find some form of understanding about man, our various versions of God and how this effects society and the use of its knowledge. He debates moral issues and provokes deep thinking in several areas that will never leave my mind as I travel along my own road.

Geoffrey questions the justness of creation itself and the gift of consciousness. Also he cleverly uses metaphors when he depicts various pieces of himself by using the universe, planets and astrological colors. Without a doubt this student of life, takes joy in nature. Throughout the book the author makes his awe in the vastness of the universe quite apparent.

My personal favorite piece was Beautiful Among The Buildings, which used powerful visual statements like:

“Night sprawls among the broken lives that line the broken street;

The lonely and unpitied men whose waste is our defeat.

Men stagger from dank cellars; men, imprisoned in their cars,

Go roaring into sightlessness &ndash unmindful of the stars.”

And the equally powerful anti-war piece, No Frontiers:

” The father carrying the limp body of his child,

The soldier staring at his amputated hand,

The little girl among the bloodied pieces of her parents &ndash

What does it matter if they are of one side or another?

Dogma cannot grieve.

It is the pain of individuals that sears.”

I also really appreciated Half Sight, which discussed the inability to witness the good and love in life when there is so much horror to distract us from it. Today Near Watford Market was a very moving piece for me in that it was so visual. It describes an event where the author witnesses a man speaking to the public about his lack of belief in religion. And “circling like wolves, the true-believers snarled, snapping at both his arguments and him.” Yet nearby an elderly women fell, sprawling her shopping items on the ground around her. The non-believer ran over to her side and helped her on her way, “jostling to her assistance through unmoving ranks of true-believing ice”. It is a beautiful story about seeing God where you least expect it.

In the later part of the book, the author moves away from poetry and gets in to verse debating who the Jewish people are, what they are perceived as being and the persecution of this group of people through the ages. His interesting look at the holocaust does not dwell on the sorrow or loss of the people &ndash rather it centers on the people themselves.

By far, Jewish people are not the only race of people who have suffered at the hands of man and I think the author means to use the example as a tool to accelerate the intellectual growth of mankind.

ISBN#: 1-4137-7281-1

Author: Geoffrey Hoffman

Publisher: Publish America

What’s it Like Being You? &ndash Living Life as Your True Self is co-written by John Roger and Paul Kaye, who have collaborated previously on another book. Both of these authors are successful and sought-after lecturers, educators and best-selling authors in the self-help and spirituality genres.

This 184-page non-fiction book is jammed packed with helpful commentary that readers can use in their own lives to change their attitude towards themselves. By doing this, we can learn more about our purpose in life, attain more energy and a positive outlook in every moment of every day.

The heavy, durable cover is designed with large inner flaps that can easily serve as bookmarks. To help readers through the ongoing challenges to attain peace within themselves and in their lives, the authors have provided us with an inspirational meditation CD of just over 45 minutes in length.

In all, I felt a kin-ship with many parts of What’s it Like Being You? . In fact, it was like the authors had read my book of poetry (Towards Understanding) and translated it for me. I was able to see the journey I have been on from a different angle and I found this comforting.

Certainly, this book has provided helpful advice that will aide me in tuning out the noise and stresses of the world and focus on what this life &ndash each moment of every day &ndash brings forth.

ISBN#: 1-89020-25-8

Authors: John Roger and Paul Kaye

Publisher: Mandeville Press

Published: Nov. 2004