By Jenna Dawkins

Ahhh, a breath of fresh air. Or incense. Maybe the whiff of a candle. Now a burning log. An aerosol can. Wait a second...

Yes, I'm back, and yes, I'm writing about Hunter and his suggested Path to Synchronicity. Let me start off by saying that yeah, the book is as dense in philosophy as it sounds. But Hunter's total infatuation with self-discovery and "inner light" definitely serves him better here than it does elsewhere (for example, his text on memoirs). The book varies between how-to, as seems to be his specialty, and “let me tell you about my life.” I will admit that he makes the recounting of his own experiences relevant and admissible. His stories are short, relatable, and seem to be influenced by “synchronicity” itself.

After reading I kind of feel like it would be appropriate to plop down on one of those round, poofy chairs from Pier I. I'd play some Enya, do that thing where you make an “O” shape with your thumb and pointer fingers, hum then ponder it. I like that feeling. When Hunter talks about flow, I feel relaxed, more able to just let it slide and let life happen. Of course, every once in awhile, I feel like I’m embedded in a Chicken Soup book. It can get sappier than a pine tree. But the book seems to work because it is focused around a specific type of person. Someone who wants to see change, to understand their own path, their own influence. As a random read, I think it’s stuffy and probably loopty-loop in its philosophy. Almost as loopty-loop as the phrase, which I just made up.

I did learn something from Hunter. Stay motivated. I’m glad it was encouraging, or it probably would have been difficult for me to keep trudging through the metaphors. Honestly, though, I think this is because I’ve had less life experience than the general target audience. If I was 60 and divorced, or jobless, or having a midlife crisis, or 30 and just had triplets, I really think I could get something good out of it. I really think I would be able to use it to my advantage. There is a lot of sage advice in here, and I can definitely store it in the memory bank for future use, but it’s hard to really take advantage of it without really pulling that trigger of experience. After a little bit of time has passed, maybe the air will clear.

Jenna Dawkins, Associate Editor, is a senior English-Creative Writing major and Professional Writing Studies & Music minor at Elon University.

By Brittnee Alford

Cliff Fazzolari had me from beginning to end, simple as that. I literally laughed out loud, teared up, and felt everything that was happening to Jeff and the Fazzolari family. The prankster’s tricks never got old, and all I could do was laugh at the reality of having a guy like Jeff in the family. Fazzolari did a great job with constructing the story, intertwining funny anecdotal stories, flashbacks, and memories throughout the experience of pain and suffering. They didn’t take away from the seriousness of Jeff’s condition, nor did it make me feel less of Jeff’s pain. The stories brought in the humor and spirit that one needs to get through tough times. Had he only discussed Jeff’s medical problems, I might have put the book down and never picked it up again—a mind can only take so much trauma before it shuts down. I followed the story as if I were given an inside look into Fazzolari’s mind, blacking out the pain, going back to fond memories of childhood and brotherhood, leading up to the antics that Jeff still performed regularly in their adulthood.

I felt the hard floor that Fazzolari slept on in the hospital waiting room, I felt the frustration of a brother-in-law and uncle who didn’t know what to say to Jeff’s wife, and I felt the pain of someone who couldn’t imagine losing his best friend. I felt the love and faith of a family that banded together, prayed together, laughed together, and felt loss together. The emotions that Fazzolari evoked through his writing were powerful and life-changing. He kept it real and told it like it was. He didn’t hide his questioning of God and faith, or the moments where he totally spazzed out and lost his composure. Fazzolari gives a true representation of the human experience, as we all have felt pain, suffering, joy, laughter, love and loss. I’m reminded to enjoy the good times, which should be everyday, and to not take myself so seriously, because a Jeff Fazzolari character might come along to remind me the hard way with uproarious pranks.

Book Reviewer for International Book Management Corporation

By Danielle Bissert

If you’re looking for a book that will really hit you in the gut, that will shock and astound you, then this one is for you. The heartbreaking and inspiring tale of a woman’s recovery from alcoholism, it will force you to reexamine your life and what you think is really important. Alcohol destroyed everything Meyers cared about, and she was able to recover and start her life over. She shares with readers her method for healthy living that can help anyone who is willing to make an effort to change.

Meyers is not a seasoned writer: But the powerful nature of her experiences makes this point irrelevant. Her story pours through, and you can’t help marveling at her strength and courage, as well as the amazing endurance of the human body. She is an example of faith and perseverance, forgiveness and hope, and her story of recovery will stay with you long after you put the book down.

Meyers doesn’t preach, and she certainly doesn’t mean to tell anyone how to live their lives. She writes in the hope of reaching those who need help the most—alcoholics and others suffering from related debilitating “isms” and addictions—and giving them the courage to make a change and seek help.

If you’re an alcoholic, or think you might be, you should read this. If someone you know suffers from alcoholism, you should read this. If you want to read something powerful, that inspires and has the potential to transform you, then you should read this. If you want to learn more about the human spirit, you should read this.

Did I leave anyone out?

By Chris Stokum

“At the age of six I wanted to be a cook. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambition has been growing steadily ever since.”

           Thus begins The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí, the autobiography of one of the 20th Century’s most engaging and enigmatic artists. A self-portrait in true Dalinian fashion, the book is a paranoiac, chaotic, undeniably brilliant exploration of – as Dalí does not let the reader forget – a genius.

           In the early chapters, Dalí seems to be little more than a highly creative but spoiled child. As Dalí reflects on his young adulthood, however, a new facet of his personality begins to emerge. Dalí’s actions, we find, are never as senseless as they appear, his radical opinions never as unfounded as one might be tempted to think. In fact, Dalí’s reasoning, based largely on his aesthetic sense, is often just as convincing as the common rationale he rebels against. Dalí has a piercing critical gaze that he turns equally on himself and those around him. Even the reader does not escape; Dalí predicts and addresses objections, hesitations and disbelief with surprising accuracy.

           Taken alone, this aspect of the book is somewhat alienating, but Dalí offsets his confidence and independence with a very human element: a love story – at least, his version of one. Dalí reserves kind words for a select group, including Raphael and Picasso, while he is overtly critical of such heavyweights as Michelangelo, Freud and Kant. Above even those select individuals he respects, he cherishes his wife, Gala. His meditations on the nature of their relationship are some of the most emotionally direct and sympathetic moments in the book.

           A translator’s note shows the strength of the bond between Dalí and Gala. The translator writes that the manuscript for The Secret Life was “one of the most fantastically indecipherable documents ever to come from the pen of someone having a real feeling for the value and weight of words,” littered with practically illegible handwriting, almost no punctuation or paragraphing, and “deliriously fanciful” spelling. It was only with Gala’s help that Dalí’s raving notes could be put into a form that the average reader can understand.

           While the book is a valuable resource for anyone interested in Dalí’s artwork – the origins of his crutches, grasshoppers, ants and soft watches are all explained – it will appeal to anyone with an appreciation for individuality and creativity. Dalí’s narrative voice ranges from playful to violent; he is fanatical, staunchly unapologetic and most of all, honest. As he writes, “it is at the supreme moment of reaching the marrow of anything that you discover the very taste of truth,” and in his autobiography, Dalí casts away the bone and offers only marrow.

By Sarah Schiavoni

Alison Bechdel's book, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, was just one in a long list of books required for my English 461 - Critical and Cultural Theory class. When it came time to read it as part of our discussion about feminist writing, I was a little thrown off: comic book format? Typically, when I think of comics, I think of the strips I read in the morning newspaper, the superhero comics with Spiderman and Superman, and the Japanese comics, manga, that I read in middle school. I never considered the possibility of literary comics, but this is precisely what Fun Home is—a graphic memoir about the author's life from childhood to her college days, centering on her relationship with her father.

Alison, a tomboy with no patience for frills and flowers, grows up in a beautiful Victorian home in the Pennsylvania countryside. Her father, Bruce, a high school English teacher and funeral home director, treats their home like a favorite child, spending countless hours renovating and decorating the interior and exterior before he dies. Alison comes to terms with who her father was alive and who he is in death through her recollection of her childhood. She and her father share a strained relationship due to their opposite natures: Bruce plays the feminine role and Alison plays the masculine role. While Bruce relishes in interior design, gardening, and trysts with younger men, Alison enjoys dressing in boyish clothing and playing with her brother in her father's funeral home, nicknamed the "fun home" by the two siblings. As Alison grows older and fails to live up to her father's idea of what a girl should be, she begins to understand her father and herself more. When she finally leaves home for college, she comes to realize that she loves other women and soon finds out that her father loves other men. Their shared homosexuality temporarily unites the two in a manner both bumbling and touching. Their renewed yet fragile relationship is cut short by her father’s sudden death and it is the mystery of his death and the unspoken words between Alison and her father that create tension and that "just can't put this book down" effect when reading Fun Home.

Bechdel's use of a comic book format is a unique and interesting way to tell her story that catches the readers’ eyes. Whereas a typical novel allows the reader to freely interpret the words and imagery, Bechdel's Fun Home outlines what the characters and settings look like and creates a fast-moving dialogue that is easy to get wrapped up in. Looking behind the scenes at Alison's life makes the reader want to understand why Alison's relationship with her father was so strained and highlights the juxtaposition between the two characters and their personalities. Fun Home appeared on the New York Times Best Seller list, was nominated for various awards, including the National Book Critics Circle Award and three Eisner Awards (one of which it won), and was praised by numerous journals and critics, including Sean Wilsey of the New York Times and Jill Soloway of the Los Angeles Times. The praise Bechdel's graphic memoir has received is well deserved, as her story and the format with which it is told are refreshing and interesting.

There have been many books – and the periodical Skeptical Inquirer – devoted to debunking the paranormal. Chris Carter’s book, the first in a series of three, is the first book (that I am aware of) that is devoted to directly challenging the arguments of the skeptics of parapsychology.

As Carter carefully documents, the so-called skeptics have gone to the most extraordinary lengths to deny, distort, and suppress the evidence in favor of psi phenomena. He makes the valid point that true skepticism involves the suspension of belief, not the refusal of belief, and so most of these people are not really skeptics, but actually dogmatists.

This book is an excellent accompaniment to Dean Radin’s book The Conscious Universe. Radin’s book focuses more on the empirical evidence; Carter’s book does cover the historical and experimental evidence, but is focused more on the scientific and philosophic aspects of the controversy regarding psi phenomena, and on the dark history of the “skeptical” movement.

The book also has its own website, which can be found by entering the title and author into any good search engine.

Lannie! My Journey from Man to Woman by Lannie Rose
SterlingHouse Publisher, Nonfiction, $18.95 (214 pages), ISBN 1-58501-109-6

My Journey from Man to Woman

There may not be many memoirs by transgender women written for a general audience, but this certainly has to be one of the best. Straightforward and honest, yet refreshingly funny and compassionate, Lannie! successfully gives the open-minded reader a sincere, heartfelt and shockingly frank look into a world that few experience and most know nothing about or can even imagine.

Author Lannie Rose began life as Eddy, a boy who always felt uncomfortable in a male body. Later in life, motivated by the desire to unleash his true self, he decided to take the challenging step of living as a woman 24/7 and ultimately undergoing sex reassignment surgery. This difficult but life-changing experience allowed Eddy to physically become Lannie, the woman he had always been, mentally and emotionally.

Ms. Rose’s book is probably not everyone’s cup of tea. It is full of graphic, clinical descriptions of the surgical procedures she endured, which, while powerful and, in their own way, mesmerizing, may put off certain readers. The most amazing aspect of this memoir may be the ongoing, courageous sense of humor that the author maintains throughout, as she “learned about clean underwear and many other remarkable things” on her unusual journey toward womanhood.

Reader Doug Brown, caught up in Ms. Rose’s “girl-to-girl” confessional style of expression, wrote, “Damn, girl, you sure can write!” Richard J. Novic, M.D., author of Alice in Genderland, had this to say about the book: “Soulful and sparkling! Lannie Rose shares her remarkable story with us like it’s a bottle of fine champagne. It tickles your throat and educates your palette while ultimately changing your view of the world and the people around you.”

The bottom line is, if you’re a fairly sophisticated reader not easily put off by candid descriptions, and you have any interest at all in the many and varied aspects of sexuality and self-expression out there in the real world, a leisurely read through Lannie! will open your eyes.

Click here to read an Lannie Rose's article "What Kind of a Man Gets Pregnant?"

The Janov Solution: Lifting Depression through Primal Therapy by Dr. Arthur Janov

SterlingHouse Publisher, Nonfiction, $18.95 (224p), ISBN 1-58501-111-8

Lifting Depression through Primal Therapy

Dr. Arthur Janov is one of the most respected psychiatrists and authors in world today. His book, The Primal Scream, burst upon the public’s consciousness in the early 1970s and went on to become one of the most popular mental health books ever written, selling over a million copies worldwide. His latest book, The Janov Solution, is perhaps even more profound and startling in its presentation of new psychotherapeutic techniques for reversing the effects of depression – and in some cases curing it – without the use of anti-depressant medications, electroshock or surgery.

Dr. Janov’s writing is clear and easy to understand, yet also passionate and compelling. Stylishly and concisely, he explains the shortcomings of “modern” treatments of depression, toppling a number of respected but ultimately futile beliefs in the process. Details of his research and a series of fascinating case studies bring to life the demons of depression and how his work in primal therapy can banish them. The doctor’s cure is not for the faint-hearted, however, as it involves reliving painful primal experiences, including the birth process, that drive unwanted behavior. For those whose depressions are resistant to medication, psychoanalysis and other traditional treatments, The Janov Solution promises to be a ground-breaking book with huge potential for alleviating the suffering caused by this often deadly disease. Dr. David A. Goodman, Director of the Newport Neuroscience Center in San Marcos, California, captures the appeal of the book when he writes: “Arthur Janov…offers an effective therapy where feelings often overwhelm talk. He has discovered a way to rewire neurons in your brain. Stay with your talk psychologist…and she’ll wire your bank account into her bank account.”

Click here to read an interview with respected psychiatrist and author, Dr. Arthur Janov.

Parapsychology and the Skeptics – A Scientific Argument for the Existence of ESP
by Chris Carter

SterlingHouse Publisher, Nonfiction, $18.95
(260p) ISBN 9781585011084

You Don’t Need to Be a Psychic to Tell That This Book’s a Winner

Many who doubt the validity of psychic phenomena will be converted – quickly – as soon as they begin reading Carter’s profoundly educational, yet very accessible, argument for the legitimacy of parapsychology as a science. A scholarly work that is also extremely entertaining and insightful, Parapsychology and the Skeptics lays to rest the skeptics’ arguments against the existence of ESP with voluminous research and impeccable logic. As John Palmer, Ph. D. and editor of the Journal of Parapsychology puts it, “Carter adheres strictly to valid scientific and philosophical principles in arguing for the reality of (ESP) and the legitimacy of parapsychology as a science…any reader who can approach this controversial subject with an open mind will find Carter’s book immensely rewarding.”

Carter, a graduate of Oxford University with degrees in Economics and Philosophy, does a brilliant job of presenting the history of parapsychology, introducing the reader to the first acknowledged psychics and the skeptics who tried to denigrate them. Readers will also find out about the amazingly accurate “ganzfeld” experiments that go far beyond merely suggesting the presence of ESP, and discover the story of an astounding dog who knew in advance when his master would arrive home, no matter how varied the master’s schedule.

If, in the words of Rupert Sheldrake, author of The Presence of the Past, you are looking for “a masterly guide to the frontiers of science, belief and exploration,” look no further. Carter’s elegant, crystal-clear prose and stunning arguments are more spell-binding than the most involving fiction, yet they give authenticity to a realm of experience that most of us, up until now, have only dreamed about. Kudos to Chris Carter on an outstanding addition to the fields of science and the paranormal.