For most people, the book is going to fall on one of two ends of the spectrum for people…. Either you are going to find the book truly uplifting, life changing and/or affirming or you are going to be unable to appreciate the book in any way, shape or form. A small subsection of people are probably going to be like me…. on the fence on this book.
Firstly know that this book is first and foremost completely and utterly of a SPIRITUAL/RELIGIOUS nature. I did not know this when I originally got the title and I can assure you probably wouldn’t have gotten it if I had known. I seldom, if ever, venture into this particular type of books for a number of reasons. If you are into these types of books and specifically you are a Christian, this book will be absolutely perfect. The author, Richard Rohr, was able to draw on biblical verses as well own life experiences to bring across his point regarding finding one’s ‘True Self’. He goes into defining what he means by this and also what he means of ‘False Self’, as well. The entire book speaks highly of ‘transformation’ and speaks a lot of the ‘soul’, ‘love’ and ‘God’.
The book has a number of ‘gems’; moments that made me really sit back and think. That being said there is a lot of ‘God talk’ which might just be where the book will lose a lot of people. And the God talk does increase as you proceed into the book, especially when you get to the Appendixes at the end of the book (you have at least 5 or 6 Appendix I believe). For those who are atheist, anti-Christianity or anti-religion in any way they will find this book completely annoying, uninspiring and the very narrator will seem irksome to them. Veer far from this title if you are in any of the previously mentioned categories, simply save your credit and your time.
The book was pretty short and to me flew by quickly (I literally spent just one day to listen the entire thing). I found some useful things in the book, some interesting sections that had me think a bit more. There were also sections that I found completely irrelevant and essentially common sense. I wasn’t bowled over by the book, I did enjoy the narrator though, and he did a good job to keep me interested through the title.
This is simply one of those hit or miss books. It’s very pigeonholed if you ask me. It was mostly miss for me, but the hits were good enough for me to not be too vicious while reviewing.