Tobias Reeks
I read “The Secret” by Rhonda Byrne and loved it. Jack Canfield was one of the many voices features in the preceding film and subsequent print publication.
Here in his own book alongside D.D. Watkins, they write a similar book to Byrne's but I feel do a better job of telling us how to best utilise the Law of Attraction to our best ability with many exercises and activities on the way to help you out.
The Vision Board, mentioned in the film version of The Secret is explained here in Canfield's book. On the whole, it feels more of an individual effort and allows you to be more creative, instead of Byrne's book which seemed to suffer from multiple personalities and seemed like you were buying into a massive franchise.
Like “The Secret”, you will finish this within a matter of days on initial reading, but you'll probably need to go back through it again to make best use of the exercises in it.
If I had paid full price, I would have been quite annoyed at doing so. My only other quibble would be the use of the G word, throughout - I don't consider myself particularly religious, so the smattering of the G word though somewhat infrequently could possibly put people off.
This book makes the Law of Attraction a little more fun to put into action, and compliments “The Secret” perfectly!
“The Secret” first came to my attention when I saw Samantha reading it in a scene from the Sex and the City movie and I decided to investigate further.
I suspect that maybe a lot of people will pick this up or click “Add to Basket” as they are eager to find out what The Secret's secret is, but in reality once you've read a few pages you'll be familiar with the concept - I have heard of the concept before now at least.
Keeping this idea in mind, the book itself is very easy to read and you'll finish it within a few days of starting. The ideas, instructions, suggestions, points and counterpoints all make sense and are straight forward. I can see no reason why everyone cannot benefit enormously.
My grumbles, although minor are more due to the clever marketing/branding of the book and also the multiple personality aspect the book seems to have. It is as if Byrne has collated many ideas, cut and pasted them together with a few additional musings of her own and then slapped her name on the front.
I am generally positive about this potentially life changing book. I did enjoy it and will re-read it again as well as recommending it to others to read.
Keep and open mind and see what it can do for you.
As a Madonna fan, I read J. Randy Taraborrelli's Madonna: An Intimate Biography and loved it. Sensational, trashy and in bite size pieces, I devoured chapters at a time.
O'Brien's biography of Madonna is completely different to Taraborrelli's. Her work seems more academic in it's written style, and as a former university student this is apparent when you read that O'Brien is an academic herself. And the opening chapters tell us of her own personal fascination with Madonna as opposed to Taraborrelli's journalistic endeavours.
The biography itself charters Madonna's life up to present times, from her beginnings to the then settled adoption saga of David Banda. If you're a Madonna fan this will all be pretty familiar.
A biographer should not be afraid to critique their subject and this aspect is what made the book for me. O'Brien took a step back from the fly on the wall documentation used by Taraborrelli and psychoanalysed and critiqued Madonna, what made her the person she is now, and possibly where she is going next.
A thoroughly modern and mature read about Madonna.
I've loved Chinese food since the first time I went to a restaurant as a child and ordering from the takeaway was an expensive and unhealthy habit of mine at university. I always thought that recreating those flavours out of the restaurant environment was quite impossible - not so!
In this wonderful book, Ching takes the mystery out of delicious Chinese cooking. You're likely to have many of the ingredients in your kitchen already - garlic, root ginger, oil. By taking the illusions out of Chinese cooking she has made it all the more successful by easing us into the recipes - “Takeaway Favourites” is one chapter.
As for the recipes, there is something to appeal to everyone here. Here is a list of what I've made so far: Chicken Chow Mein, Beijing Rice, Mu Shu Chicken, Sweet and Sour Pork and Sichuan Orange Beef.
My only fault with the book would be for vegetarians. There doesn't seem to be much choice for them. Also some of the ingredients do prove a little difficult to get hold of if you don't live in a city with a Chinese community.
Apart from those little faults - can we have some more please Ching?
To be fair, I wasn't a huge fan of Russell Brand before I read his “Booky Wook” - I just found him annoying.
However “Booky Wook” is Russell's story of where he came from and his journey to where he is today. Honest, explicit and intelligently written, “Booky Wook” shares the ups, downs and general chaos from his life so far with the closing chapter providing a teaser that more is still to come.
Very readable, I would recommend this book to Brand fans (if they haven't read it already) and to the non Brand fans who may fancy a delve into his world.
If you're looking for a Kylie style biography, for example who made a dress or outfit for a certain tour or video, this is for you. This isn't rocket science however and Baker does seem to use some words like femininity and sensuality a lot in this book, and I finished it in a few days. “La La La” is also very short so if you're looking for a juicy read about Kylie's ups and downs, both professional and personal then I'd advise to look elsewhere, but if you prefer to read the ‘official' version of things, this is the best you're going to get until Kylie decides to tell her own story.
I really enjoyed reading this book as well as I have enjoyed many a book by Lillian Too, but I think there are a couple of reasons why this didn't get a 5 star rating in my opinion.
The first is Lillian's relentless mentioning of going along to your local Chinatown or Chinese shop and buying products to aid your Feng Shui. For me the idea of this is quite ridiculous, as I know of no Chinatowns or Chinese shops within my local vicinity - the nearest one is in London. Therefore if you set your heart on a remedy or cure, you have to buy from her web site franchise which is (probably) mentioned at the front of the book.
Another thing you may come across is that even if you only have a few of her previous titles, you do get a feeling of “Haven't I read this somewhere before?” - meaning that it's possible that some of the information in this book may have appeared somewhere else.
Having said that the book is easy to read and Lillian's style is chatty and fun, even if she does mention how Feng Shui has changed her life so much. I enjoyed reading the section about Flying Star Feng Shui and also thought the parts about the wealth vase and water features were good too.
Overall I would recommend this book as a must buy if it's your first Too publication otherwise, approach with caution.
The “magic” in the title in no way refers to actual witchcraft or Wicca practices so your aim's a bit off if you want to read about that...