Reviewed by Carla Trueheart for Readers' Favorite

Why Is the Dalai Lama Always Smiling? is an enlightening and beautiful book that includes a memoir of sorts by author Lama Tsomo, thoughts on spiritual paths, and instruction on how to be happier and live a peaceful lifestyle. The book begins with the author’s own journey, her struggles, and how she became involved in Buddhist practices. That would be enough to tell a moving tale of life and choices, but she goes further and includes instruction on how this was accomplished. Through daily meditation, positive thinking, unique techniques, and the teachings of Rinpoche, she was able to live a happier, more peaceful life. Included in the book are meditation techniques, The Tibetan Nose Blow (it is not as weird as it sounds), and the practice of Tonglen, which teaches compassion and eases suffering. The book also includes tips for fitting meditation into our busy daily lives.

It’s interesting that I read this book when I did, because I just, by happenstance, began the study of Buddhist religions and Buddhist history. Why Is the Dalai Lama Always Smiling? really helped me as a reader learn more about these old techniques and Buddhist teachings, such as meditation, dharma, karma, the Five Poisons, and the Three Jewels. In addition, author Lama Tsomo includes color illustrations, charts and guides, science tidbits, and a Question and Answer section. All of these additions were done with passion for the subject and even touches of humor. The author’s personality and her beliefs really came through, making this a delight to read and educational as well. I would recommend the book to those who want to learn more about Buddhism, meditation, or just how to live a more peaceful lifestyle.

Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite

The Path Within: Break Through Harmful Programming and Doctrine To Experience Happiness and Harmony In Your Reality is a non-fiction, self-help book written by Anthony Santen. The author is a counselor and holistic health practitioner who has developed The Path Within System, based on his studies and his work with patients over the last twenty years. In this book, he introduces the reader to that program and explains the ways that one can approach and work through the concepts and exercises that are contained therein. Santen offers alternative ways of looking at depression and illness, and shares his skepticism of the prevailing pharmacological approach to treating illness. Towards the end of the book, Santen includes links for guided meditation, a bibliography and a complete index.

I wasn't really sure what Anthony Santen's self-help book, The Path Within: Break Through Harmful Programming and Doctrine To Experience Happiness and Harmony In Your Reality, would have to offer, but I quickly became intrigued when I sat down and began reading. The Path Within offers the careful reader an opportunity to free him/herself of artificial constructs and societal controls and to begin living as an authentic and empowered individual. Santen's text is well-written, carefully organized and beautifully presented. The exercises he offers helped me to more fully comprehend and make sense of each chapter. As I continued through the book, I realized that the mere act of reading was resulting in changes in how I regard myself and the world. I'm looking forward to spending a lot more time considering and re-reading The Path Within and listening to the audio files Santen includes. The Path Within: Break Through Harmful Programming and Doctrine To Experience Happiness and Harmony In Your Reality is most highly recommended.

Reviewed by Ryan Jordan for Readers' Favorite

The Transcendental Meditation Technique and The Journey of Enlightenment by Ann Purcell is an excellent guide to inner peace through meditation, and it is presented to us through the author's own experiences and the teachings of many people throughout history. It is filled with quotes and useful information, as well as poetry and anecdotal stories. I particularly enjoyed the poem 'Letting Go' about the cosmic consciousness. The book describes varying levels of consciousness, including the God Consciousness, and it is filled throughout with footnotes and hyperlinks detailing many important parts of the book, as well as people, historical events that are of relevance, and more information to put the teachings in context.

The author does a great job of keeping the information fresh, and delivering it with a lot of different teaching methods. Each chapter comes with poems and experiences that can help the reader relate to and see it in a different way than simply blocks of text. I've always found meditation to be an interesting and spiritual process, but it's never been something I could manage. I felt like this book covered everything from basics to advanced levels, but in a very personable and approachable format. For example, there is information about the Transcendental Meditation Sidhi Program, which the author describes as a sort of Rocket Ship of evolution.

The author is very excited about the events and teachings she is describing, and it becomes contagious while reading it. It felt very current, discussing things like TED talks and 60 Minutes alongside very ancient teachings. The Transcendental Meditation Technique and The Journey of Enlightenment by Ann Purcell shows us the journey of enlightenment for one woman and can help anyone who is interested in going on a journey of their own to take that first step.

Reviewed by Kathryn Bennett for Readers' Favorite

The Indigo Journals: Spiritual Healing For Indigo Adults & Other Feminine Souls by Yol Swan is laid out as a guide for those people who are sensible, emphatic and creative. It can be hard for those people who are different and often they feel disconnected from the world because it doesn't make sense. The book sets out to help readers awaken their true nature and to break away from codependency; it will also help you to use the natural gifts you have been given and find your true purpose in life.

Whether you are an Indigo or not, everyone and especially every woman needs to take a look at this book. Yol starts the teachings of this book with personal information about what has happened in her life and how she came to be where she is now before diving into the tools that everyone needs in order to understand themselves better. I truly feel this book is a revelation to those who need to understand the feminine soul. The detail and way that everything is explained is refreshing and eye opening. Not only that, but it is put in such a way that even those who are not very spiritual can at least have a basic understanding. I have a few people in my life who may benefit from reading this book so they can understand me a little better. This has been better put than anything I could ever say on the topic. I recommend this read highly.

Reviewed by Benjamin Ookami for Readers' Favorite

When it comes to the world of Mixed Martial Arts, I cannot envision anyone looking at a fighter who enters an octagon (cage) and not respecting that athlete who is about to engage with an opponent, not knowing if the match will result in a loss or a win. A world of knowledge regarding some of the most famous MMA fighters of our time awaits the reader who picks up Christopher Olech's novel The Fighter Within: Everyone Has A Fight. Christopher Olech has interviewed such MMA giants as Sean "The Muscle Shark" Sherk and Fedor Emelianenko. His novel aims to give readers a sense of what MMA is truly about, and also relates his own journey towards discovering the true meaning of martial arts and how it can be utilized in everyday life.

I will not go into detail about Olech's writing skill, because that is extraordinary in itself. Instead, I will delve into this novel's main subject (MMA) and what exactly Olech has done to give me a whole new perspective on the type of individual that I've always found myself intrigued about from a very young age: the fighter. Olech's own history, given to the reader before the eventual interviews, details his life before and after discovering the MMA world, making it relatively easy to envision him both as a fighter and as a human being, instead of just as a researcher relating some facts. Quite frankly, because of the wonderful insight his interviews have provided me with, I will never look at an MMA fighter the same way again. Olech makes MMA seem like it's more than sport.

Reviewed by Eileen Johnson for Readers' Favorite

In Just Hit the Damn Ball!: How to Stop Thinking and Play Your Best Golf, Dave Johnston writes an instructional manual that flies in the face of "conventional golfing wisdom." Based on Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), this book is much easier to understand than the concepts of NLP. Basically, Johnston's instructions are based on the assumption that every golfer has untapped natural ability -- and if you stop worrying about the things you are doing wrong, you can become a better golfer. The trick is to begin with the fundamentals -- know how to stand correctly, grip the club, and then swing it. After you have those three fundamental skills, you can then begin to concentrate on those things you are doing right. Reinforcing those habits and rituals when you hit a shot perfectly will encourage you to reproduce those actions instead of the actions that happen when you focus on a bad shot.

As a really average golfer, I found Just Hit the Damn Ball!: How to Stop Thinking and Play Your Best Golf by Dave Johnston very appealing. I have spent many hours on the golf course berating myself for every bad shot -- only to find that one bad shot typically leads to several more! The concept of keeping a journal of "good shots" and really dissecting what you did before and during those shots makes sense and seems almost too easy. I look forward to getting through those 30 days of improvement to see if the system really works!

Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite

A Camino of the Soul: Learning to Listen When the Universe Whispers is a non-fiction inspirational memoir written by Katharine Elliott. The author and her husband were successful hotel executives who seemed to have the perfect life. Their home overlooked the Puget Sound, they could travel and enjoy the finer things in life, and three loving dogs graced their lives. Things started to change when they learned that his mother's cancer had progressed to the point that she could no longer live on her own. Rather than see her move to an assisting living facility in Germany, they traveled there for a visit with her, but also with the hope that she would agree to move in with them. She did, and the two women, who had once been ill at ease with each other, became the best of friends. Sis, as she was known to her family and friends, would become one of Elliott's angels after she passed on, a warm and guiding presence who would look out for Elliott, supporting her throughout the moves and crises, and eventually the breakup of her twenty-year marriage. Several years before that break, Elliott had begun seeking a more spiritual connection to life, and she accepted that she was meant to walk the Camino. She didn’t know the reason why or how that ambition came to grab hold of her, nor did she question it, and that historic spiritual walk would change her life.

Katharine Elliott's non-fiction spiritual memoir, A Camino of the Soul: Learning to Listen When the Universe Whispers, is a beautifully written and joyful account that held me in rapt attention as I was reading. Elliott's writing is smooth and compellingly honest, and one can't help but feel that she is speaking directly to her readers. I loved reading about how she and Sis went from being wary and unwilling in-laws to becoming dear friends who reveled in their time together, and I found her descriptions of the process of her and her husband's move to Europe to be fascinating. But I'm an avid hiker; so I would have to admit that my primary interest in reading this memoir was to hear about the author's experiences on her Camino, and she came through with flying colors. I had wondered about her taking the trek on her own and loved the serendipity that surrounded her with hale and hearty companions. And yes, I'm glad she listened to her sister's advice to write. She does a grand job of it, and I'm looking forward to more memoirs of her other walking experiences. A Camino of the Soul: Learning to Listen When the Universe Whispers is most highly recommended.

Reviewed by Viga Boland for Readers' Favorite

Not The Body by Shirlie K. Plomer is almost too unbelievable to be true crime or memoir. Several times I checked the category under which it was listed to be sure I hadn’t made a mistake: surely it was fiction. But no, no mistake. Not The Body is actually a memoir of true crime…unbelievable, riveting, alarming and shrouded in mystery…not just about the crime itself, but about whose memoir this is. It’s not Shirlie K. Plomer’s. Or, put it another way, that’s what the author would have us believe. Don’t you just love a mystery? Not The Body is certainly that. The story is the untold and deeply hidden events of a true crime shared with Shirlie K. Plomer by a popular and very wealthy female author who lived to be 108 years old. Go ahead. Google famous female authors who lived that long and see if you can find her. I already did and can’t. So one comes away from Not The Body even more curious about the goodies and the baddies in this memoir.

According to Shirlie K. Plomer, this famous author, who goes by a pen name of Madeline Cruise in the book, asked Shirlie to write Not The Body, but swore her to secrecy. Set in Australia, which happens to be Shirlie K. Plomer’s homeland, Madeline Cruise is in her eighties when a bedraggled beggar appears at her front door. Madeline, a generous, loving woman, feels compelled to give him some food and clean him up, and when she does, she realizes to her shock that this beggar is her long estranged son. Overjoyed at being reunited with him, what happens after he reveals that he has just been released from solitary confinement for the murder of his wife and children 15 years earlier has the reader holding their breath and rapidly turning pages.

The reason for all the hush-hush around the true identity of Madeline Cruise is to protect her family and the families of 15 victims of kidnapping, horrendous sexual abuse, and depravity in the highest levels of society and the police force. In Not The Body, the reader will learn about the ultimate and clever capture of the real monster behind the supposed murder of Madeline’s family, for which her son was wrongly convicted. Without disclosing too much, I can tell you that this Madeline Cruise, whoever she was, was one amazing and very strong woman whose love for her son and determination to get to the truth saved so many others from what would have been certain death. And what a character she is! Shirlie K. Plomer has a done a great job in capturing her indomitable spirit, her sense of humour, and her deeply spiritual side. The only frustration I feel with Not The Body is not knowing the real identity of Madeline Cruise…which is exactly what she wanted.

Prepare to be shocked, even nauseated at times with what you will read. I guarantee you will come away, as I did, more curious than ever about who, what, when, where and why!

Reviewed by Chris Fischer for Readers' Favorite

In an absolutely great entry in the genre of true crime, In the Company of Evil: Thirty Years of California Crime, 1950-1980 by Michael Thomas Barry is a fantastic composite of some of the most notorious and interesting cases in California in the time period. In truly chilling detail, the book provides readers with a glimpse into the lives and crimes of those ranging from serial killers to Satan worshippers, to brutal rapists and more. Some of the more fascinating cases include 'The Real House on Haunted Hill,' 'The Sex Club Slaying' and 'The Lonely Hearts Killer,' and their recounting may bring back the sense of terror that the communities they victimized felt at the time that these vicious criminals were active.

I found In the Company of Evil to be a simply fascinating read. Author Michael Thomas Barry has done a fantastic job in interweaving true facts from cases, personal histories of both victims and perpetrators, as well as photographs to make the stories come alive on the page. I also appreciated the fact that while some of the stories I knew or remembered, others were less publicized and known, making for new discoveries in the world of crime. Any reader who enjoys true crime, history, and especially history from the state of California will love In the Company of Evil: Thirty Years of California Crime, 1950-1980. I highly recommend this book. I certainly hope that author Michael Thomas Barry is already working on his next book in this same vein. I, for one, will certainly be keeping an eye out for his next work!

Reviewed by J. Aislynn d'Merricksson for Readers' Favorite

Louis Alan Swartz' collection Constructed of Magic and Other Poems on the Immortality of the Human Spirit is poetry after my own heart. I fell in love with it from the very first. There are many deep, philosophical poems that will set you to thinking. There are light-hearted poems, and poems to soothe the soul. Most of the poems in this collection deal with knowing and appreciating the Divine Spark within. Illusion is another theme that runs through the book.

I write poetry, and I tend towards the spiritual, philosophical, and the cynical, so I clicked with these poems right away. There is a beauty to Swartz' poems that can be appreciated, even if one does not share the same world view as the poet. Many of the more philosophical poems in this collection put me in mind of the great poet Rumi.

Lasting Prosperity and Maze of Depression hit home really hard. I had to stop reading and spend some time thinking. Lasting Prosperity was very difficult for me to get through at first. My favourite poems, though, were The Path and Dark Truths. They made me pause and think as well, but in a better way.

If you like the spiritual, and like to ponder deeper questions, pick up a copy of Swartz' Constructed of Magic. Take the time to savour each poem for the divine offering it is. Take a poem a day and marinate with it. Journal your thoughts. You are sure to grow in the process and expand your way of thinking. If you shatter some of your own illusions, so much the better.