Painfully,yet therapeutically, honest.
353447
This book not only offers sound and timely advice, it also manages to explain and document the authors OWN experiences. This book is a must read for anyone looking to, thematically, improve on their social life, moved to a new city, or whatever unique situation that fits you.
1850140
The author covers a supremely painful experience with emotional depth and honesty. I great look forward to the next book.
2972436
This is probably one of the most brutally honest portrayals of addiction, illness and heartache that I've ever read. In fact, it put me in a 72 hour book hangover, one that I'm still recovering from a week later.
The story definitely has potential triggers for those who've suffered from addiction, suicide, and mental illness. It's not for the faint of heart, but it's a journey that's worth all the tears (there will be plenty). I received an advanced reader copy and this is my honest review.
4759579
Father Leonard's personal experience with tragedy gives this book its substance... and its flaws, it seems. He is clearly sincere in his efforts to make sense of his sister's tragic accident (and similar human tragedies). One can't help but admire his determination to reconcile his pain with his faith and his Jesuit training. Nonetheless, as some other reviewers have noted, some of his claims and conclusions come uncomfortably close to heresy.

Having buried our 25 year old son a few years ago, we are well-acquainted with the challenge of finding God in tragedy. He is there, actively involved, actively leading the way to peace, actively engaged with the messy details of grief. He is not the detached, passive spectator that Father Leonard depicts ... and frankly, if He was, no one would be drawn to seek Him, let alone devote a lifetime to His service.
2055713
Purchasing this book feels like inviting a Marine for dinner hoping to hear some war stories.  I've never met him, but I want to talk to him because I care.  But then, the conversation begins without any pleasantries, and this Marine is obviously too tired to polish anything for me - perhaps because I am simply not worth of the effort of lying.  The stories are painfully honest.  The feelings are unbearably urgent.  It doesn't take long for me to realize that I will never ever fully understand what he's been through.  Frankly, there is probably no point trying because what kind of logic works with a lost soul?  Put it in another way, our love, care, attention, and the urge to help are nothing but naivety in his eyes.  Can they really ease the pain from incurable wounds?  His stories kill the last bit of fantasy that people have about war - be it romance or heroism.  The fact that we fancy about it is an unendurable burden for him.  The only thing that seems to be real is brotherhood.  He is so lonely, scared, lost, angry, ashamed, and in so much pain to the point that you don't know how he manages to get up everyday.  Finally, he realizes that he can't really explain anything with words.  So he stands up and takes off all of his clothes, exposing his naked body with all sorts of scars.  He bends his body aggressively at you, and you can see the burning fires in his eyes. as if he is going to choke you to death.  But somehow, you know his fury is directed to himself as much as it is directed to you and everyone else.  Before I know it, he leaves, leaving me stunned there.
3033644
I very much liked this book for its gut-wrenching portrayal  of dealing with addiction and eventual recovery.  It is very honest and demonstrates in such a real manner how there is no quick fix to emerge from addiction.  The depiction of distorted reality and self-hatred is painful but so true.
1736090
This book is a transparent account of the far-reaching and lingering affect that a family members unresolved wounds have on himself and the people who love him. If youve ever had a to reconcile loving a perpetually hurting relative or loved-one with the history that he/she has had of hurting you (hurt people hurt people), you may find this read cathartic. I did. I am grateful to the author for thoughtfully and impartially exposing what many might be more comfortable hiding. The kind of transparency revealed in this book is the kind that can help people and inspire people to get help. Kudos, Mr. Lewis.
1393688
I personally don't enjoy reading memoirs because of the impulse people naturally have to idealize their own memories, or worse, exploit their memories to avenge real or imagined grudges in life.  It's difficult for a memoir to stick out these days for precisely these reasons.

Lucas Mann wrote this with the obvious intention of being honest and not providing the reader with any feel good endings, or anything like that.
His older brother Josh died of a heroin overdose when he was 13.  He works through the memories of this by turns disturbed, grandiose, malicious and destructive individual, using Josh's "diary" to try to piece an ephemeral and thoroughly wasted life together.  Josh was even such a nice guy that during his last period of self destruction he had the Iron Cross tattooed on his ankle. Probably, Lucas realizes at the funeral, to make sure that everyone attending would *definitely* have nothing good to say about him.  His relationship with Mann is disconnected and yet somehow intense. It reads like what it ultimately is: a slow abandonment, a quiet betrayal even Josh doesn't understand. It's kind of hard to figure out who Josh really was, but he didn't live long enough for anything solid to form. An excellent, laser beam precise memoir.
711307
The author of this book uses his incredibly painful story of recovery from abuse and also a suicide attempt to share hope. Hope that recovery is possible. Hope that reminds you to take care of yourself, and that self care is not only a good thing, but is vital. This 21 day journal walks you through am accurate picture of what self care looks like.  You'll laugh, and you'll cry. But one thing is for certain - you'll learn methods that remind you that hope and help are possible, within your grasp, and (though sometimes hard) always worth it.
1676044
Intimately honest. Reveals the struggle of good versus bad within humanity, and how deliberate ignorance helps us to reconcile a struggle between beliefs and self-preservation.
754567
I'm not sure what I was expecting when I picked this up, but the raw, naked emotions that Anthony Weber puts into words slammed against my defenses like a jackhammer to concrete.  The grief I thought I'd come to terms with after my mother's death six years ago somehow found it's way to the surface with the turn of each page.  It was like every emotion or crisis of faith I had experienced was suddenly validated.  The bottom line is that this simple, honest, journal-turned-book did more for me than the countless hours I'd invested in therapy.  Anthony writes with a vulnerability that takes incredible courage, and in doing so brings comfort and hope - even purpose - to the "valley of the shadow of death" that we must all walk through at some point.  If you want a coffee table book of shallow cliches, this is not the book for you.  But if you want to heal, to hope, and maybe even jump again... then get your tissue box and curl up with this book.  You will not walk away unchanged.
1447323
Be prepared to think about this story long after you finish it. It is a brutally honest recollection of a very painful childhood spent in foster care, with much of the story focused on a particularly horrific incident that made national news in Great Britian right after WWII. The author states that it was eighteen years in the writing and I'm sure that it was very cathartic for him to write his experiences. The writing is very simple and down to earth; no flowery verbiage here and it comes across as truthful and sincere. Mr. O'Neill basically tells us that you can spend a lifetime trying to overcome your childhood, some of us with greater or lesser success than he has had. Well worth your time.
2983780
This book is not easy to read as the description of what it is like to go through this kind of earth shattering trauma. But it is as real and genuine as it gets.  I read the negative reviews which called the author self-centered and whiney and was almost put off, as I hate whiney.  The book is "self-centered" in the sense that it a memoir of the fears and doubts the author struggled with in her own heart and mind, but it is not self-pitying or whiney. Others have complained about the Christian perspective of the book, and if you object to that, skip this book.  But the author is in fact a committed Christian, so that necessarily make all the difference for her. That's just how it is.  Our deepest held beliefs are what will guide us through life.  The author chooses to trust her faith over her doubts and fears.  And her faith is rewarded.  Good for her (and her husband).
4832085
As a true Theodicy, Rick Lawrence takes you to the razor edge and instead of cutting you and leaving you bleeding to death, shows you that you are already bleeding and just simply didn't know it. Waking you from your slumber of numb denial, he helps you to be able to feel the pain again, yet, in a way that allows the true healing to begin. At the same time, Lawrence exposes his own bleeding wounds and shows us all where the tourniquet is to be found. Lawrence writes, "All of the people and books and music and films you and I love the most are encrusted, like priceless jewels, with pain. Name something that captures your heart that was not formed by pain."

Sifted is a brutally honest look at life and God. Lawrence does not hold back, he does not sugarcoat, and certainly does not suggest that a warm-fuzzy Sunday School Jesus is the proverbial "answer" to all life's problems. He does however, offer profound wisdom from the real Jesus in an obscure verse that most of us have never bothered to notice: Luke 22:31 and 32: "Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers." What in the world does that mean?? With striking parallels to Job, the shocking, and ultimate scandalous question remains...Could the good God Himself actually be a coconspiritor in our own experience of tragedy, suffering and pain? Well, most certainly not! Wait. Are you sure about that?

What do you do when it feels like God has turned his back on you, has left you in utter darkness to suffer in silence, or worse, is just plain out to get you? Lawrence takes this head on and never looks back, but does it from a place of his own brokenness that is intensely personal. If you are looking for pat answers to life's hardest questions, you will not find them here. Lawrence wrestles right along side of you as you wrestle with God for the real answers.

I found myself laughing and other times moved to tears as Rick shares no holds barred experiences from his own life that typify our own tales of "survival" in a world gone mad. Drawing upon a dizzying array of sources, from popular TV and media, pop cultural icons like Bono and Oprah, to King David to George MacDonald and Aquinas and even classic C.S. Lewis, Lawrence' sheer writing prowess is showcased in a way that drips with the humility of his own blood and tears, and leads to the refreshing streams of the goodness of God. With passion and a true pastoral heart, Lawrence turns your own understanding of your relationship to God on its head, forcing you to face the truth of your own destiny. Very simply, Lawrence helps us to see that God is after something far greater than we ever realized. We are all being sifted. This realization will change you forever.
2857157
Robert Grant's 'Way of the Wound' will resonate with anyone who has spent a little or a lot of time in dark places.  It's rare to find a treatment of suffering and the experience of 'evil' that is so brutally honest, free of quick-fix vitriol, and devoid of simplistic dualising and moralising. 'Way of Wound' explores how the examined life can be lived honestly between meaning and meaningless, purpose and purposelessness, life and death. Grant's encouragement to victims of trauma and those who support them, is to stand a while in the valley of the shadow of death, in order to know and encounter life more fully and deeply. Each chapter is powerfully illustrated with real life-examples of trauma and its aftermath.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to find a language to explore suffering that will not alienate one audience or another. No doubt, some readers will find the presence and/or ambiguity of Grant's god-concepts and spirituality a little disconcerting, but if any book on the meaning and meaninglessness of suffering is able to be appreciated by theists and non-theists alike, this is it.

A few minor typographical errors intrude here and there, but for its sheer, depth, wisdom, and honesty, 'Way of the Wound' is one of the most important books I've ever read.
2419812
I am reluctant to write this review because it is so hard to simply put into words the effect this book had on me.  But in the spirit of compassion for the many people who suffer internally as I can suffer, I want to extend myself to try to say some words that might help another and draw them to this book. Bradshaw, with direct, compassionate clarity and courageous honesty, portrays the deeply painful feelings and behaviors that are the outcome of shame.  He describes types of behaviors of significant people in our childhoods who tangibly and obviously, or intangibly and inadvertently, caused us to feel shame. And he depicts its impact on our adult lives and how it continues, how we perpetuate it on those around us.  At a critical point in my own life, Bradshaw's book provided a large step forward for my own comprehension of how I came to feel the way I feel, and do the things I do. It is relieving and at the same time uncomfortable to acknowledge my own adaption to being alive.  For any meaning to be derived from these insights requires willingness to change.  Bradshaw suggests tools and ways of being that offer a path, and sites authors whose work can provide additional steps.
2928320
Linda Wisnieski weaves an engaging story of making peace with her mother, her Polish heritage and her diagnosis of scoliosis in Off Kilter. Through concise and descriptive writing, she conveys the deep sadness of her childhood experience living with a verbally-abusive and emotionally-distant father, a long-suffering mother and the physical deformity of scoliosis that conspire to make her feel "off kilter." Using scoliosis as a metaphor for her life, she shows in graphic detail how all these factors combine to create this sad childhood. She learns to silence herself at every juncture and as a reader I found myself longing for her to be released from this prison of pain. Tales of bullying by peers, stern Catholic nuns and an angry father paint the picture of a little girl trapped in a sad and lonely place and feeling different from the other children. Fortunately, the story does not end there for she walks us through her own healing journey to find peace with her past. Because she has brought me into her sadness, I am relieved and happy that she finally finds peace and contentment in her life. The sadness of a childhood that cannot be changed may remain but the beauty of becoming fully who she is and finding balance in her life is truly rewarding to read.  A bravely honest and moving memoir that lingers long after it is read.