Darkness Becomes Her Review

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(More customer reviews)I enjoyed the read overall. There was a plot (sad that I have to say that, but so many YA paranormal books seem to lack them lately) and it moved right along. The paranormal world was well-drawn if based on all the same-old characters. I really liked the idea of a rebirth (post-hurricane destruction) New Orleans. The heroine was likeable and the secondary characters were interesting. I read the entire thing even though it definitely wasn't the best written book out there.
However, I did have a couple of real dislikes.
The profanity: The heroine is supposed to be a hard-edged, foster-child type teenage girl. She fights like Buffy the Vampire and solves her own problems rather than waiting for a hero. She also swears as part of her `edge.' Only it didn't work for me because she is also wishy-washy about making decisions (she changes her mind a lot), emotionally overwrought (passes out from over emotion kind of stuff), and falls in love so fast it makes her look stupid. And all this made her seem not hard-edged at all. So the profanity ended up being forced (like the author trying to prove how hard she was) rather than real.
The detached body parts: There really are real detached body parts in this book- it's got a Buffesque grotesquery to it. However, even better was the grammar. The best (worst?) was so funny that all my kids came running to see why I was laughing so hard. On page 178 the author intended to say that the heroine rolled her eyes after someone made a snarky comment. Then the heroine glanced over at some couples on a dance floor. However what the author put into print was, "My eyes rolled, falling onto the dancers..." (writing this made me laugh all over again).
The Big give away: The giant story has to do with the heroine's identity. Her deceased mother left her a message to `run' because someone is trying to catch/kill her. So she runs, gets chased, and tries to figure out what it going on. And the answer to why this is all happening is pretty unique (or at least I hadn't run into this exact scenario before). I would have liked this book a lot more if I'd been able to slowly unravel the mystery as the clues were dropped, etc. But the author RUINED it by putting a clue on page three that was so obvious that it explained everything and gave the entire mystery away. I don't know if she did it on purpose or not, but it totally spoiled the surprise.
The romance: By far the weakest part of the story. Within hours of meeting Mr. Perfect-but-Attractively-Grumpy, the heroine falls in love. It happened so fast it was boring. The romance scenes could have been cut/pasted from other books they were so unoriginal.
But even with all that, this wasn't the worst book I'd ever read. I probably won't read more in the series (is this a series? Probably), but for a quick read, it did its job.


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Awakening the Heroes Within: Twelve Archetypes to Help Us Find Ourselves and Transform Our World Review

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(More customer reviews)As a software developer and mathematician presently in my early 60's, ever since I can remember I have always been long on technology and short on "people" knowledge Yet from my early adolescence I remember my dad telling me how important it is to know oneself. While I always agreed with this good advice, whenever I explored my soul, I seemed to fail to come up with meaningful, non-judgemental answers - possibly because my questions themselves were not thought provoking.
Enter Ms Peason and her "Heros Within" book. Her brilliant, accessible review of the 12 archetypes that define our personalities suddenly provided me with a new handle - a key to a better understanding of myself and others. What I particularly appreciated in her book was its combination of a rigurous, scientific treatment of the subject, couched in a language both accessible and devoid of academic circumlucutions. I would reccomend her book to anyone who wants to understand himself/herself better and/or redefine his/her professional and personal life.

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AWAKENING THE HEROES WITHIN

"The heroic quest is about saying 'yes' to yourself and in doing so doing, becoming more fully alive and more effective in the world…The quest is replete with dangers and pitfalls, but it offers great rewards: t

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The Hero Within: Six Archetypes We Live By Review

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(More customer reviews)This is one of my all-time favorite books, and one of my favorite books to recommend to people. Pearson explains the Hero and the Heroic Archetypes (Warrior, Wanderer, etc.) in a clear and down-to-earth way. This is the easiest, most straightfoward, introduction I have found to Jungian and archetypal psychology. It presents powerful life-altering ideas in a readily accessible format. This book is an excellent introduction to Jungian thought. It is excellent for anyone who feels "stuck" in life. It is wonderful for people who want to understand themselves and others more deeply, especially with regard to developing higher possibilities. It is a book which helps you discover, and encourages you to pursue, what is most admirable within you.

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THE HERO WITHIN

In 'The Hero with a Thousand Faces', Joseph Campbell introduced readers to the significance of myth and archetype in understanding who we are and how we live our lives. Carol Pearson's best-selling 'The Hero Within' combines liter

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Storm Runners Book 2: The Surge Review

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(More customer reviews)Okay, Roland. You have been downgraded from that category #5 Evil Genius. I was excited to receive my copy of The Surge and read it. Like Storm Runners: Book 1 it is action packed, wrapped tight, and has multidimensional characters. Chase and his friends face great danger and use their smarts and strengths. By the end, Roland, you were a tropical storm, almost. But you're heading back out over land and gaining strength. Will you make it back to category #5 - Evil Genius? 9.0 on the Richter scale, or maybe a 6 on the VEI (thanks wiki)? I can't wait to read Storm Runners #3: Eruption.

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Master of middle-grade adventure Roland Smith returns with a second installment in this fast-paced action series.
Chase and his friends Nicole and Rashawn have just survived Hurricane Emily, the storm of the century, but their troubles are just beginning. Though they've made it to the safety of Nicole's family's farm -- the winter home of the Rossi Brothers Circus -- the flood waters are rising and they need to reach higher ground. The circus's lions have escaped their cages, and a mean and unpredicable leopard is also on the loose. And then, of course, there's the problem of the wildlife preserve next door! Have Chase and his friends lived through a terrifying night only to face a new danger?

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Eona Review

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(More customer reviews)If you liked "Eon" and your eyes didn't glaze over every time you read about Eona uniting with her dragon, easing into her mind-sight, channeling her Hua and so forth, I don't see any reason for you to dislike this novel. I really don't.
I feel like every issue I had with the 1st book of this duology was successfully fixed or improved upon in this sequel.
"Eona," unlike its predecessor, has no info-dumping. Instead, it is a quest-type adventure in which Eona attempts to save her home country and in the process learn to control her newly acquired immense power.
It is also a very personal story. The time is no longer spent on extensive world-building, but on Eona's exploration of her power as both a Dragoneye and a woman.
Of course, everything is messy. With great power comes great responsibility - how much violence is justified in war? what is the rightful cause to use one's power against another person's will? who can be trusted with limitless access to power? and what can power do to a person who possesses it?
The romance story line is no less complicated - romantic relationships are convoluted by mistrust, fear of deception, power imbalances, questions of morality, loyalty and honor.
Every decision Eona has to make is ambiguous and difficult and requiring serious sacrifices, just the way I like them.
But the best part of the book for me was the fact that when I started it, I was sure it would simply be about saving the Empire of Celestial Dragons from Sethon, but it turned out to be much more than that, sort of like in "Shadowfever" (Note: no other similarities! So don't hold this comparison against me later on, ok?)
I am thoroughly impressed by this intelligent, complex and thoughtful story. Highly recommend it, unless, of course, you can't stand fantasy, dragons and heavy world building.
Night Owl Reviews

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Eon has been revealed as Eona, the first female Dragoneye in hundreds of years. Along with fellow rebels Ryko and Lady Dela, she is on the run from High Lord Sethon's army. The renegades are on a quest for the black folio, stolen by the drug-riddled Dillon; they must also find Kygo, the young Pearl Emperor, who needs Eona's power and the black folio if he is to wrest back his throne from the selfstyled "Emperor" Sethon. Through it all, Eona must come to terms with her new Dragoneye identity and power-and learn to bear the anguish of the ten dragons whose Dragoneyes were murdered. As they focus their power through her, she becomes a dangerous conduit for their plans. . . . Eona, with its pulse-pounding drama and romance, its unforgettable fight scenes, and its surprises, is the conclusion to an epic only Alison Goodman could create.

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Women Who Run with the Wolves Review

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(More customer reviews)Reading the other customer reviews, I find it very interesting to see how different they are, and how different many of them are from my experience.
I was surprised to read the review on this page by the woman who believes we ought to read Jung first (or instead). My experience is the opposite; when I've picked up Jung's original works I've found them tough to follow, but this book I found very accessible and useful. I don't think the comparison between the Bible and a tv evangelist is at all fair. It's more like the difference between Strunk & White and the Oxford English Dictionary. The OED is wonderful, but Strunk & White is the one that is most likely to help you become a better writer.
Although I think of myself as a creative person, I tend to downplay that part of myself and to lead with my left brain, as it were. Reading this book I felt like I was being given a path to my inner wellspring. I felt that I had at last found water for a thirst I hadn't quite been able to identify until now.
This book is about one's inner life. It is not a how-to book, it's not political (except in the sense that the personal is political), and I didn't feel that it over-emphasized "what's wrong with you," as another reader put it. It does continually nudge one to think about what might be wrong: many many women are cut off from their own preferences, their own inner selves, because they feel pressured to conform with societal norms. Many societal norms are, in my opinion, quite damaging and inappropriate. It is very easy in American society to get the impression that women should be seen and not heard. Women are still encouraged to focus on how we look, to be compliant, to act ladylike and be nice even when we are being denigrated, and to stand by our man no matter what. We are encouraged to help others at the expense of our own happiness, and many many of us fall into this trap without even realizing it. We think it is normal to put ourselves last, and we lose touch with the shames and the fears that keep us from being happy, wiping the subject of happiness off the table with a dismissive hand as something that is too indulgent or not important.
This book helped me realize the ways in which I stand in my own way, and it gave me courage and inspiration.
The author is not only a Jungian analyst, but a storyteller. She is steeped in the traditions of storytelling from both the Latin and the Hungarian sides of her family, and I very much enjoyed the ways in which she uses this legacy of the storyteller as healer to make her points. I never thought of storytelling in this way before, but reading this book I found it to be true. (I feel that her stories have helped heal me.) I am a storyteller myself, of a sort, so for me the book was a kind of homecoming. If you have ever wondered why fairy tales seem so cruel and peculiar, you will find the answers in this book. Fairy tales have been mangled in the translation, but this author shows you where they came from and what they are really about.
While I am a huge believer in free-market capitalism, growth, business, and civilization (as opposed to back-to-nature Green-ery), I have tremendous concerns about the increasingly violent and impersonal nature of our society. This book shows you how to cultivate a healing, loving attitude toward the world without becoming a doormat--quite the contrary, it shows how love can give you more strength and power than you'll ever find in a boardroom.
Another review on this page criticized the book for not putting these issues into a broader context of one's life. It took twenty years for this author to distill her wisdom of storytelling and her knowledge of Jungian archetypes into this lovely, readable book. For me, that's quite an accomplishment. I'm more than willing to take it the rest of the way myself.

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