About the author:
Lipa Rath is a certified spiritual counselor, an angel therapist and a writer. She has worked extensively in the area of personal growth. She feels that teaching about the truth is child’s play compared to living those teachings “in the cold light of the day”. This is her first book.
Cover art:
The cover is very pleasing to the eye, and one of my favorite shades of green. I don’t know why the choice of the cover, but I felt it might be something like “seeing the light” or something like that.
My thoughts on the book:
Living courageously… it feels quite odd that I would take a book with this title to read and review. Non-fiction as many know is not really a genre I’m comfortable reading, and to be honest, I’m not the most courageous of persons. Perhaps that is one of the reasons the book felt like something I should read… to go out of my comfort zone, and also find out something about living courageously. I kind of liked the subtitle immediately. “Spirit Can Never Be Conquered”, says the subtitle. It’s something I have believed in and felt to be true in my life.
So what is this book about? Self-help tips? Spiritualism? The author’s story? These are some of the things a non-fiction can be. What this book is, however, a bit of all the three. Lipa shares with us her story. How she came out of an abusive relationship, how she fought to get custody of her daughter (who is also her best friend), how she let her thoughts be guided wrongly by the impression others had of her, how a person’s one question changed that outlook and how she began to think positively. She talks of people who have had a positive influence in her life. In her story, a true story, it is God who guides her paths, who makes her understand things she hadn’t been able to understand, those things that would feel odd to any of us and make us ask those questions she asked herself. She speaks of her beliefs, the experiences that made her believe in His existence. That’s two of the three. So you ask, how is this self-help? That’s a part I believe is up to you after reading this book. Only you can decide what you take out of it, and how it may help you. For me, it has given a sense of understanding. Something I knew, and not had the clarity of mind to understand, now feels like it has fallen in place.
To read another person’s journey is both inspirational and tough. This book is the same. I feel happy to have read the book and read how she has handled the obstacles that life (or God) has put in her path, and made her life happier. It didn’t feel heavy, that’s possibly because she has given these wonderful examples to help the wisdom shine through better. Like the story of the Bishop, or her aunt Deepa, or the doctor who helped her believe that she is a nice person. They demonstrated what she wanted to say in those chapters. There are questions and wisdom on desire, which I quite liked. If anything, the place I got confused a little was in the part where she talks of Yoga, and the Niyama-Yama concept. I was confused why non-violence, non-greed and non-lying were part of yamas (don’ts). I understood what she wanted to say later in the same page, but that’s still a little confusing at the moment of reading it.
This is a book that I feel is heartfelt, and might strike a chord with the reader. How it will strike or if at all it will, like I said earlier, is up to the reader. It is a non-fiction that I enjoyed reading, and take something out of. Thanks.
Book Details:
Title: Living Courageously
Author: Lipa Rath
ISBN: 9789351266891
Genre: Non-fiction / Spiritualism / Self-help
Publishers: Healing Heart Publications
Price: INR. 195
This is a PR requested review, given for a review copy of the book, but no other payment.
The opinions expressed in the review are my own, and remain unbiased and uninfluenced.
Shared with
1) First Reads Challenge at b00k r3vi3ws
2) Indian Quills Reading Challenge at Tales Pensieve.
(18th Nov, 2013)
A Bookworm's Musing 