Rating: 
Summary: So horrible I highly recommend it
Review: "Self-love" to Melody Beattie clearly means "self-obsession," as she talks endlessly about her traveling troubles and airport hassles. WHO CARES??? This book promises absolutely everything to the reader at the beginning, and delivers absolutely nothing but dreadful drivel that is so bad it eventually becomes hilarious. Like a bad accident, you can't look away. Trust me, this is the last self-help book you'll ever read--which actually might make it worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: So horrible I highly recommend it
Review: "Self-love" to Melody Beattie clearly means "self-obsession," as she talks endlessly about her traveling troubles and airport hassles. WHO CARES??? This book promises absolutely everything to the reader at the beginning, and delivers absolutely nothing but dreadful drivel that is so bad it eventually becomes hilarious. Like a bad accident, you can't look away. Trust me, this is the last self-help book you'll ever read--which actually might make it worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: So horrible I highly recommend it
Review: "Self-love" to Melody Beattie clearly means "self-obsession," as she talks endlessly about her traveling troubles and airport hassles. WHO CARES??? This book promises absolutely everything to the reader at the beginning, and delivers absolutely nothing but dreadful drivel that is so bad it eventually becomes hilarious. Like a bad accident, you can't look away. Trust me, this is the last self-help book you'll ever read--which actually might make it worth reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Different from her other books. Not as good.
Review: A North Africa trip and Melody's interesting, frightening, and sometimes humorous experiences is what make up the background for this book. Melody centers in on her personal spiritual happenings more than anything else. Some of Melody Beattie's other books have been extremely good for me, especially "Co-Dependent, No More". This book did not meet my expectations because it was advertised as a follow up to the book I just mentioned. It is quite different.
Rating: 
Summary: Enlightening read... awkward title
Review: As a longtime fan of the work of Melody Beattie, I eagerly dove into this simply-written book & read it within one day (which is unusual for me). I suppose the title spoke to my heart, since Beattie often reaches me where it counts - in the solar plexus - an area of the body which she refers to several times, as she recounts her 1996 journey through Algeria, Morocco and Egypt. It is improbable that I will ever see the pyramids of Giza, but Melody's "leap of faith" while there, helped me to vicariously experience her inner transformation, set on that exotic backdrop.As she tells it, Cairo and Giza is an area of the world wherein the 'ancient' rubs shoulders with the 'modern'. While being guided through the marketplace called the "souk", she observes the behavior of a man using a stick to hit the thieves and assorted "bad guys" among the crowd. She has a revelation that she has been walking without a stick all these years - in other words, she has never been able to identify those who would harm her, not was she ever able to protect herself. Her desire for a stick is the very basic desire for defense in an offensive world - it's the desire for intuition. Two other symbols permeate her tale - living in a "box" (in a psychological sense) and being tossed or whipped about, as in a "vortex" - she makes good use of these images in describing some very disturbing chapters in her life. What emerges, in the end, is Melody's completely accessible soul, knowing that the purpose of her life, while replete with pain, disappointment and struggle, is to help others in their quest for meaning and fulfillment. This she does, admirably.
Rating:
Summary: Enlightening read... awkward title
Review: As a longtime fan of the work of Melody Beattie, I eagerly dove into this simply-written book & read it within one day (which is unusual for me). I suppose the title spoke to my heart, since Beattie often reaches me where it counts - in the solar plexus - an area of the body which she refers to several times, as she recounts her 1996 journey through Algeria, Morocco and Egypt. It is improbable that I will ever see the pyramids of Giza, but Melody's "leap of faith" while there, helped me to vicariously experience her inner transformation, set on that exotic backdrop. As she tells it, Cairo and Giza is an area of the world wherein the 'ancient' rubs shoulders with the 'modern'. While being guided through the marketplace called the "souk", she observes the behavior of a man using a stick to hit the thieves and assorted "bad guys" among the crowd. She has a revelation that she has been walking without a stick all these years - in other words, she has never been able to identify those who would harm her, not was she ever able to protect herself. Her desire for a stick is the very basic desire for defense in an offensive world - it's the desire for intuition. Two other symbols permeate her tale - living in a "box" (in a psychological sense) and being tossed or whipped about, as in a "vortex" - she makes good use of these images in describing some very disturbing chapters in her life. What emerges, in the end, is Melody's completely accessible soul, knowing that the purpose of her life, while replete with pain, disappointment and struggle, is to help others in their quest for meaning and fulfillment. This she does, admirably.
Rating:
Summary: Extremely self-indulgent
Review: Beattie wrote the famous self-help book Codependent No More, based on her own experience being married to an alcoholic. This book finds her, years later, a successful author and divorced woman who suddenly heeds a call to travel through the Middle East and "find herself." She visits Casablanca (which she finds dirty and poor), then (against everyone's advice) war-torn Algiers. Then she goes to Cairo, meditates inside the pyramids, has a spiritual insight, then comes home. In Algiers and Cairo she meets some nice Arab men who show her around and introduce her to their families (though she centers the book so firmly upon herself that they don't come through). In Egypt, she finds out that the "key to life" is simply to know who you are and what your values are. Imagine that. Two other things in this book just made me cringe. One, Beattie tells a young Egyptian girl that she can be anything she sets her mind to be, and urges her to "break free of the box." To Beattie, in her supreme self-centeredness, the girl reminds her of herself in her alcoholic marriage; she forgets that in repressive Egyptian society, this girl isn't going to have the opportunity to do much. Two, Beattie is warned not to go to Algeria because the nation is at civil war, and she responds, "I've lived most of my life in a civil war - mine against myself." Oh, give me a break. Tell the people of Algiers who have to live in a kill zone all about your stupid little "civil war."
Rating: 
Summary: This book is more about autobiography than self-help.
Review: Beattie's "Stop Being Mean to Yourself" promises to guide you to a place of self-discovery; however, the book is more about Beattie's own inner journey than it is a how-to guide on how to find your own spiritual path. Beattie takes a trip to the Middle East, where she is repeatedly detained in airports by efficient young women who question her about the purpose of her trip, and last-minute changes in her itinerary. The airport detentions frame the book, as Beattie tells her story to both the custom officials and to the reader. We learn how she discovers friendship and the mysterious "Powers" inside of a pyramid in Giza. We read about her field trip to the desolated countryside in Algiers. Beattie tells us about being bestowed with the gift of the end of her karmic cycle by a Bhuddhist monk. Exactly what form that gift takes, she isn't at liberty to reveal. Ultimately, the reader realizes that the path to self-love and enlightenment is an individual path that one must find for one's self. No book and no author, regardless of the promises made in the introduction, can guide you on your spiritual journey. While enjoyable to read, the title of "Stop Being Mean to Yourself" might be more apt if it were changed to "How Melodie Beattie Stopped Being Mean to Herself." The reader is left with the feeling that Beattie has gotten hers, but it's up to you, the reader, to get your own.
Rating:
Summary: Don't Waste Your Money
Review: I am seldom pushed to write a book review, especially a negative review, but this book has compelled me to write one. I haven't read any other books by Ms. Beattie, but I doubt that I will. This book was empty, shallow, and very disappointing. Her trip to the Middle East was barely a trip, rather a few layovers, hardly enough to feel at one with the people or the land and cultures. She overnighted in Paris, spent a day in Casablanca, where she got scared at the marketplace, then bailed out in Algeria when a blackout interrupted her hot bath. One doesn't get a sense of how long she was in Cairo, but it wasn't long before her good night's sleep was interrupted by pounding in her hotel. Back to the U.S. to write this uninspiring book. Don't waste your money.
Rating: 
Summary: A fabulous book of adventure and discovery
Review: I loved this book on many levels. As a travelogue it carried me to Algeria, Morocco and Egypt in a way that had me tasting the dust and feeling the sweat. As a symbolic journey, I need to re-read it to capture it all. There were countless moments of "Ah-Hah" that I want to remember, but, as befits a truly spiritual, moving book, I couldn't stop reading long enough to take notes!. Finally, this was a story of Melody Beattie, who I feel I got to know on some level.Although I read many books that can be labeled "self-help," this book stands out as the best I have ever read. It's title does not do justice at all to its complexity and depth. This should be a classic
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