Rating: 
Summary: Why this book is different, yet the same....
Review: I personally love this book. It challenged me on many levels, and it was written from a spirit of adventure, rather than pain. For readers expecting a didactic, spelled-out "how-to" format -- don't. After the initial burst of recovery from codpendency, the lessons came more subtly -- each one, like solving a mystery. That's how I wrote this book. It is multi-level, and intended to speak to you, hopefully, the same way your life does. You don't have to go to Algiers to have your adventure -- you're living it right now. Thanks. Melody
Rating: 
Summary: In the Great Pyramid with Melody Beattie. Light a candle!
Review: I will have to agree that after reading this book I was left wondering how it had to do with learning to stop being mean to oneself. And, frankly, I think that is a terribly awkward title for a book. And, over all, this is far from being her best work and it sometimes does verge on being a bit corny. But I still liked it. I suppose it helps that I have always loved the Great Pyramid of Giza and have always dreamed of going there. The pyramids of Egypt have captured popular imagination like no other monuments on earth. They have such a mysterious and powerful presence. I confess to being interested in anything remotely related to them. I also have great affection for Melody Beattie and her style of writing. Since I don't have the money, and am not too sure that it would be a safe trip to make anyway, I have to live vicariously through others' journeys to ancient Egypt. And that is what Melody enables us to do with this book. I am very envious of the fact that she got to sit by herself in a chamber of the Great Pyramid. Okay, the idea of sitting there waiting for "her powers" to emerge sounds a bit corny (and I could never decipher what exactly those "powers" were) - but, I'll admit it, it appealed to me. Sitting in the Great Pyramid sounds like fun. There's nothing wrong with being silly and enjoying life now and then.
Rating:
Summary: An inner and outer travel diary
Review: It is often difficult to internalize the concepts discovered by others in their search for enlightenment. Although there were (often creepy) parallels between her experiences in North Africa and my own, as well as similarities in the lessons we have learned, I often found it hard to resonate with Ms Beattie as she told her story. I do appreciate her analogy of spiritual growth to that of a computer game...we just keep going to higher levels.
Although I will probably never re-read this book, I will keep it in my office for my clients to borrow. Perhaps it will strike a chord with someone.
Rating:
Summary: An inner and outer travel diary
Review: It is often difficult to internalize the concepts discovered by others in their search for enlightenment. Although there were (often creepy) parallels between her experiences in North Africa and my own, as well as similarities in the lessons we have learned, I often found it hard to resonate with Ms Beattie as she told her story. I do appreciate her analogy of spiritual growth to that of a computer game...we just keep going to higher levels.
Although I will probably never re-read this book, I will keep it in my office for my clients to borrow. Perhaps it will strike a chord with someone.
Rating: 
Summary: The inspiration I needed ...
Review: It's interesting how things/situations "speak" to some people and don't to others. Books are this way. Some reviewers found Stop Being Mean to Yourself a waste of time, but I found it an inspiration and an adventure that made me WANT to stop feeling sorry for myself, to KNOW that I should listen to my higher self and to BEGIN being good to myself. I felt I was led to this book - I read it in one day, with verve! It's true that it seems to be a "story" about Beattie's adventures and her personal quest for enlightenment, but that's what I liked about it! I was looking for something different, something interesting - a "story" about life and what others have experienced that I want and need (whether it is fact or fiction!). Plain and simple, it touched me with its simplicity. I related to Melody's struggles - her questioning and searching and uncertainty. ... I've read plenty of spiritual awareness and self-help books with daily affirmations, etc., (from wealthy, educated doctor types! - does it make a difference who's actually doing the writing if it speaks to you?!) but they have gotten old - Melody intrigued me. She re-engaged my creativity and my interest in myself - not necessarily on fixing myself, but in being loving and nurturing to myself. I felt understood reading this book, because I felt that Melody is "one of us." She's on the same spirtual path (but maybe farther ahead ;-)) as the rest of us who read this book and any of the thousands of others that exist on similar subjects. I was brought to this book - as other people may have come upon it for their own personal reasons - if you weren't touched by this one, there will be another book out there that WILL get to you. As Melody makes clear, we all have our own journey - no two are the same - and that's what stood out to me. I may feel comfort in hearing about someone else's journey or struggle, but mine is my own and I will forge my own path. Thank you Melody for putting me back on that path and helping me to realize that no one guru or doctor or person can tell me what's right for me! That's for me to find out in my own way.
Rating:
Summary: The inspiration I needed ...
Review: It's interesting how things/situations "speak" to some people and don't to others. Books are this way. Some reviewers found Stop Being Mean to Yourself a waste of time, but I found it an inspiration and an adventure that made me WANT to stop feeling sorry for myself, to KNOW that I should listen to my higher self and to BEGIN being good to myself. I felt I was led to this book - I read it in one day, with verve! It's true that it seems to be a "story" about Beattie's adventures and her personal quest for enlightenment, but that's what I liked about it! I was looking for something different, something interesting - a "story" about life and what others have experienced that I want and need (whether it is fact or fiction!). Plain and simple, it touched me with its simplicity. I related to Melody's struggles - her questioning and searching and uncertainty. ... I've read plenty of spiritual awareness and self-help books with daily affirmations, etc., (from wealthy, educated doctor types! - does it make a difference who's actually doing the writing if it speaks to you?!) but they have gotten old - Melody intrigued me. She re-engaged my creativity and my interest in myself - not necessarily on fixing myself, but in being loving and nurturing to myself. I felt understood reading this book, because I felt that Melody is "one of us." She's on the same spirtual path (but maybe farther ahead ;-)) as the rest of us who read this book and any of the thousands of others that exist on similar subjects. I was brought to this book - as other people may have come upon it for their own personal reasons - if you weren't touched by this one, there will be another book out there that WILL get to you. As Melody makes clear, we all have our own journey - no two are the same - and that's what stood out to me. I may feel comfort in hearing about someone else's journey or struggle, but mine is my own and I will forge my own path. Thank you Melody for putting me back on that path and helping me to realize that no one guru or doctor or person can tell me what's right for me! That's for me to find out in my own way.
Rating:
Summary: The inspiration I needed ...
Review: It's interesting how things/situations "speak" to some people and don't to others. Books are this way. Some reviewers found Stop Being Mean to Yourself a waste of time, but I found it an inspiration and an adventure that made me WANT to stop feeling sorry for myself, to KNOW that I should listen to my higher self and to BEGIN being good to myself. I felt I was led to this book - I read it in one day, with verve! It's true that it seems to be a "story" about Beattie's adventures and her personal quest for enlightenment, but that's what I liked about it! I was looking for something different, something interesting - a "story" about life and what others have experienced that I want and need (whether it is fact or fiction!). Plain and simple, it touched me with its simplicity. I related to Melody's struggles - her questioning and searching and uncertainty. ... I've read plenty of spiritual awareness and self-help books with daily affirmations, etc., (from wealthy, educated doctor types! - does it make a difference who's actually doing the writing if it speaks to you?!) but they have gotten old - Melody intrigued me. She re-engaged my creativity and my interest in myself - not necessarily on fixing myself, but in being loving and nurturing to myself. I felt understood reading this book, because I felt that Melody is "one of us." She's on the same spirtual path (but maybe farther ahead ;-)) as the rest of us who read this book and any of the thousands of others that exist on similar subjects. I was brought to this book - as other people may have come upon it for their own personal reasons - if you weren't touched by this one, there will be another book out there that WILL get to you. As Melody makes clear, we all have our own journey - no two are the same - and that's what stood out to me. I may feel comfort in hearing about someone else's journey or struggle, but mine is my own and I will forge my own path. Thank you Melody for putting me back on that path and helping me to realize that no one guru or doctor or person can tell me what's right for me! That's for me to find out in my own way.
Rating: 
Summary: a travelogue disguised as self-help
Review: let's be honest, it's really a travelogue. i couldn't quite figure out how this book related to not being mean to yourself, and i felt melody beattie, in creating this book, really just wanted a forum to talk herself up as a world traveler, a real renaissance guru. as a travelogue i felt it was second rate, with a lot of flat drama, cutesy scenes, and emotionally shallow characters - all of which beattie somehow tries to tie together and build up into this profound statement of life and philosophy. well, i just don't think it cuts the mustard. it came across less as profound to me than just silly and immature and grandiose. i do not recommend becoming codependent with this book.
Rating:
Summary: a travelogue disguised as self-help
Review: let's be honest, it's really a travelogue. i couldn't quite figure out how this book related to not being mean to yourself, and i felt melody beattie, in creating this book, really just wanted a forum to talk herself up as a world traveler, a real renaissance guru. as a travelogue i felt it was second rate, with a lot of flat drama, cutesy scenes, and emotionally shallow characters - all of which beattie somehow tries to tie together and build up into this profound statement of life and philosophy. well, i just don't think it cuts the mustard. it came across less as profound to me than just silly and immature and grandiose. i do not recommend becoming codependent with this book.
Rating:
Summary: An adventure both temporily and spiritually.
Review: Melodie took me to places I have always wanted to visit. I was fascinated that she would undertake such an adventure alone . There were some details of her visit that were left unanswered at times but I felt myself holding my breath and wondering what might happen to her next.There were some very insightful passages about toxic relationships and self-discovery that I felt were directed right at me. I needed to be reminded how quickly and how subtly we give our power away and how we need to get it back. Life is worth living.
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