Rating: 
Summary: Spirituality With Muscle and Laughter
Review: "God is No Laughting Matter' is Julia Cameron's best book to date. Its tongue-in-cheek title invites readers to consider the humour and paradox in spirituality.Cameron casts her humorous and intelligent eye over the spiritual search while flexing its muscles and exercising its smiles. This approach is clever because the tone of Cameron's book is a fine example of her premise: that spirituality can be fun without detracting from its deep nature. The book is structured into short essays on various topics and can be read individually without losing the book's thread. Topics that Cameron explores include the least talked about aspect of spirituality: the possible pitfalls and inflations of the spiritual journey. Among other topics, Cameron's explores Spirtual Correctness, Parent Bashing, Budda Pests, Spiritual Vampires. Cameron explores these topics without being cynical. I'm grateful that Cameron did not ignore the less palatable aspects of our spiritually hungry age. By discussing these aspects she recognises that spirituality, like any other aspect of life, is subject to misuse and misinterpretation, and that it's essential to be aware of these. I was buoyed rather than jaded by Cameron's honest exploration. Cameron has come of age, as a writer, with this book. A gusty, heartfelt book about spirituality, it's definitely worth reading. A book to be enjoyed many times over.
Rating:
Summary: Spirituality With Muscle and Laughter
Review: "God is No Laughting Matter' is Julia Cameron's best book to date. Its tongue-in-cheek title invites readers to consider the humour and paradox in spirituality. Cameron casts her humorous and intelligent eye over the spiritual search while flexing its muscles and exercising its smiles. This approach is clever because the tone of Cameron's book is a fine example of her premise: that spirituality can be fun without detracting from its deep nature. The book is structured into short essays on various topics and can be read individually without losing the book's thread. Topics that Cameron explores include the least talked about aspect of spirituality: the possible pitfalls and inflations of the spiritual journey. Among other topics, Cameron's explores Spirtual Correctness, Parent Bashing, Budda Pests, Spiritual Vampires. Cameron explores these topics without being cynical. I'm grateful that Cameron did not ignore the less palatable aspects of our spiritually hungry age. By discussing these aspects she recognises that spirituality, like any other aspect of life, is subject to misuse and misinterpretation, and that it's essential to be aware of these. I was buoyed rather than jaded by Cameron's honest exploration. Cameron has come of age, as a writer, with this book. A gusty, heartfelt book about spirituality, it's definitely worth reading. A book to be enjoyed many times over.
Rating: 
Summary: Why so bitter?
Review: As a huge fan of Julia Cameron's works, I was thrilled to see she had a new book out. The beautiful cover, however, is the only inspiring thing about this work. What I believe was intended to be a fun, irreverent tone is severely marred by Ms. Cameron's unexplicable need to take blatent pot-shots at people working and practicing different types of spirituality. These nasty comments were unnecessary to her essays about her own spiritual quest, and she comes across rather like a playground bully who wants others to rally behind her and gang up on high-profile people who don't see things her way. Ms.Cameron is far too accomplished a writer to reduce her work to nasty drivel. I hope for a subsequent volume in which she speaks more from her heart and less from her ego.
Rating: 
Summary: Hilarious and right-on!!
Review: Finally, someone has put into words what I've always felt about God...and until now, felt secretely ashamed. Ms. Cameron reminds us that God can't be all that Very Serious (if you look at the octopus and the "baboons, with their bright red butts.") Her irreverent but sincere take on spirituality is a breath of fresh air that I really needed. So what if we don't pray the exactly correct words and couldn't win an open-book game of bible trivial pursuit? Do we believe what we believe because we truly believe it, or because that's what Sister Very Nasty drilled into us in school? Ms. Cameron urges us to let our religious hair down and stop berating ourselves for not being "spiritual" enough. Her message is clear; one's relationship with his/her creator should be warm, accessible, comforting and a two-way street...rather than one based in fear, guilt and overly-solemn discipline.
Rating:
Summary: GOD DEVELOPS THROUGHOUT MS. CAMERON'S SPIRITUAL PATH
Review: From this book to the follow-up PRAYERS FROM A NONBELIEVER: a story of faith, you can read through out the development of Ms. Cameron's faith/spiritual and influence on her work/writing journey. Every book she writes is a journey of the Path. You don't have to be a believer nor a doubter. Each both speaks from her heart to yours. Try reading these two and you will broaden your horizons.
Rating:
Summary: Why so bitter, Julia?
Review: I agree with Tracy Becks - this book is so bitter (and also poorly written) that you have to wonder if Julia Cameron actually wrote it. Eric Winter
Rating:
Summary: This is the first book I ever threw in the trash
Review: I don't know...but by the title I expected an uplifting, refreshing, original series of thoughts from a very popular artist/writer. What I got instead was a series of negative slaps at countless types of spiritual paths. I am someone who reads a book from cover to cover...well I guess I can abandon that statement now. I tried to read straight through this book but got so sick of each chapter being devoted to making you feel as though by doing nothing toward your spiritual goals you are doing just fine (which is a lovely thought if it ended there) however if you should (God forbid!) be a vegetarian, or do yoga then somehow you are a freak and a phony. She continually refers to these horrible "Spiritual People" as if they (whoever the heck they are) are Nazis. I tried skipping chapters but the theme stayed the same. I finally gave up.
I treasure all books and always think about who the appropriate person will be to receive the book when I am finished (if I'm not keeping it for my own library) so throwing it in the trash so no one else will read it is a big deal.
In fact I was so frustrated by this book I wrote my first review.
Rating:
Summary: Lighten Up for Better Spiritual Connections!
Review: Ms. Cameron gives an excellent introduction to this book when she says, "You may not find this book you hold in your hands very spiritual -- but you'll probably find it spirited." She has tried to make the book "hardheaded, softhearted, and playful." For example, in one section she wonders if God likes to cha-cha. Some may find her approach irreverent, but I found it informal rather in a way that will make spirituality more accessible to those who spirits are already burdened. For me, the book was very successful and expanded my spiritual awareness. The book is organized into a series of brief essays, sometimes combined with excellent poems, and followed with experiments, exercises and/or explorations. Each of these sections could have easily been expanded into a whole book. So there is enough material here to keep you spiritually engaged for years. I did a number of exercises and found them to be both helpful and inspiring. Many of these exercises provide ways to recapture your spirituality by better connecting to what is going on around you. As she points out, since we have left rural living, we have become disconnected from nature . . . which normally serves to keep us spiritually grounded. Ms. Cameron has been through some pain in her life, which she shares openly. She often disputed what her teachers had to say in parochial school, and spent lots of time in the principal's office as a result. At 29, she was divorced. Now, she is a sober alcoholic. So her advice to lighten up comes from someone who knows the heavier sides of life quite well. To me, the best part of the book is the magnificence of a single summary phrase that she embeds in every essay . . . that totally encompasses the essay. For example, she likens coming closer to God in "Blind Date" to having to "suit up and show up" as you would to start off a blind date. In "Higher Companions" she introduces you to "believing mirrors." In "Kindness" she tells you that "good is present and active." In "Dope-Dealer God" you are encouraged to "ask for some help." "Family" is expressed as "I believe in helping hands." "Faith" is "oversold" because "Saints commit." In "Parent Bashing" she points out that "Honoring our lineage honors ourselves." I wrote down one or two such phrases from each essay, and will keep them with me to remind me how to rekindle my spirituality. These phrases are great gifts within a great book. The book is neatly summarized in her final poem, "Roots and Wings." She asserts that all of our various spiritual practices have more in common than we realize. "The listening heart is home. If you take that word apart, You'll find it's built on 'om.'" (The "om" reference is to the sound that many use during meditation in Eastern methods of connecting to God.) "We -- each of us -- are traveling Our own way back home, We are all unraveling The mystery of 'om.'" I especially enjoyed this book for exposing many of my assumptions about God and spirituality that I had never examined before. I suspect that I am one of those people who takes this whole area a little too seriously for the good of my own spirituality. After finishing the book, I walked out to discover a magnificent sunset that pointed me in the direction home. That experience was clearly a message to me that I will heed for some time to come. As Ms. Cameron says in "Conscious Contact," "we just need to be more open." After you have finished this book and done its exercises, experiments and explorations, I encourage you to write an essay like one of these that expresses your inner sense of spirituality. Include your own exercises at the end. Then share what you have written with a friend. Hopefully, the friend will later do the same for you. Have a wonderful spiritual journey!
Rating:
Summary: Fun, insightful and thoughtful
Review: Past fans of Julia Cameron's work should not be surprised at the subject of her latest book. An artist who has a gift for articulating the spiritual side of writing and the creative process, Cameron tackles the subject head on in this wonderful volume. She approaches her subject not with irreverence, but with an open mind and a playfulness that characterizes her writing style. The book contains a collection of short essays on a number of subjects whose common thread is exploring and experiencing personal spirituality. Experiential learning is very big with Cameron, and throughout the book she posts various experiments and exercises that challenge and inspire readers to think and do things for themselves. This is a very well-written, fun and insightful book. I recommend it to anyone who is moving on their own journey toward spirituality and seeking to feed their soul.
Rating: 
Summary: An unusually tart-tongued, unfluffy Julia Cameron
Review: The onetime Mrs. Martin Scorsese gets a mean crack in when she compares a spiritualist quack to "the kind of old grande dame who comes out for a 'surprise' encore that's no surprise to anybody--'Okay, I'll do 'New York, New York'!'" Gee, who do you think that's supposed to be? And she also squeezes off some decidedly non-Deepak-Chopra-like dumdum bullets: I thought of James Woods describing how his marriage ended because he saw his wife giving birth when Cameron waxed rhapsodic over the beauty and miraculousness of seeing a newborn. "If you don't find this amazing," Cameron writes, "I don't want to meet you. You're scary." Well, Julia: color me sca-a-a-ary! I think sopping bloody meatsacks of recently expunged fetus are GROSS!
GOD IS NO LAUGHING MATTER isn't as gentle as THE ARTIST'S WAY or THE RIGHT TO WRITE or Cameron's delicate, wind-chime-like collections of affirmations. It's as if Cameron was fed up with all the New Age rodomontade of the last ten years, its self-righteousness and its wussiness, and wanted to deliver the tough-as-nails truth as she sees it. The book kind of resembles David Mamet's acting workbook TRUE AND FALSE in its cut-the-crap urgency. Seekers seeking Gooey Julia should look elsewhere. No chicken soup for the soul here; more like barbecued brisket, served hot off the bone. You gonna eat it or what?
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