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: 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: 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
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: 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: Very Disappointing
Review: This book started as an adventure of Melodies trip to the Middle East. And, I have to say that I enjoyed it as a novel and hearing about different aspects in the Middle East. But as far as I could see, it didnt have anything to do with the title of the book. I have experienced her other works much better than this one. I kept waiting for the depth, but it never came.
Rating:
Summary: Don't Waste Your Money
Review: This is a mediocre travelogue at best. Too often the author comes across as another rich spoiled american abroad. The narration is inherently funny as she often mispronounces common words. I didn't feel a lot of sympathy for her as she comes across as way too flighty and too new agey. I would not recommend this too highly.
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