Rating: 
Summary: compares well with Bachelard's Poetics of Space
Review: A beautiful book, written in a spare, precise style. This is a pleasure to read as well as a Zen exercise in how to focus with utter clarity in the beauty of small moments. This book will appeal to Zen students, people interested in all types of meditation, interior designers and architects, and even the young person moving into his or her first apartment.
Rating: 
Summary: Wash Your Bowl
Review: Are you familiar with the story of the young beginning monk who goes to the Zen master and asks him what he should do to attain enlightenment and the master asks him if he has eaten his bowl of rice, the boy says yes and the master says, "Wash your bowl." ? Gary Thorp with compassionate good nature explains how to wash your bowl. Enlightenment needs no special equipment and each and every creature and object in your life is just waiting to give it to you. I think this book suggests many ways of how to see that. It's magical. You don't have to stop anything that you are doing, you don't have to join any club or cult or religion, you don't have to be anything but what you really are. Just read the book and meditate on it and everything will be fine. No kidding. It's that good.
Rating:
Summary: This book saved me $100!
Review: Cleaning and sweeping have never been so enlighten after I read this book. Thorp is for sure someone who knows very well how difficult is to cope with the house's cleaning. However, he gives us wonderful tips to face them with joy and happiness. Try this book!
Rating: 
Summary: Looking for something...just maybe not Zen
Review: I bought this book because I wanted guidance in discovering the meaning in everyday life and everyday things. I thought I might also learn how better to "care for the things that care for me." I didn't really find that here; instead the book is filled with obscure instructions and seemingly disjointed statements. I'm not sure what I've read. Is this Zen?I wanted to like the book, but I think I'm looking for something else, something that feels a little more concrete. I will say that the book is a nice compact size, with nicely textured paper--it felt good to hold. If I'd found it more useful, I could imagine carrying it around with me, allowing the corners to become dog-eared and worn. Alas, it will be retired to the shelf.
Rating:
Summary: Developing zen in your daily life.
Review: I've been on a thirty year search for a book like "Sweeping Changes". Although, I've read a lot of books on zen, only a few seem to capture zen's true essence. Gary Thorp, author of "Sweeping Changes", is able to convey this zen essence to his reader. He writes of bringing mindfulness into all aspects of daily living. But Thorp does this without being prescriptive. Instead, after reading (or shall I say savoring) a chapter of "Sweeping Changes", you find yourself inspired to bring your entire presence to the task at hand; whether it is sweeping the kitchen floor, taking care of the kids, or addressing a challenge at work. For now, "Sweeping Changes" will have a special place on my book shelf; a place where it comforts me with its very presence of zen.
Rating:
Summary: Developing zen in your daily life.
Review: I've been on a thirty year search for a book like "Sweeping Changes". Although, I've read a lot of books on zen, only a few seem to capture zen's true essence. Gary Thorp, author of "Sweeping Changes", is able to convey this zen essence to his reader. He writes of bringing mindfulness into all aspects of daily living. But Thorp does this without being prescriptive. Instead, after reading (or shall I say savoring) a chapter of "Sweeping Changes", you find yourself inspired to bring your entire presence to the task at hand; whether it is sweeping the kitchen floor, taking care of the kids, or addressing a challenge at work. For now, "Sweeping Changes" will have a special place on my book shelf; a place where it comforts me with its very presence of zen.
Rating:
Summary: a joy to read,
Review: I've seldom read such kind hearted and helpful wisdom as Gary Thorp offers in Sweeping Changes. Read this book and then watch the everyday "ordinary" moments of your life become embued with meaning and deserving of profound respect. You'll never look at dust or think of water in the way you once did. I feel compelled to give my small review as a way to help this book make it's good way into the wide world. With deep bows to Gary Thorp. I hope you have a second and third and fourth book in mind...
Rating:
Summary: Full of wisdom that is actually useful
Review: Maybe it is a California thing but as a native, I think the term Zen gets overused. The author notes on page 2 "Zen is the Japanese word for "meditation," and while this is usually understood as sitting quietly in a formal posture, it can also be applied to the everyday movements of daily activity." I am neither Zen or Buddhist in the purest form of the word. But I bought the book because I have been involved in simple living for almost two decades and I am always interested in how different people approach simplicity and quietness in everyday life. So what value did I find in this book? Well, for starters its nice to see the everyday tasks that must be done, elevated to a higher or revered level. I have always believed that preparing food or making a house a home and feeding the bodies as well as the mind of the ones around us is something very spiritual or even holy. That bring order from chaos is wonderful. And seeing smile and laughter and contentment from daily tasks is a sure sign of enlightenment. There are so many gems in this books from pots and pans to where one sleeps, to the colours that surround us and how that effects us, to simple things like learning that in Japan that when a precious tea container is broken it is not only mended but gold leafed so that the repair is shown as a continuance of the life of the item. Whereas here in America when something is broken it usually gets tossed out and a new replacement is sought.
Rating:
Summary: Meaning in the Moment
Review: Mr. Thorp's clear prose and common sense analogies bring forward the accumulated wisdom which informs this rumination on mindlfulness, zen, and every day tasks. Mr. Thorp lets us see (without lecturing) that the extraordinary is certainly to be found in ordinary, and in this case, essential tasks. One of the pleasures of the book (and there are many) is that even after having read through it from front to back each chapter can be read as if entering a room of one's inner house, and within each room spending mindful time with each task.
Rating:
Summary: A Timely, Yet Timeless Book of Wisdom
Review: This book is a treasure. Gary Thorp's masterful writing is a pleasure to read, and his view of the world is as refreshing as it is basic. Sweeping Changes reminds me that even the most ordinary activities and moments of life are really quite extraordinary and that every day is filled with wonder.
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