This is a wonderful book which is well written, well organized and very entertaining. In this book Grist talks about how one can live a spiritual life without having to make huge, major life changes. While I do not agree with everything she says, her book is very engaging and I would recommend it to many people.
Grist has organized her book in a way that makes sense. With chapter titles such as "The Goddess," "Free Your Mind," and "Life is Hard," she tackles real world issues such as the importance of spending time on yourself, pampering yourself and/or your partner, looking nice and enjoying a hobby that may be frivolous. Her book is incredibly straight forward and grounded in the real world that we live in. She does not advocate making huge changes, and if changes are needed she does not advocate doing everything at once. Instead she uses excerpts from her diary and stories from her real life to show that bad things happen, we make mistakes and we must take things slowly.
One thing is that Grist's book really is woman-centric and thus could rub some people the wrong way if you have more of a patriarchal point of view, or do believe in male deities. That being said she very clearly advocates finding your own spirituality path. This book in no way says this religion or that religion is best. Instead Grist talks about how to incorporate spirituality into one's day-to-day life without having to have one's spirituality being the only thing going on.
Frequently Grist refers to her other book, The High Heeled Guide to Enlightenment. While it's in no way necessary to have read this book first, as it was published first, I am wishing I would have as it seems like it would have been a good primer.
This is honestly a book I could read several times over a couple year period. It can help almost anyone, especially woman, who are trying to fit faith into their lives.
~Review By: Jessica Elizabeth
Author: Alice Grist
Soul Rocks Books, 2011
pg. 289 $18.95
