Out on a Limb [Hardcover]

Shirley MacLaine (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 372 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; 1St Edition edition (1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553761935
• ISBN-13: 978-0553761931
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,471,662 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Shirley MacLaine, Oscar winner, three-time Emmy winner, and ten-time Golden Globe winner, has appeared in more than fifty films, has been nominated for an Academy Award six times, and received the Oscar for Best Actress in 1984. A longtime outspoken advocate for civil rights and liberties, women¹s rights, and spiritual understanding, Shirley MacLaine has sold more than 20,000,000 copies of her nine international bestsellers, which include her acclaimed work The Camino.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

75 of 81 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book and movie, January 20, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Out on a Limb (Paperback)

I loved the book and the movie. Shirley has courage. I would also recommend the book An Encounter With A Prophet for another author with courage.

35 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just great, August 8, 2004

By 

Catherine Gallanti (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Out on a Limb (Paperback)

This is one of those books that is so good that, when you finish it, you feel sad. Because you know you will be hard pressed to find a better one to follow. However Shirley wrote several books to follow this one, that if even if not as fabulous, are still great...so no need to be too sad: Shirley's adventures continue on.

The book is riveting because it describes in such an entertaining a gripping writing style, full of humour and insight, Shirley's exciting adventure of spiritual awakening. It is an autobiographic book of a very small but intense time of Shirley's life, in which, as many who have had an awakening will be able to relate to, life becomes brilliantly alive, full of synchronicities and magic. Shirley is lead from book, to teacher, to channel, to places across the globe as she follows the promtings of spirit that lead her to glimpse and explore realities that break down her previous belief structure about the world. And as she travels and learns, a completely new way of viewing life emerges for her- and a completely new Shirley!

Spiritual insights aside, just the way in which this book is written is superb - Shirley has a real gift for bringing to life her experiences on the page and the book reads as an exilarating adventure novel. I loved it and re-read it occasionally when i want to recapture that feeling.

If you like metaphysics and new age writings, this book is quite a gem and well worth reading. You will cerish it, you will love it and probably read it again and again.

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Surprising on many levels, December 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Out on a Limb (Paperback)

This might sound condescending, but this compelling account of the actress' spiritual journey is surprisingly well written. Shirley MacLaine is not just a Hollywood dancer turned New Age guru; she's a bestselling author who knows the craft of writing. What comes across immediately is the earnestness of her message. She's not out to fool her readers. She's also done her research. Each chapter has apt quotations from great thinkers about the nature of life as they saw it. There are a lot of sentences that begin with the word "Maybe," as in "Maybe the ancient thinkers had it right." Nevertheless she rightly states that what we call history is a leap of faith. Readers will have to make their own judgments about the credulity of the author, but MacLaine's testament shows us that everyone has to draw their own lines about personal beliefs based on experience, reading, and reasoning. But above all, experience. And she documents this process spendidly. She does not come off as an unreasonable "kook." On the contrary, she herself is skeptical at first and admits that the very ideas she later accepts seem "preposterous." It is this intelligence and skepticism which makes this book hard to dismiss as simply New Age pap. The chapter about Peter Sellers is genuinely moving.