From Publishers Weekly
In this collection of meditations, Toms (
True Work: Doing What you Love and Loving What You Do) offers harried overachievers a moment of respite, directing them through daily contemplation and humble rituals to reflect on wide-ranging topics—Buddhist proverbs, activism, service, connection with nature and the dynamism of sparkle brain, a flexible and adaptive mindset. The diminutive essays are vaguely organized under broad sections (A Wider Landscape, Animals and Nature As Teacher, Be an Activist Without Driving Yourself Crazy, Circles and Friendships, Celebrations and Rituals) that are appealing, but do not offer a cohesive enough thread to sew together the author's prescriptions. Two pieces do deserve special attention: A Sense of Place, a tender tribute to childhood, and Circle of Your Own: Take The First Steps, in which Toms credits Rev. Mary Manin Morrissey with the notion that everything is born twice—first in the imagination and then in the physical world—a compelling axiom as well as an elegant subtheme for the entire volume. Rather than a cover-to-cover read, Toms's slender book can best be accessed when needed and according to mood.
(Oct.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
"[Small Pleasures] will help you to see and know yourself and the world in an eye-opening way. . . . So read on and awaken to what lies within." Bernie Siegel, MD, author of Love, Magic, and Mudpies
"[Justine Toms's] mature spirituality shines in stories and examples that you ll be delighted to read and to share. What a rich gift we've been given." Joan Borysenko, PhD, co-author of Your Soul's Compass
"[Small Pleasures] touches the heart or hits a nerve or inspires doing something on the spot. A wise book from a wise woman with a great inner kid." Jean Shinoda Bolen, MD, author of Goddesses in Every Woman
"These reflections are like conversations with an old friend straightforward, sensible, comforting and inspiring. They satisfy." Sylvia Boorstein, author of Happiness Is an Inside Job
--Endorsements
