Latest Book Review of The Self-Improvement Book Club Murder

Thanks to CLW for the latest review of The Self-Improvement Book Club Murder - A Mystery by Todd Wright:

Self Improvement AND Murder?The Self Improvement Book Club Murder, by Todd Wright, is a murder mystery about Detective Bookman's journey to enlightenment, along the way, he just happens to solve the murder of Sue Ellen Pinkus, who was a member of the so called Self Improvement Book Club. Detective Bookman and his partner Alec Berg are faced with some "Self Improvement" of their own as they search for clues within the books from the club.

Wright's work of fiction sent me on a personal quest to read the non-fiction books the club members were so passionate about, such as; A New Earth, The Power of Now, The Secret, How to Win Friends and Influence People, Think and Grow Rich, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and many more. Two thirds of the way through The Self-Improvement Book Cub Murder, I was no longer concerned with "who did it" (I had complete confidence in Bookman) instead I wanted to follow Detective Bookman's path of personal growth! I was encouraged to start my own Self-Improvement book club (one where we actually read the books) and I have recommended this book to several friends.

I enjoyed the fictional setting and appreciated Wright's depth of understanding of "New Earth" concepts, which were very obvious through the insights and application of those concepts he brought out in his character's daily lives, all in just over 200 pages! If you are a Tolle fan, you don't want to miss this book! I look forward to improving myself further with Wright's next book.

Who Would You Invite to Your Dinner Party?

I've been doing a lot of thinking about this lately. I don't know if it's because I'm going to win a contest soon or what, but it's kind of a fun question.

Almost as much fun as picking the guests is choosing the ground rules.

First, all of my personal friends and family are excluded. The reason for this rule is obvious. I can't invite all of them to this once-in-a-lifetime event, so I need to have recourse to a rule that excludes them all equally. That way I can shrug and say, "If it were up to me . . . "

But for this rule, I would invite my octogenarian uncle who would thoroughly enjoy the night, though he may not appreciate most of my selections. This would be especially true of my aunt who would undoubtedly be his date. I would invite them anyway if I could. But rules are rules.

What's Your Drama?

Ok, I'll go first.

My drama has been to allow my pain-body to take over my thinking in the context of a love relationship.

No, that's too abstract. Let's try again. My drama has been to take things personally in the context of a love relationship. There, now that's something people can relate to, I think. 

Things said and done by my significant other would be felt as intense "emotional pain."

[Ok, now I've said the same thing in three different ways. Take a moment and look at those three descriptions of my drama and try to understand how they're all saying exactly the same thing.]

This "emotional pain" would cause me to react against the supposed source of this pain, my significant other. But of course, she wasn't impacting my physical body in any way, so how could she have been the source of my pain? She couldn't. In fact, it was my own thoughts that were causing this "emotional pain," so called. I was doing it to myself.