Saundra, can you give some more info? Do they address The Secret? It sounds very interesting. I'm reading Howie Mandell's book and loving it.

All of my Christmas cards, yet again. I love some of what was written inside of them...

I am reading The Art of Racing in the Rain right now but when I am finished I am going to read Howie Mandell's book.

I glanced through Howie Mandell's book at B&N, and want to read it after the New Year. What I read briefly about him was a real shocker to me.

I'm currently reading "90 Minutes in Heaven" by Don Piper with Cecil Murphey. I understand it's a true story with regard to God's reality. I've been reading fiction books like "The Shack" of which I enjoyed, yet wanted to read something more realistic. A lady reverand (who is also a fellow horsewoman) loaned me her copy. Gosh, she is actually the 1st lady reverand I've met, have ya'll met any female church leaders? I think a woman's perspective is refreshing.

Hi, Diane. Here's a summary of BRIGHT-SIDED. Yes, she does mention THE SECRET.

A sharp-witted knockdown of America's love affair with positive thinking and an urgent call for a new commitment to realism.

Americans are a "positive" people, cheerful, optimistic, and upbeat: this is our reputation as well as our self-image. But more than a temperament, being positive, we are told, is the key to success and prosperity.

In this utterly original take on the American frame of mind, Barbara Ehrenreich traces the strange career of our sunny outlook from its origins as a marginal nineteenth-century healing technique to its enshrinement as a dominant, almost mandatory, cultural attitude.

Evangelical mega-churches preach the good news that you only have to want something to get it, because God wants to "prosper" you. The medical profession prescribes positive thinking for its presumed health benefits. Academia has made room for new departments of "positive psychology" and the "science of happiness."

Nowhere, though, has bright-siding taken firmer root than within the business community, where, as Ehrenreich shows, the refusal even to consider negative outcomes (like mortgage defaults) contributed directly to the current economic crisis.

With the mythbusting powers for which she is acclaimed, Ehrenreich exposes the downside of America's penchant for positive thinking: On a personal level, it leads to self-blame and a morbid preoccupation with stamping out "negative" thoughts. On a national level, it's brought us an era of irrational optimism resulting in disaster.

This is Ehrenreich at her provocative best, poking holes in conventional wisdom and faux science, and ending with a call for existential clarity and courage.

Just for fun, I read Stephen King's book UNDER THE DOME.

It's 1,074 pages of really good! I swear I hurt my back carrying it around, but it was really good!

Ah Chatty, that is so sweet and touching.

Thanks so much, Saundra. My publisher has built an empire on positive thoughts so I was interested in another viewpoint.

I downloaded Howie's book on my new Kindle! I love my little machine and I loved Howie's book too. Poor guy suffers from OCD so bad it makes my heart hurt for him.

I'm also a new fan of David Sedaris although Barrel Fever had a few rough mentions of gay sex. He's so funny outside of that.

mustang, one of my favorite ministers at out church was an interim female minister. She was so refreshing. She's the one who shared that she didn't understand many of the people in our congregatin becasue they had a "why me" attitude, which many people I know have. She didn't understand why we didn't have a 'why not me' attitude. That one conversation changed much of my thought process with regards to bad things happening to good people. So cool. Her dad was a doctor who was a missionary and did most of his work in Africa so that's where she was raised for the most part. She had very little expectations which I beleive caused her to be an unusally blessed woman.

I'm reading An Alter in the WOrld which teaches how to see the sacred amidst everyday living. Several different spiritaul practices are taught which are eye-opening.

Just finished reading:

Friend Of the Family by Lauren Grodstein,
Have a Little Faith by Mitch Albom,
Positive Energy by Judith Orloff, M.D.