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1 comments about Happiness is a Sad Song (Peanuts).

1. This is a great book to help you appreciate the little things in life. Snoopy and the rest of the Peanuts gang have knowledge the rest of us seem to forget as we grow older, and grow up. Recommended for anyone needing a little boost!

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5 comments about True Coming of Age : A dynamic process that leads to emotional stability, spiritual growth, and meaningful relationships.

1. I've read it cover to cover twice after receiving it as a gift a few months ago, and regularly return to it. The chapters are insightful and interesting, but the exercises are what differentiate it from other books in might otherwise be lumped in with in the "Self-Help" section. Suffice to say it was just the thing to knock me off a personal plateau I had been stuck on for too long. If your relationship with the world could bear some scrutiny and improvement, you'll never forget this book.



2. True Coming of Age is so well written, it is reality in the making for any reader seeking insight into the self.  I found that here is a book so beautifully crafted that almost anyone can enjoy its healthy, gentle way of drawing us and encouraging us to reach for our goals and dreams.  Often, for many, a book may seem too challenging or even threatening.  But here, written as it is, we find understanding of any apprehensions we may have.  Dr. Chirban, a most gifted writer, is quickly recognized as not only being knowledgeable in psychology and theology, but most familiar with the fundamental quirks of the mind.  With certainty we realize that a steady, knowing hand wrote the words that compel and encourage improvement without stress.  Emotional maturity is attainable through insights gained throughout the book.  Strength of spirit is fostered by helping us shed fears, as well as our often long established "hang-ups."  The patience we learn allows us to improve our relationships.  Indeed, by personal improvement, we make the world a better place.  
    
   Early on, Dr. Chirban helps us understand aspects of our makeup often ignored, and successfully raises our desire to improve.  In so many ways he shows us how to question the self, assess the self and improve the self.  We begin to sense a wholesome process taking place as we read words that trigger so many insights.  Realizations do not often come easy, but here, plentiful as they are, we soon bask in the freedom they give us.  True Coming of Age is a gift, a present to give to our selves ... and surely, a wonderful gift of enlightenment to give to friends and to our loved ones.  



3. In reading True Coming of Age, what impresses me most is that the advice is so honest. It really packs a punch because Dr. Chirban doesn't try to oversimplify things. He talks about life pretty much how it is, and while that's not always neat and tidy, you really feel a very organic power from the book because what he's saying is true. It's not like some of those other books that try to turn everything into a formula.
   
   He talks about an amazing transformation in his parents when they both got cancer when they were old. It's a cool story because you think old people can't change, but his parents became buddies and started appreciating life in all these new ways. I feel like Dr. Chirban was there watching this happen, amazed himself and getting to know his parents in many new ways. I imagine him feeling the urge to know how it works, how people really change, how tragedy or the thought of death brings new life out of people, how to deeply connect with each other - and deciding to write a book to capture the truth of the process for others to understand.
   
   I don't get the sense of a prefabricated message he knew he was going to find when he started. He doesn't go too far in interpreting the case studies he uses; he stays pretty close to the ground and draws out some clear but strong conclusions that add to the picture of what this coming of age is about. In his interviews with celebrities, as well, I picture him before these amazing people with an open mind, hearing the truth that came out of their stories.
   
   The book has a lot in it. Instead of providing a self-help formula to digest and memorize, it's a book of richness to delve into and re-center ourselves within the reminders of what meaningful life looks and feels like.



4. What do Maya Angelou, Lucille Ball, Tom Hanks, Diane Sawyer and Jay Leno have in common? They have all provided exclusive personal insights during their interviews with Dr. John Chirban, which are incorporated in his "True Coming of Age." Not only were the interviews with these famous celebrities riveting and heart wrenching, but they provided a wonderful framework for the meaning of true coming of age and establishing our True Self.
   
   By using various exercises throughout the chapters to exemplify and illustrate the True Self in which we are all capable of achieving, this book proved to be an informative as well as interactive masterpiece.
   
   This might sound a bit surreal but after reading Dr. Chirban's True Coming of Age, I have a new outlook on life. I try to live each day to its fullest capacity and try to put minor stressors in the "back burner." This book has enabled me to feel a sense of inner peace which I had never allowed myself to experience before. This is a must read for everyone!



5. I read the book and LIKED it a lot, so I bought this for my mom as a gift. I love his insights-- so refreshing to hear it from a non-victim and value based source

2 comments about In Search of Happiness: Understanding an Endangered State of Mind.

1. This book is outstanding. I really, really loved it. Not only is it relentlessly stimulating on a cognitive level, but it arouses deeper-level themes as well, leading the reader to take a long, honest look at his or her own life and the true meaning contained therein. I read it while camping in the Canadian wilderness, which made Schumaker's brilliant assessment of modern culture even more profound. In Search of Happiness offers a clear view of our social reality at a crucial time in human history. It rationally and lucidly calls into question many of society's most fundamental underpinnings. Never before have I had such a desire to live like a human being was meant to.



2. John F. Schumaker is one of the best explainers of psychology and the human condition on the planet. His book "Wings of Illusion" is one of my all time favorites and it deserves to be on the bestseller list as do all of his books. "The Corruption of Reality" is a book way ahead of its time and how prescient that "The Age of Insanity" was published in September 2001? "In Search of Happiness" puts the very thing that most people are searching for in the kind of perspective that would enable one to know when they have found it, and if not, why not. Schumaker warns us that "Happiness has become the dominant illusion of the modern age." And that "the concept of happiness has become so hallowed that it is beginning to resemble a cult or religious surrogate." Indeed, this is, the book about the thing that everybody wants. Highly recommended!