If you enjoyed Eat Pray Love, or even if you didn't like that book, do consider The Wishing Year either way!December 28, 2008 I came to this book as it was favorably mentioned on a blog I enjoy. I was one of those who really didn't like The Secret. I just thought that book was plain dumb and shallow so I came to The Wishing Year with some real curious but serious skepticism but I was so happily wrong. Oxenhandler approaches the whole process of what wishing is with a vigorous intellect and a terrific talent for writing in an accessible, easygoing, and captivating style. This book is not about making a wish and crossing your legs while you wait for your wishes to materialize one by one. It is a serious attempt to honor and take her most cherished wishes for her life as seriously as her relationships with others, and it is a fascinating, beautiful, and moving look at how when we can learn to take our own wishes more seriously and treat them with the sacred respect that they truly deserve, wonderful things can begin to occur in ways one could never ever predict.
This is a great book to read and gift to others, especially those who like inspirational true stories like Expecting Adam or Eat Pray Love. I plan to give it to a couple friends who are living with profound disappointments in their hearts right now because it is a book that can reawaken wounded spirits. It was the perfect book to read as the year comes to a close and one sets about wishing and dreaming and planning for the new year!
A WonderDecember 12, 2008 2 out of 3 found this review helpful
My one wish for The Wishing Year book is that it would never end.....
Unmatched by any book I can remember, The Wishing Year is as much an exquisitively intelligent investigation of female vulnerability, as it is a memoir of one concrete year and the quest for three things. By looking at the ideas of intention's influence, the author gives so much to the reader- her wit, humor, profound wisdom, and complexity. Like all of us, Oxenhandler's hopes that wishing matters. Whether it does or doesn't, I don't know. What I DO know, without a doubt, is that this is an absolutely lovely, wonderful book.
mind changning....October 7, 2008 loved it. it makes me think in all different ways....the things around you and the things that happen to you make you think and react in a quite magical way
Holds herself apartSeptember 20, 2008 2 out of 4 found this review helpful
The book was enjoyable. I think the author made an honest effort to be fair and to believe. She had some preconceptions though that I thought held her back. 1. The experience of an unbeliever/cynic is more valid than someone who does not question and moves ahead with a premise. 2. It is somehow undignified and low class to want material things and, at the same time, makes you insensitive to the blight of others. 3. A person's wishes are something to be judged. Everyone lives their own life and our preception is our reality regardless of what others may think. We really don't have any authority to judge another just because their problem does not seem as important or as grave as others we can bring to mind. I would like to ask her if she thinks the world would be a better place if a majority of people were moving towards what gives them substance and satisfaction thereby reaching a place where they can contribute or by sitting in the dust lashing themselves feeling guilty. We are all unique gifts to this world, no exceptions, and we actualize that by following what gives us joy, not by gnashing our teeth over what we think is 'profane' in another. I wouldn't discourage buying the book. I definitely go something out of it, but I never felt she was comfortable enough with the material. She always seems to hold herself apart, afraid to admit somethings to herself. She is a good writer, but she may have finished the book before she finished the lesson.
Five Shooting StarsSeptember 19, 2008 2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Five Shooting Stars for The Wishing Year! I am so thankful that I ignored the first Amazon reviewer and bought it anyway. "See how our thoughts make our world? I feel like saying--but I resist." (page 255) One day I hope to get the nerve to try "Putting It Out There" myself. And if this happens I plan to take this book, place it under my pillow, focus on Noelle's poetic thoughts and words, and wish for a muse to sing through me...
