Stalking God

October 15, 2017
After the birth of her first child, a lawyer goes on a spiritual quest to "believe in something bigger than myself." Until she had her daughter, Kumar, a former legal executive for Google and Warby Parker, was skeptical about religion. She had been raised by practicing Jainists and had attended Catholic school as a young girl. But motherhood changed her. As a parent, she wanted a "spiritual home" where she and her daughter could comfortably live. So Kumar dedicated one year--and after that, an indefinite period of time--to exploring spiritual practices around the world. Her quest took her to Brazil, where she met with John of God, a man who claimed an ability to channel saints, doctors, and scientists and who had earned Oprah Winfrey's admiration. Later, she traveled to Peru to find a shaman who could offer her a "direct route to God" through ayahuasca. Other trips took her to India, Mexico, and Japan, where she sought out healers, spiritualists, and psychics. Closer to home, she visited SoulCycle, a gym that offered spin classes infused with "a heavy dose of positive thinking set to very loud dance music"; a tequila-drinking "dirty" medium who gave her messages from dead relatives; and the annual Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert. Kumar also explored the Wiccan religion and befriended several practicing witches. While its respect for women and nature resonated deeply with her, she soon saw that Wicca lacked the omnipotent dread-banishing deity that she also desired. The revelations Kumar experienced ultimately did not change her life, yet each experience helped her understand that the secret to any form of spirituality lay in the "magic" of ritual, belief, and hope it offered people. Candid and entertaining, the book suggests that finding insight into bigger questions about the meaning of life is far less important than knowing all people are united in their desires for health, happiness, and love. A pleasantly thought-provoking memoir.

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December 1, 2017

Answering questions about life and the universe may be impossible, but perhaps it's not so serious. At least that is the impression that Kumar (general counsel, Warby Parker) gives as we follow her on her quest. Kumar--a successful attorney in the tech industry, notably with Google--is a first generation American raised in Jainism with a fair dose of Catholicism from parochial school thrown in. Her journey is initiated by wondering what answer to give her daughter when she becomes old enough to start asking the "big questions." With a skeptical outlook and an intrepid spirit, Kumar searches for God in the obscure, quirky, often humorous and sometimes just shy of terrifying backwaters of the spiritual landscape. She arrives at a place where it just might be that getting on with the business of actually living is of the greatest spiritual value. VERDICT Fellow nones, those with no affiliation to a particular religion, will appreciate this personal journey while secularists and believers will gain a better understanding of this growing demographic.--JW

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2017
The birth of a child often causes people to make changes, whether that means giving up old habits or starting new ones. For Kumar, it meant trying to get a handle on God, so that she could answer her child's inevitable questions. Already familiar with Hinduism and Christianity, she took a no-holds-barred approach to her spiritual questing: she became, in her own words, a spiritual tourist. Despite being married with a child, she had the means to travel the world in search of answers. The search includes some outlandish approaches with odd names, including Amma hugging and Para-Tan sounding, but it also touches on more well-known practices like Wicca, Mexican sweat lodges, and mediums. Trained as a lawyer, Kumar relinquishes her skepticism and tries giving it a go. She realizes, with some dissatisfaction, that many of these practices work best in the context of a larger culture, but ultimately wonders if it doesn't really matter what we do to achieve transcendence, as long as we believe it will work. Perfect for readers stalking their own answers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)