Glad No Matter What

October 15, 2010

San Francisco-based inspirational artist and speaker SARK (Succulent Wild Woman: Dancing with Your Wonder-Full Self!) invites readers to transform loss and pain into joy in this work printed with her handwriting and illustrated with multicolor artwork. Sharing her own experiences of loss, including the deaths of her mother, Marvelous Marjorie, and her cat, Jupiter (featured prominently in her earlier writings), SARK invites us to acknowledge strong and ambivalent feelings surrounding loss and to experience them in a middle place between love and hate where healing happens. Readers are then guided to find the GLAD (giving lovingly and daringly) parts of negative feelings and to identify, experience, accept, and share the gifts of death that lead to changes and opportunities. Each section concludes with a "screen of contemplation" (ideas for further reflection), quotes and "remarkable resources" (books, websites, music). The book ends with personal stories from people who have been transformed through change and loss. VERDICT SARK leads by example, offering gentle, humorous, and colorful instructions for learning to move through life's difficult times.--Lucille M. Boone, San Jose P.L., CA

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.