November 30, 2009
· Filed under Author Interviews, Book Reviews · Tagged healing
Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul: How to Create a New You
By Deepak Chopra
I talked to a long-time friend today. Deepak Chopra and I have done close to a dozen interviews about his books over the years, many of those conversations knee-to-knee.
Today, we talked by phone on Open Book with Diana Page Jordan about his newest book Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul. God, he’s razor-edge brilliant. Deepak has written more than fifty books. How can someone be so prolific, and squeeze in, for example, our half-hour interview, and he was on The View earlier in the day, while writing a new book, while meeting with philanthropists about funding a more peaceful world. Read the rest of this entry »
November 28, 2009
· Filed under Book Reviews · Tagged fearless, happiness, healing, inspiration, intuition, law of attraction, love, magic, marriage, men, optimism, passion, psychic, relationships, self awareness, successful, turn on, witch
Tune Him In, Turn Him On: Using Intuition to Find and Keep the Man of Your Dreams
By Servet Hasan

Published December 1, 2009 (Paperback) Llewellyn Worldwide
My son said yesterday, “Mom, you’re a witch.” Calmly. With love in his voice, so I knew he didn’t mean the Margaret Hamilton kind. I protested. “You are,” he said, “You’re the most pure person I know, and when you’re really yourself, amazing things happen.”
So why do I need a book to remind me to use what’s God-given? Tune Him In, Turn Him On arrived today, on time, as do most of the books I need and want most. Servet Hasan says in her book that she comes from a long line of psychics, and that we all have this intuitive ability. Read the rest of this entry »
November 26, 2009
· Filed under Book Reviews · Tagged abuse, balance, blackberry, career, crackberry, email, exhaustion, inbox, inspiration, lifebalance, writing
The Tyranny of E-Mail: The Four-Thousand-Year Journey to Your Inbox
By John Freeman

Published October 20, 2009 (Hardcover) Scribner
I am thankful that the pinging has quieted — nearly — for this holiday. The sound of tiny little elves working on a railroad with teeny little spikes and hammers, resting for a change.
I finally yesterday turned off the sound of emails in my BlackBerry. Until then, it was an orchestra of pings between my Outlook and four different emails in my BB — all varied tones, of course. But today, Thanksgiving, I heard just three dozen ping into Outlook — which means I only have 6,256 emails to go.
Naturally the title The Tyranny of E-Mail attracted my eye. Read the rest of this entry »
November 24, 2009
· Filed under Author Interviews, Book Reviews · Tagged cooking, diabetes, diet, happiness, healing, healthy diet, physical health, recipes, storytelling
Taste of Home Cookbook: Cooks Who Care Edition
Edited by Catherine M. Cassidy and Diane Werner

Published September 8th, 2009 (Hardcover) Reader’s Digest
The top of my refrigerator is bedecked with dozens of unthumbed cookbooks, but there’s something about The Taste of Home Cookbook: Cooks Who Care Edition that makes me feel — well, home. I interviewed one of the editors today, Catherine Cassidy. She says the cookbook is for novice cooks all the way up to the experts. There are more than 1,400 affordable recipes — all from readers, and then tested in the Taste of Home kitchens.
What I love is Read the rest of this entry »
November 23, 2009
· Filed under Author Interviews, Book Reviews · Tagged 12-step, abuse, alcoholism, career, healing, humor, inspiration, relationships, self awareness, storytelling, trauma, writing

Mary Karr and Diana Page Jordan on PDX.FM
By Mary Karr

Published November 3, 2009 (Hardcover) Harper
She’s tough, wise-cracking, and I wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d pulled a lady-like pistol from her purse while routing for a pen, at Powell’s City of Books, where we met for the interview.
The closest ex-Texan Mary Karr comes to that image is Read the rest of this entry »
November 20, 2009
· Filed under Book Reviews · Tagged abuse, murder, Northwest crime stories, relationships, serial killers, storytelling, therapy, trauma, writing
But I Trusted You…and Other True Cases. Ann Rule’s Crime Files: Vol. 14
By Ann Rule

Published November 24, 2009 (Paperback) Pocket Books
I adore Ann Rule. Let’s just get it out there. She is the slightly-older female relative who always tells the truth. I’ve interviewed her in person at least a half-dozen times, maybe more, and every time, I am spellbound by her stories. These cases that she profiles that — to me — are psychologically mysterious. As in, how could that man do that, and how could that woman believe him?
There was one December, I recall, in the back of a chilly bookstore, after our interview, Read the rest of this entry »
November 19, 2009
· Filed under Book Reviews · Tagged abuse, alcoholic, alcoholism, cherry, drunk, goals, happiness, healing, humor, inspiration, Lit, loony bin, love, mother, poetry, relationships, self awareness, the Liar's Club, writing
Lit: A Memoir
By Mary Karr

Published November 3, 2009 (Hardcover) Harper
Mary Karr changed the rules of memoir when she wrote The Liars’ Club, she continued that tone in Cherry, and topped it off with her newest memoir, LIT .
In LIT, she brazenly reprises enough of her earlier life to set the stage for the emotional strip she does for the current memoir. Karr exposes Read the rest of this entry »
November 18, 2009
· Filed under Book Reviews · Tagged abuse, audience, career, confessions, fearless, goals, how to speak, humor, inspiration, optimism, passion, public speaking, self awareness, storytelling, trauma, writing
Confessions of a Public Speaker
By Scott Berkun

Published November 10, 2009 (Hardcover) O’Reilly Media
First, Scott Berkun busts the myths in Confessions of a Public Speaker. It is lost in the annals of history who first said to imagine your audience naked — or why. He argues that imagining seeing your audience naked will be useful only if you are deadly-dull. Otherwise, that method is going send scattered crazy thoughts through your head, likely making it impossible to focus.
Berkun traces the “imagine your audience naked” advice to Read the rest of this entry »
November 17, 2009
· Filed under Book Reviews · Tagged abuse, alcoholism, blessing, career, fearless, fiction, friendship, goals, happiness, healing, inspiration, joy, law of attraction, law of harmony, magic, manifest, mother, relationships, self awareness, transform
The Gentle Art of Blessing: A Simple Practice That Will Transform You and Your World

Published November 10, 2009 (Paperback) Atria Books/Beyond Words
More Info: Pierre Pradervand
My mind churns out dozens of thank yous in a day, in addition to those I say verbally. And, this puts me in a lovely, almost unshakably powerful place. But nothing prepared me for the stunning prescription this book provides, The Gentle Art of Blessing. The transformational power of blessing is as immutable as is the law of gravity.
For the past week, I’ve been troubled. Read the rest of this entry »