Joey Madia, New Mystics Reviews

At the core of this hour-long visual–aural post-postmodern mind-jazz journey is John Gartland reading selected poems from his Five Books of Inundations , supported by a high-speed, trance-inducing barrage of techno beats and a far-ranging, superbly subliminal eye-feast of images. The whole thing opens with white letters on a black screen: Airstrip Featuring John Gartland overlaid with the sound of an airplane taking off. Other title cards appear along the way, tracking the trip, Phnom Penh to Bangkok, with changes in music and vertigo and vibe to sometimes support and sometimes glean additional meaning by working counter to Gartland’s text. Gartland, an ex-pat poet and teacher living in Thailand whose novels and books of poetry I’ve enjoyed and reviewed many times over the past decade, begins to speak, his voice at first electronically altered. As the early words implant in our ears we hear underlaid techno-dance boom-boom beats and see in a small square field a series of

(Deltona, FL: Thomas-Jacob Publishing, LLC, 2019), ISBN-13:   978-1-950750-28-3 I have to say up front: I am a big fan of Sharon Heath’s writing—especially her characters, such as the brilliant but troubled eponymous lead in the Fleur trilogy (also published by Thomas-Jacob). Heath, a certified Jungian analyst, “writes fiction and non-fiction exploring the inter-play of science and spirit, politics and pop culture.” Creating at the intersection of perceived dichotomies such as these is very Jungian, alchemical, shamanic, and above all, necessary. Some books provide an escape hatch away from the mounting troubles of a world in crisis. And there are plenty of reasons to seek escape. This past week, another pair of factors—economics and health—ramped up their interplay with the increase in Coronavirus cases and wild gyrations in the Stock Market. (The fact that we talk about economics and health as closely linked because of greedy pharmaceutical and insurance companies and a comp

  Review of The Self-Discovery Book: Inner Self-Improvement, Book 1 by Michael Cavallaro (Leaders Press, 2019). IS BN 978-1-943386-73-4 (pbk) . 978-1-943386-72-7 (ebook) There are decades’ worth of self-help/self-improvement books, DVDs, YouTube channels, workshops, retreat weekends, and so on out there. So the first question for both a reviewer and a reader when another book like this comes out is, “What sets this one apart?” In this case, there is more than enough that is new and insightful to recommend it, even if, like me, you have been on this path for most of your life. First and foremost, this is a workbook, and I am impressed with the thoroughness of the various questionnaires. I also like how closely they align with the text that precedes them. There are hours of work (and many revelations and ah-ha moments) ahead for the committed reader. As you engage with the text and complete the questionnaires, you’ll begin to resonate with the twin goals of “awareness” and “a

(Coronado, CA: www.ibokag.com, 2019). IS BN 978-1-708711-31-3 By Joey Madia It has been rightly said that losing a child is the most unnatural and devastating loss a parent can bear. And, with a yearly rise in deaths from opiate addiction and suicide, more and more parents are having to shoulder this worst of all grief. Nearly six years ago, Amy Jo Giovannone lost her daughter, Sierra, in unimaginable circumstances involving a beautiful, talented young lady whom everyone loved being prescribed opiates after surgery and finding herself addicted, leading to heroine use, involvement with dangerous and abusive people, a successful stint in rehab, followed by her disappearance and murder at the age of 23. No one was ever charged. Although there are strong hypotheses, this book, and Amy’s journey, do not center around the pursuit of justice (and, sad to say, there was none). Instead, Amy has chosen to share her process and philosophy for surviving the death of her daught