Mary Pipher explores the complex relationships of adult children with their aging parents, using anecdotes from her psychology patients and from folks she has interviewed. This book is great for people with adult children or adult children with parents still living. Reading these stories, it's easy to see why communication is often so difficult and even painful, especially when you have one generation groomed to discuss personal feelings and another that finds it rather awkward to admit a hardship has passed in their lives.

Though Mary Pipher has a Ph.D. in psychology, her books read like Annie Dillard, including beautiful details from people's lives, such as songs, recipes, rituals and stories of survival, which help connect the busy modern adult children to the pastimes of their elders. In turn, elders can see the challenges that adult children face, struggling to find a balance for themselves and their own offspring, while they begin to assume more responsibility for their parents, aunts, uncles, or aging friends.

As Mary journeys through this soulful investigation, she reflects on interactions with her immediate elders, appreciating the often forgotten activities that enriched their lives. As she learns, we also learn, thus making this self-help book less of a lecture and more of a partnership. There are no blanks to fill in, no goals to set, and no documentation for you to make. She absorbs the ambience of a more patient generation, so there is no heavy expectation with this book, thus providing the reader with the opportunity to draw conclusions quite naturally. More self-help books should be written with such grace and heart.

Review by Jackie Kosednar

Imagintelligence ~ Beyond Emotional Intelligence
By William Marts (Imagination Institute, 2000, $ 19.95)

The faculty of imagination is highly developed in the creative mind of the child. As we grow up, our imagination seems to go underground. In subtle ways, however, it continues to be a large part of our thinking. Through our everyday thoughts, we create thousands of "imagings." These thoughts and images are flavored by our belief system, in turn, creating feeling and emotions as the brain compares the current situations to past experiences in an effort to choose the appropriate response that best enhances our survival -- not necessarily our social standing.

Through the concept of "emotional intelligence," William Marts demonstrates how the problem of controlling and overcoming negative emotion can be solved as people learn to manage their brains and override the fight or flight response. By using the power of our imagination, we can intervene between environmental stimuli and the suggested emotional response of the body by creating a new, more desired response on the spot, thus gaining emotional intelligence.

Marts' book draws upon spiritual thinking in a mind-body-spirit manner to help the reader gain a more intimate relationship with his or her higher power. Further, Marts suggests that heaven is a state of mind. Our thought not only creates our reactions, but also the very fabric of our life experience. How we are using our God-given creative thought is evidenced by our power to produce negative experiences and reactions.

Great change comes when we become aware of the thoughts we are thinking moment by moment and reframe them to produce the reactions we want. By becoming hyper-conscious of what we are thinking, we can also change our past by changing our beliefs. Looking at the past becomes helpful only to find the beliefs we formed that may not be serving us. For those who suffer from post traumatic shock syndrome or depression, this book can offer new hope.

Imagintelligence is a textbook for students of spiritual psychology, the mind and metaphysics. It is not only a book to read, but also offers specific techniques to help the reader gain mastery over the mind. Imagination Control therapy and Imagery Management are exciting ways to help us create the blissful states of higher consciousness and spiritual development. This book puts the reader in the driver's seat where feeling and experience begin: the mind.

Do you have a book to recommend? Would you like to write a guest book review? Please call or e-mail Dawn Brunke at (907) 373-4667 or brunke@matnet.com.