Noelle Oxenhandler

Just finished this is in a torrent of reading on trains and planes and beaches.... I hesitated to buy it because I thought the idea was the whole thing. That is, I assumed the author's idea to spend a year focusing on three deep wishes (for a man in her life, spiritual health, and a house of her own) was interesting and useful enough as a concept that I didn't need to read the actual book.
But I'm glad I did. Oxenhandler is more nuanced and philosophical than Elizabeth Gilbert, whose book is otherwise comparable in content. Oxenhandler presents a lot of interesting research on wishing as well as her own experiences over the year and she avoids an overly optimistic ending (justifying her oft-stated self-description as a "skeptic"). All in all a book I'd recommend to those interested in Buddhism, desire, personal fulfillment, and memoir....… (més)

This book was on loan from a friend, and I'm glad that I read it partly before coming on vacation and finished it while on vacation (while on the beach, actually, which was a nice touch). Reading about the author's need to let go of her inner guilt or expectation that something bad needed to happen so that something good could happen spoke to me that I should enjoy my vacation just for what it is, and not think that awful things will occur. Also, the discussion about wishing - what to wish for, how one should wish, what 'experts' think about wishing,etc. - in her practical and almost cynical view matched my own viewpoint, so I could really take to heart the conclusions she draws at the end, and those conclusions have me thinking about... what would I like to wish for?… (més)