Spiraling Through the School of Life: A Mental, Physical, and Spiritual Discovery, by Diane Ladd. Carlsbad, CA: Hay House Inc; 2006. 185 pages; $19.95.
The title of this book engenders a curiosity and an appeal to those of us facing a challenging phase in our lives and who are open to alternative approaches to healing. The author, an Oscar-nominated actress and healer, invites the reader to share in the warmth of her Southern hospitality as she spins the spirals of her own life's lessons. What transcends these stories are the practices and philosophies the author is able to bestow upon the reader, thus serving as a practical guide for anyone seeking to control a downward spiral in life. The title of the book is written in a colorful scrawl (complete with spirals), playfully written on a bright yellow dust jacket along with a headshot of the author herself displaying a radiant smile. Wings and a halo appear in the beginning of each chapter and tiny tornado-like spirals divide each new subtopic. The use of sans serif font within the text, as well as the book's portable compact size, completes the makings of a fast and entertaining read.
The book is divided into 4 parts. In part 1, the author describes her own awakening by detailing her marriage, divorce, love, loss, and parenting experiences and theories. Part 2 discusses ways that readers can help themselves. Part 3 reveals miracles that may prompt those of scientific mindsets to suspend judgment, and part 4 concludes with the author's more current life events and suggestions for the betterment of mankind in the future.
The introduction begins with the tale of the author's great-grandmother Prudence and the extraordinary circumstances she finds herself in, in order to assist in a baby's delivery. The author craftily weaves a parallel between her modern life's travails to that of her great-grandmother's, thus creating the spiral that connects the past to the present and to the future. Thoughtfully, the author provides a brief graphic organization of her book and welcomes the reader to learn from her hard-gained wisdom in a style that could be described as laid-back, Southern cordiality.
The book is sequenced as a life would be told-beginning in childhood. She moves quickly through lessons learned in adolescence. We become privy to a few personal details of the author's youthful marriage, financial and emotional struggles, and share in the dark period where she loses her precious baby daughter to a tragic drowning accident. The author is careful not to have the reader linger on the pain. There is perseverance, strength, and lessons learned with each spiral downward that is both humbling and illuminating. Throughout the book, the author consistently precedes a lesson with a story or illustrates with an example taken from a page in her own life. The last few chapters describe how fate played a hand in events that led to her current marriage, the death of her mother (and how traditional medicine may have lent a hand in her demise), the despair that fell over the nation after September 11, and, finally, hope for the future.
Stories such as told by this author are by no means unique; scores of self-help books can be found on any bookstore aisle. Marketing is clearly key here, and the design of the dust jacket and the smiling headshot of the actress/author are obvious features that make this book stand out from its competitors. The combination of a hint of titillating tales of Hollywood revealed as well as the comforting, having-tea-with-a-girlfriend approach to solving life's problems invites the reader to stay and, surprisingly, ponder the lessons the book has to offer. At times, the name dropping and Hollywood escapades become tiring and some of the stories are over the top in the retelling.
Pearls of wisdom are easier to accept, however, when wrapped in the telling of a story. At this, the author excels. The book is written in a layman's terms and, therefore, conveys the layman understanding of biomedical explanations. Conventional therapy, whether for mental health or physical health, is both lauded and criticized in the book, particularly medicine. While the author freely admits that both good and bad practitioners exist within the alternative medical community as they do in more traditional, allopathic medical communities, there is a bias toward the former. Caution is advised, therefore, when recommending this book for patients, friends, and family who have had less than satisfying results with their traditional medical practitioners.
Doreen Beyer, MSN, RN
School Nurse, Sacramento City Unified School, District, Sacramento, California