My review of Choices by Melody Beattie

About the book:

From the New York Times bestselling author of Codependent No More, The Language of Letting Go, Finding Your Way Home, Journey to the Heart, and Stop Being Mean to Yourself, comes Choices: powerful wisdom and insight about how to make the best choices in our lives from the author who revolutionized how we look at relationships.

My review:

"Choices" by Melody Beattie is a unique non-fiction book. I've never encountered anything like it before. Normally it takes me forever to read non-fiction, but she sprinkles in stories and scenarios that are interesting to read and help her make the point in each chapter that she is trying to convey. "Choices" is filled with a lot of truth and many useful lessons about how we make choices all the time whether we realize it or not. Some parts (the stuff about reincarnation and spiritual journeys in Tibet) were kind of hokey because they contradicted the Judeo-Christian thoughts that made the most sense to me.

For the most part this book was helpful and could be life-changing for people who feel stuck in their lives. We are not just victims of negative circumstances, but can use our life experiences to grow as a person. She says that we get the most out of life when we take our eyes off ourselves and use our hard-earned lessons to help others. This is a very Christian principle. I've found it to be true in my life.

I highlighted a lot of things on my kindle that she wrote because I wanted to ponder them later. Life is a journey that we can enjoy or fall victim to in our minds. What we think about, what we dwell on, and the choices we make are ours alone. They do influence us on a daily basis. Faith is a key to unlocking all of the above.

I found this book to be inspirational and compulsively readable. I read over the reincarnation stuff but didn't find it to be helpful because it contradicts and confuses the other message. Melody is a fantastic writer and has a lot of useful insights. I would recommend this book as a tool for people to help them change their perspective. It contains a lot of nuggets of truth that are worth digging up. I feel more empowered as a person because of this book, and that makes it a book worth reading.

  "Choices" was published in 2009 by Harper Collins, and yes, I actually bought this book for my kindle after reading the first few chapters.