Daralyse Lyons reviews From Depression to Contentment

I just finished reading From Depression to Contentment by Bob Rich, PhD. “Reading” is probably a misnomer. From Depression to Contentment is a practical guidebook to revamping our behaviors as a means of changing our inner life. It is not only engaging; it is meant to be engaged with.

I received the book roughly a week ago after a string of back-and-forth emails with the author inspired me to want to experience his work. I loved the book! It’s not perfect. One thing I find problematic about it is that I do believe that, in a small number of cases, depression requires medical intervention and the book seems to present all depression as a repetitive loop of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. But, that said, this strikes me as incredibly helpful for anyone who wants to feel better about their experience of life. It takes complex concepts and synthesizes them down to actionable items, bolstered by memorable anecdotes. I’d have devoured it in less than a week except that, as mentioned, there are to-do exercises that I want to say “slowed me down” but that actually speed up the path of my emotional uplift.

The practices in Bob Rich, PhD’s short but substantial book, are something that I hope to integrate into my life on an ongoing basis and I highly recommend this book as a resource for anyone struggling with depression. Or not! This book can help even those of us who feel pretty good about life. Some of its practices are intuitive and others aren’t, but intentionally incorporating more joy into our lives seems to me to be something that can and will benefit anyone!

Matriarch: An Australian Novel of Love and War

978-1-61599-270-6
$21.95
In stock
1
Product Details
UPC: 978-1-61599-270-6
Brand: Modern History Press
"Powerful and unforgettable."


At the beginning of the twentieth century, the son of an English lord settles in Australia and marries an indigenous woman. It is an age when interracial relationships are not only misunderstood, but result in family conflict, disgrace, and disinheritance.

Then the Christian missionaries come. They destroy the timeless culture and beliefs of Australia's indigenous people, leaving them to flounder in a soup of the white man's religious beliefs. The great-grandmother's telling of the family story is the nourishment that holds it together through war, and the constant battle to adjust and exist in a white man's world. The Christian missionaries will not tolerate any belief or view other than their own.

Amid all this religious and racial conflict, the great-grandchildren adjust and eventually prosper. The young man distinguishes himself in the conflict in Vietnam, while his sister finds her place and flourishes in the food and catering industry.

From the Boer War through two World Wars, the Vietnam War, and the last decades of the twentieth century, Matriarch takes readers on an eye-opening journey through Australian history, culminating in a serial murder mystery that opens old family wounds.

Author Geoffrey Hope Gibson's historical sweep of Australia's past is as broad as James A. Michener's. His style is reminiscent of Richard Llewellyn's depictions of Wales and Argentina, and his depiction of Aborigine mistreatment rivals the most frightening moments in Tayeb Salih's classic postcolonial novel Season of Migration to the North.


"Matriarch is a captivating story that will take readers through time within the aboriginal heart in Australia, and feel the raw truth of their history and social evolution to current times. A Must Read!"

-- Susan Violante, Managing Editor of Reader Views, and author of Innocent War


"This sprawling epic tale of love, marriage, injustice, ancestors, misguided religion, grief, rage, and murder is a testament to how the past never dies. In one family's struggles, Gibson creates a story that calls forth the best and worst of what it means to be human. Powerful and unforgettable."

--Tyler R. Tichelaar, Ph.D., and award-winning author of Narrow Lives and The Best Place


Learn more at www.GeoffreyGibson.com

From the World Voices Series at Modern History Press www.ModernHistoryPress.com

Fiction : Sagas
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