Rooted in Peace by Greg Reitman

9780738754024

152 Pages
Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd, Llewellyn Publishing
Release Date: September 8, 2018

Nonfiction, Self-Help, Transformation, Memoir

This book is a companion to a documentary of the same name.

These are the titles of the chapters within the book
Losing and Finding Our Way
Guns and Roses
War
The Trauma Vortex
Militating for Peace
Beach Boys and the Maharishi
The Brain and Transcendental Meditation
A Visit to HeartMath
Seeking Health in a Toxic World
Healing the Environment
The Great Wake Up Call

The author writes about his experiences in the first Gulf War in Israel. He thought his way to bring peace to the world was to plant trees. He mentions many famous people that he met while making the documentary and writing this book. Although this book is short, the messages within are loud and clear. We cannot find peace outside until we find it within ourselves. I enjoyed this author’s writing and style and look forward to reading more of his work.

I was hoping for a book that helps toward a peaceful existence and how to achieve it step-by-step but in reality this was little more than storytelling which was a whole world away from what I had desired or imagined unfortunately. It just wasn't for me but i'm sure this would be a great fit for other readers. A part of the book I did really like was the interviews with luminaries and activists such as Desmond Tutu, Deepak Chopra, and Dr. Mehmet Oz. These were interesting to read, however, there was not enough included on methods of finding peace for these to be a redeeming feature.

Many thanks to Llewellyn Publications for an ARC. I was not required to post a review and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

Rooted in Peace is one man's journey to find enlightenment and peace in this modern world. I was drawn to this book when I saw it described on the NetGalley site because I have been doing some of the same work myself in the past few years: meditating, yoga, eating organic foods, caring for the environment, and doing some spiritual seeking.

Mr Reitman is a documentary filmmaker and he has won awards for his environmentally-conscious work. About this book, he says; "Based on my documentary Rooted in Peace, this book challenges readers to examine their values as Americans and human beings. Today we are at war with ourselves, with our environment, and with the world. Gradually we have come to be consumed by fear." Later he asks, "How can we move from a culture of war to a culture of peace?" This book contains the answers that Greg has found for his own life.

I found a lot of common ground with the author's opinions but I didn't care for his focus on famous people's viewpoints, all the name dropping. If we are all connected, if we are all one, then surely some of us common people have important, useful thoughts too.

I received an arc of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks for the opportunity.

This is a wonderful book; truly inspirational and transformative. Recommended for all of us who are seeking to bring more peace and compassion to a challenging world.

Rooted in Peace by Greg Reitman

This book was not quite what I Expected. Greg Reitman is a generation X and a winning documentary maker. This book is extremely large in it's scope.of covering a wide variety of topics. This is supposed to challenge readers to examine their values as Americans and human beings. He states that people are at war with themselves, with the environment and with the world. He talks about subjects as the Virginia Tech shootings and how easy it is to get a gun without going through all the proper procedures such as background checks.

He talks about the fear vortex that we as a society find ourselves in because of the media and the terrorist attacks on the twin towers on September 11, 3001. He interviews Deepak Chopra, and many famous doctors and celebrities.
He has written sections on global warming and that each of us has to take responsibility for the survival of our planet.

There is discourse in nuclear weapons and feels that over a hundred countries have banned them unlike the United States. There is a large section on the pesticides used in fruit and produce and their links to cancer. My favorite section of the book is on Transcendental Meditation which has the power of making the brain fully conscious. I plan to research that area further.

Thank you to Net Galley, Greg Reitman and Llewellyn Publishing for my digital copy in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I was hoping for a book that helps toward a peaceful existence and how to achieve it step-by-step but in reality this was little more than storytelling which was a whole world away from what I had desired or imagined unfortunately. It just wasn't for me but i'm sure this would be a great fit for other readers. A part of the book I did really like was the interviews with luminaries and activists such as Desmond Tutu, Deepak Chopra, and Dr. Mehmet Oz. These were interesting to read, however, there was not enough included on methods of finding peace for these to be a redeeming feature.

Many thanks to Llewellyn Publications for an ARC. I was not required to post a review and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

I will be posting to Goodreads, Twitter, Waterstones, WHSmith, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon on or around 8th August as per your request to not post earlier than 30 days prior to the publication date.

For me I was not that happy with the book. It may be a good book for others, but I did not gain much from it that the author likely hoped. To me it is more of story telling than ways to find peace.