Reviews

The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World by Desmond Tutu, Dalai Lama XIV, Douglas Carlton Abrams

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jkdavis1026's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

thenschultz's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

5.0

cecile87's review against another edition

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3.0

The book was just as much about the writer as it was of the two religious leaders. This made it a bit choppy reading for me.

I took a few notes on the ingredients and precursors to joy. May need to read the book again and just skim to those parts. They evaporated from my memory so want to review those. I got the audio version, so I didn’t listen to the meditation and journaling exercises. Will need to borrow the hard copy to explore that section.

Mind you, I did appreciate learning more about Tutu and Lama. I didn’t know their stories. Tutu has preached at my church a few times in the past. He brought a lovely energy to the proceedings.

eamcmahon3's review against another edition

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5.0

Not surprisingly, this book was wonderful. It offers concrete methods on how to improve joy and happiness. I particularly was moved by the stories of the Tibetan children and their exile to India. Two spiritual leaders coming together to create something beautiful.

catajohn's review against another edition

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hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

5.0

This is a truly hopeful book. I feel like most people will relate to some of the facts described in the book. Most of the things described simply make sense and the dialogues between Desmond Tutu and Dalai Lama are really interesting and deep but at the same time funny and lighthearted. Its focus is not on religion but rather on joy and how to be joyful no matter the circumstances and no matter if you are a religious person or not. Both Desmond Tutu and Dalai Lama share practices and stories based on their beliefs and life experiences and it's really beautiful how they accept each other beliefs and actually try to learn from each other.

tiffyelefano's review against another edition

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5.0

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. As someone who is on a journey of self-healing and looking for mindfulness and peace within myself, this book was just what I needed. The words that the Dalai Lama and the Archbishop spoke and how they were weaved together by Douglas Abrams, touched my heart and the deep core of my soul. There’s so much to learn from these two beautiful souls and I’d recommend this book to absolutely everyone. We need to be more compassionate, care about the well-being of everyone around us, and love generously. We are interconnected, and once we can come together and spend less time focusing on ourselves as separate individuals, only then we will find true joy. 5 stars.