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emilycoppella's reviews
296 reviews
The Secret by Rhonda Byrne
1.0
This was one of the worst non-fiction books I’ve ever read. There’s a few illuminating sentences that might be inspiring if read somewhere else than in this book. Basically, if you’re an intersectional feminist - as we all should be - don’t read this. This is one secret you don’t want to know.
The chapters seem to be distinct but there is no organization or sense within them. Each sentence seems chaotically placed.
Let's get into the content.
The examples used are so extreme and unbelievable that I was literally rolling my eyes while reading them. There’s an example of a gay man who was being harassed every day by his colleagues because they were homophobic. After using The Secret and achieving his dream of becoming a comedian, his homophobic colleagues magically move on to other jobs or "just stop" bullying him. What a solution to homophobia!
This book is explicitly fatphobic. I laughed out loud at this one: “If you see people who are overweight, do not observe them, but immediately switch your mind to the picture of your perfect body and FEEL it” (61). Basically, work to make fat people invisible!
Although this is “New Thought,” so many ideas stem from Buddhism and Hinduism and yet these religions are barely mentioned. Byrne is quite talented because she manages to talk about "eternal energy" and "oneness" for an entire chapter without mentioning any of those religions or any spiritualities began by BIPOC folks.
There’s a moment when the book attempts to confront counterarguments. It reads that a reaction to The Secret may be that some people will blame those who are involved in mass death events or destruction for getting themselves there in the first place. Ultimately, she says that although it’s not their fault (wow, thank you), they MUST have been thinking thoughts such as “I can be in the wrong place at the wrong time” and that they are powerless, weak, etc. What a way to explain away every single systemic -ism! As an able-bodied white person born in the West to middle-class parents, “The Secret” would work perfectly for me!
In Byrne’s foreword she mentions some of the “teachers of the secret." They are all men and they are all white. In chapter 1, “The Secret Revealed,” 1/11 of the people featured are women. She's a Black woman. Only 1/10 of those men are Black.
I’m all for positive thinking, of embodying the lifestyle you want to live in order to help shape that as reality, but this book entirely avoids confronting racism, sexism, etc. It's so aggravating. In my mind, it reads as a neoliberal manifesto (yuck). I’m not against attracting abundance. Money shouldn’t be demonized because capitalism requires it and the state doesn't help the majority of us get it. With this being said, I found it off-putting that Byrne's model of success seemed to be based on being stupidly rich.
2/29 of the people who contributed to his book are POC. This is perhaps because The Secret, at least in Byrne’s book, is for white people. If you're interested in the law of attraction, read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.
The chapters seem to be distinct but there is no organization or sense within them. Each sentence seems chaotically placed.
Let's get into the content.
The examples used are so extreme and unbelievable that I was literally rolling my eyes while reading them. There’s an example of a gay man who was being harassed every day by his colleagues because they were homophobic. After using The Secret and achieving his dream of becoming a comedian, his homophobic colleagues magically move on to other jobs or "just stop" bullying him. What a solution to homophobia!
This book is explicitly fatphobic. I laughed out loud at this one: “If you see people who are overweight, do not observe them, but immediately switch your mind to the picture of your perfect body and FEEL it” (61). Basically, work to make fat people invisible!
Although this is “New Thought,” so many ideas stem from Buddhism and Hinduism and yet these religions are barely mentioned. Byrne is quite talented because she manages to talk about "eternal energy" and "oneness" for an entire chapter without mentioning any of those religions or any spiritualities began by BIPOC folks.
There’s a moment when the book attempts to confront counterarguments. It reads that a reaction to The Secret may be that some people will blame those who are involved in mass death events or destruction for getting themselves there in the first place. Ultimately, she says that although it’s not their fault (wow, thank you), they MUST have been thinking thoughts such as “I can be in the wrong place at the wrong time” and that they are powerless, weak, etc. What a way to explain away every single systemic -ism! As an able-bodied white person born in the West to middle-class parents, “The Secret” would work perfectly for me!
In Byrne’s foreword she mentions some of the “teachers of the secret." They are all men and they are all white. In chapter 1, “The Secret Revealed,” 1/11 of the people featured are women. She's a Black woman. Only 1/10 of those men are Black.
I’m all for positive thinking, of embodying the lifestyle you want to live in order to help shape that as reality, but this book entirely avoids confronting racism, sexism, etc. It's so aggravating. In my mind, it reads as a neoliberal manifesto (yuck). I’m not against attracting abundance. Money shouldn’t be demonized because capitalism requires it and the state doesn't help the majority of us get it. With this being said, I found it off-putting that Byrne's model of success seemed to be based on being stupidly rich.
2/29 of the people who contributed to his book are POC. This is perhaps because The Secret, at least in Byrne’s book, is for white people. If you're interested in the law of attraction, read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.
Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker
5.0
Insanely captivating read! I absolutely loved reading every single chapter of this. I started listening to Dr. Matthew Walker about five years ago on a health podcast and kept up with his research. I’d recommend this to everyone I know.