The Comfort Queen's Guide to Life: Create All That You Need with Just What You've Got - Hardcover

Louden, Jennifer

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0609605275 ISBN 13: 9780609605271

Publisher: Harmony, 2000

Synopsis

This deeply engaging book will help you discover the unique shape of your life by asking yourself questions. Then, with the help of the Comfort Queen, you will discover how to reorient your life around your own desires and needs rather than around time-management tricks. A Comfort Queen rules her own life. She treats herself with the same kindness and respect as she does the people she loves. She has a healthy sense of humor about herself. Rest, self-nurturing, and harmony are her imperial rights. She keeps her eye on the unfolding path of her life and lives by what she treasures. Or at least she tries.

A Comfort Queen also knows that "balance" is not a realistic goal for realistic women. Having the perfect home, the perfect relationship, and enough quality time with your children and friends is a magazine article, not a life. Jennifer Louden and her Comfort Queen know that real life isn't about balance; it's about meaning!

Jennifer Louden, the best-selling author of  The Woman's Comfort Book and The Woman's Retreat Book -- pioneering books on self-nurturing for women -- shows you realistic and fun ways to go inside yourself and create the rich, fulfilling, and sometimes slightly askew life that fits you.

About this title

About the Author

Jennifer Louden has appeared on numerous TV and radio programs, including Oprah and Later Today; has been interviewed in many major magazines; and has had her books translated into eight languages. She lives in Santa Barbara with her husband and daughter. She is the creator, along with artist Cleo Papanikolas, of Comfort Queens Goods, a line of cards, journals, calendars, and teapots that will inspire you to create the life you yearn for.

From the Back Cover

"Openhearted wisdom for every woman who wants to live and love and laugh more fully."
--Oriah Mountain Dreamer, author of The Invitation

Reviews

Fans of Louden's immensely popular previous title, The Comfort Book, will undoubtedly flock to her cheery new tome, which she likens to a "spiritual life planner," though some may find it unoriginal and imitative of such books as Simple Abundance. Yet another voice urging women to find balance and to "listen, learn and surrender to where life wants to lead," Louden mixes observations about her own life with affecting vignettes shared by other women. Based on following one's inner voice, her philosophy is influenced by Buddhist concepts and the work of creativity gurus currently in vogue, such as Julia Cameron. Louden derives inspiration from her muse--an imposing, bejeweled apparition dubbed the Comfort Queen--and encourages the reader to find a similar entity within herself. Among her well-expressed, if not fresh, insights: discipline is grounded in self-nurture, not self-denial; addictions and certain substances provide "shadow comforts." Although the device of the sometimes humorous, advice-bearing Comfort Queen comes to feel contrived, as though she is straining to entertain, readers may find value in the gently posed, reflective questions aimed at helping women discern their true selves. The 85 two-color illustrations by Cleo Papanikolas make the book an appealing gift; these images, along with some of Louden's inspirations, will be marketed on stationery, journals and other merchandise by major companies, including American Greetings and Papel. Agent, Barbara Moulton. 7-city author tour.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

As the baby boomers age, a subgenre of self-help books has emerged that concerns the psychology of change and is written by and for women, e.g., Joan Lunden's Healthy Living (LJ 4/15/97) and Gail Harris's Body & Soul (Kensington, 1999). These two titles fall into this subgenre. Louden (The Woman's Comfort Book, HarperSanFrancisco, 1992) has written a spiritual day planner in a workbook style, which is more whimsical than others but no less meaningful. The Comfort Queen, a spiritual muse/mentor who visits in dreams, raises tough questions that women must answer on their own through intense self-examination. Louden speaks of breaking through limits to gain a new freedom of thought, asking readers to ask themselves, "How am I spending my time in a way that doesn't support me?" Ultimately, she relies on a balancing act between taking care of the self and taking care of others. Snyderman, an ear, nose, and throat surgeon and medical reporter for Good Morning America and 20/20, has written a very intimate portrait of her life thus far. Now happily married, she credits her parents, children, and women friends with helping her survive a rape in college, two failed marriages, and debt. In particular, she credits two friends for pointing out her destructive habits and suggesting therapy as well as a spiritual quest. Both books use women's stories to illustrate the need for balance between nurturing others and taking care of oneself. Women, Louden and Snyderman contend, can only be truly happy and live up to their potential by starting within, not living a life imposed by others. There may be more requests for Snyderman's book because of her television presence, but both of these titles would make fine additions to self-help collections in public libraries.DLisa Wise, Broome Cty. P.L., Binghamton, NY
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harmony
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0609605275
• ISBN 13: 9780609605271
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224