Apologies if this shows up twice, it posted below a January post, I guess because I started it earlier. So I'm reposting and deleting the earlier one. A bit primitive but it should work.This week I read David Roche's amazing book called The Church of 80% Sincerity. David was born in 1948 with a facial disfigurement called Cavernous Hemangioma (a benign tumor consisting of blood vessels), and he suffered further trauma through the medical treatments available at the time-- radiation scarring and many surgeries. His candor and wicked sense of humor put the reader at ease, just as he puts the audience at ease as a motivational speaker. David calls his face “a gift from God. He is quick to add that it is one of those gifts where you say, “Gee, you shouldn’t have.” I have a special fondness for books that make me laugh out loud, and I also value books that aim to foster self-esteem in people just as they are. This book has all that and more. David writes, "The church of the title is not a formal organization but a concept – the church of choice for recovering perfectionists."
I reviewed The Church of 80% Sincerity for Irked Magazine and I'll post a link when that review is available. His entire schedule and much more information is on his website, but I've posted his SF Bay Area event schedule Feb 11-20 for anyone who wants to meet this remarkable man.
Anne Lamott observed in her Foreword, "Everyone watching [David] gets happy because he's secretly giving instruction on how this could happen for them, this militant self-acceptance. He lost...the good looking packaging, and the real parts endured."
I highly recommend the book. I highly recommend militant self-acceptance.
Previously, well, roughly 30 years previously--January 27 to February 4, 1978 I read:
The Black Charade, John Burke
Whatever Became of Jane Austen and Other Questions, Kingsley Amis
My note was: Vitriol ordinaire
Betrayal, Lucy Freeman and Julie Roy
January 27 to February 4, 2008 I read:
The Church of 80% Sincerity, David Roche
