Devotion
A Memoir
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Narrated by:
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Dani Shapiro
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By:
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Dani Shapiro
About this listen
In her midforties and settled into the responsibilities and routines of adulthood, Dani Shapiro found herself with more questions than answers. Was this all life was - a hodgepodge of errands, dinner dates, e-mails, meetings, to-do lists? What did it all mean?
Having grown up in a deeply religious and traditional family, Shapiro had no personal sense of faith, despite repeated attempts to create a connection to something greater. Feeling as if she was plunging headlong into what Carl Jung termed "the afternoon of life," she wrestled with self-doubt and a searing disquietude that would awaken her in the middle of the night. Set adrift by loss - her father's early death; the life-threatening illness of her infant son; her troubled relationship with her mother - she had become edgy and uncertain. At the heart of this anxiety, she realized, was a challenge: What did she believe? Spurred on by the big questions her young son began to raise, Shapiro embarked upon a surprisingly joyful quest to find meaning in a constantly changing world. The result is Devotion: a literary excavation to the core of a life.
In this spiritual detective story, Shapiro explores the varieties of experience she has pursued - from the rituals of her black hat Orthodox Jewish relatives to yoga shalas and meditation retreats. A reckoning of the choices she has made and the knowledge she has gained, Devotion is the story of a woman whose search for meaning ultimately leads her home. Her journey is at once poignant and funny, intensely personal - and completely universal.
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Title Should Be Georgeville-It's All About George
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Until I Say Good-Bye
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Susan Spencer-Wendel's Until I Say Good-Bye: My Year of Living with Joy is a moving and inspirational memoir by a woman who makes the most of her final days after discovering she has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). After Spencer-Wendel, a celebrated journalist at the Palm Beach Post, learns of her diagnosis of ALS, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, she embarks on several adventures, traveling to several countries and sharing special experiences with loved ones.
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Until I Say Good-Bye is a paradox for me.
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A Chance in the World
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A Chance in the World is the unbelievably true story of a wounded and broken boy destined to become a man of resilience, determination, and vision. Through it all, Steve's story teaches us that no matter how broken our past, no matter how great our misfortunes, we have it in us to create a new beginning and to build a place where love awaits.
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Good Book
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Secret Daughter
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Debut novelist Shilpi Somaya Gowda pens this compelling tale about two families, worlds apart, linked by one Indian child. After giving birth to a girl for a second time, impoverished Kavita must give her up to an orphanage. The baby, named Asha, is adopted by an American doctor and raised in California. But once grown, Asha decides to return to India.
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A Must Read
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An Available Man
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When Edward Schuyler - a modest and bookish 62-year-old science teacher - is widowed, he finds himself ambushed by female attention. There are plenty of unattached women around, but a healthy, handsome, available man is a rare and desirable creature. Edward receives phone calls from widows seeking love, or at least lunch, while well-meaning friends try to set him up at dinner parties. The problem is that Edward doesn’t feel available. He’s still mourning his beloved wife, Bee, and prefers solitude and the familiar routine of work, gardening, and bird-watching.
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Lovely book, easy read, wonderful characters
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The Unspeakable
- And Other Subjects of Discussion
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It's a report tempered by hard times. In "Matricide", Daum unflinchingly describes a parent's death and the uncomfortable emotions it provokes; and in "Diary of a Coma" she relates her own journey to the twilight of the mind. But Daum also operates in a comic register. With perfect precision, she reveals the absurdities of the marriage-industrial complex, of the New Age dating market, and of the peculiar habits of the young and digital.
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Complaining about her dead mom.
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The Color of Rain
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When unexpected grief brings two families together, how do they start their journey to healing? Join Michael and Gina Spehn--bestselling authors and founders of the New Day Foundation--as they tell their story of resilience, remembrance, and reliance on their shared faith.
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Wow
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To See the Moon Again
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The first step to letting go of the past is forgiving it …Every day of her life Julia Rich lives with the memory of a horrible accident she caused long ago. In the years since, she has tried to hide her guilt in the quiet routine of teaching at a small South Carolina college, avoiding close relationships with family and would-be friends. But one day a phone call from Carmen, a niece she has never met, disrupts her carefully controlled world.
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Beautiful Story of Forgiveness and Selfless Love
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Going Om
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With candid, witty, and compelling experiences of yoga from renowned memoirists, including Cheryl Strayed (author of the number one New York Times best-seller Wild), Claire Dederer (author of national best-seller Poser: My Life in 23 Yoga Poses), Dinty W. Moore (author of The Accidental Buddhist), Neal Pollack (author of Stretch: The Making of a Yoga Dude) and many others, Going Om shares a range of observations about this popular practice.
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a couple of good stories, but overall just eh
- By Melissa on 05-31-16
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Language Arts
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Charles Marlow is a Seattle English teacher who instructs his students to expand their worlds through language. Lately, however, with one child off to college and the pressure from his ex-wife to make plans for their severely autistic son who's about to age out of the system, he prefers the company of the ghosts he turns up in the storage boxes in his crawl space.
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The beauty of the broken
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The Waiting
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In the summer of 1928, sixteen-year-old Minka was looking forward to a sewing class picnic. This would be a rare chance to put aside farm chores, don a pretty dress, and enjoy an outing with other girls. It would be a day to remember. And it was - but not in the way Minka had dreamed. Cornered by a stranger in the woods, the young girl was assaulted. Minka still believed that the stork brought babies; she would not discover for months that she was pregnant.
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Captivating and fantastic
- By John alexander on 10-03-19
By: Cathy LaGrow, and others
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What listeners say about Devotion
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- LeAnn
- 06-23-18
Overall interesting
It is well written and she shares her story well. I was just hoping for more and how she found more of her spiritual walk. Not sure that she is any closer to understanding and I certainly am not. I was looking for some insight and didn't glean that from this book. I heard her interview on Oprah's podcast and expected more from this book. More my error for she does just say it is a memoir. She narrates well, easy to listen to, just personally wanted more so it would help me on my spiritual journey
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- K. Cunningham
- 08-07-18
Not for me
It felt like endless whining about why she wasn't happy, how she couldn't find what she needed spiritually. I guess I'm old and jaded. You can have a happy life without finding the perfect spiritual path. It's OK to not have all the answers. Get over yourself and go out and take care of others and make yourself useful in the world.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Saleh
- 05-23-19
Personal Spiritual Constructs
Dani illustrates how she came to, and how most free thinkers come to, constructing our own personal spiritualism. It's seldom what we were fed as childen or what those outside our inner circle expect, but it's authentic, and unique to us. So, you get to see that Dani's title, "Devotion" is more than appropriate for what she conveys in this book.
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- Sara Gottfried MD
- 11-09-15
Superb
Piercing truthfulness. One of those books that I had to pull over on the side of the road 12 times to record ideas. Artful, deep, authentic.
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7 people found this helpful
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- nocutename
- 04-24-14
Tremendous
Wow . . . I don't know how I stumbled onto this but sure glad I did. The author's POV and experiences resonated with me. This is not "easy" content . . . it is contemplative and honest and it hit home deep within me. Thank you, Dani.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Elisa R. Goodman
- 04-14-18
Loved everything about this book!
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
I first heard about her from a recent Oprah Super Soul Podcast I listened to the other day. I was not familiar with her work before. I inhaled her book -- a page turner and I didn't want it to end. I found it interesting that last year I also had come across and listened to Deborah Feldman's "Unorthodox" & got glimpses into the world of Hassidic Judaism and the Orthodox religion. Both books have deep stories about the strong need to belong -- even though they have left their communities for their identity preservation -- but have come back to include some tradition because they were raising their sons and wanted them to appreciate their Jewish roots --but not in the way they were raised. Their strong sense of self to live their life in a way that feels authentic -- but also takes those steep traditions and turns them upside down. Both have raw stories and are told with a deep need for spiritual seeking. I think Dani is an amazing story teller and I can't wait to listen to another book! Her non stop questioning and seeking the truth and her need to quiet her monkey mind chatter so spoke to me. I also practice Iyengar Yoga so I enjoyed and related to her yoga practice and trying to quiet and restore the meditative mind. It made my meditations easier to do.
What do you think your next listen will be?
Another of her books.
What about Dani Shapiro’s performance did you like?
Her voice, her non-emotional delivery, and her contemplation of her words while she was speaking -- to make sure what she was thinking and had written was actually still her truth.
If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
Looking for "GOD" in all the wrong places...
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- Shelley M
- 10-12-19
Beautifully written, beautifully spoken
Another amazing story by Dani Shapiro
I thoroughly enjoyed every chapter. Dani is a masterful storyteller.
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- Jen B
- 03-21-23
Absolutely Amazing!!
Dani Shapiro is so real and authentic and such an amazing narrator. I could not love this book more! Thank you Dani for writing this book!!
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- Sara Neufeld
- 10-18-22
Can’t believe I didn’t read until now
As a Jewish yogi whose son began his life in the NICU, I couldn’t have related more to this beautiful book. Made me want to read everything else the author had written.
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- William
- 02-10-16
Universality in Discerning a Faith for Oneself
I liked that Dani shared a lot about her experiences and tied it all in to the theme of her work. One might think on first glance this work might be some new age/wishy washy story, but Ms Shapiro is really a down to earth realist in this book who shares how she found a way that made sense to her for how to be a good person and be good to others for a reason. I am not Jewish or Buddhist or Atheist or Agnostic, which are all addressed in Devotion, but I still got a lot out of it, and I am thankful she read it to me too so I had time to take it in - great voice for rhythmic words!
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6 people found this helpful