Laurent Gounelle

Thanks to publisher Little, Brown and Company and NetGalley for a digital advance reader's copy. All comments and opinions are my own.

I just don't know where to start my review. I felt the description of the book was misleading. This was not a novel, but more like the transcript of a collection of lectures, a series of articles, or a very wordy treatise on faith. Alice, a pubic relations consultant, decides to help her friend Jeremy, a priest, promote and grow his Catholic parish church in a show more small French town, but since she claims to be an atheist, she needs to educate herself first. She reads the Bible, meets with Jeremy, attends a series of self-help workshops, and interviews a Hindu Taoist. Most of the book consists of the conversations she has with these people, as well as her experiments in putting Biblical precepts into practice. It is not a humorous story, nor is it interesting, moving, or illuminating. I have read and enjoyed many faith-based books, but I decided after reading 60% that I couldn't spend any more time with this book. I was disappointed the author couldn't have written a real novel using Alice's search for meaning in her life, and am still surprised it was published and promoted as moving and captivating. The only thing good was the description of the small French town of Cluny. I can't recommend this book to anyone. show less

The man who risked it all is a book about a guy named Allan who was about to jump off the Eiffel tower, but he was interrupted when he heard someone cough behind him when he was about to jump. And right that moment he didn’t know his life would change because of the man who interrupted him. His name is Yves Dubreuil, he offered allan a deal that he will change Allan’s life by teaching him the secret to happiness and success in life. In exchange of Allan ending his life, he will give his show more life to Dubreuil and he will obey everything that Debreuil asks him to do.
It never occurs to me that I would like a book this book till the ending. Because at first I was like “oh another story of a depressed person and of course he wouldn’t jump and so on and so forth”. But I did like it. It has a Very interesting story and examples about how to be confident in your own skin and be more assertive in order to move forward in life. And how we should avoid being a doormat and we should learn to be a leader. This book is very inspirational like a self-help book but better. show less

"L'Homme Qui Voulait Etre Heureux" is the story of an American teacher who takes his vacation in Bali and meets up with shaman/sage/healer Samtyang. He is not sure why he feels the urge to meet Samtyang, but has to tell him something after coming so far to meet him. So he confides that he is not a happy person, offering some rather lame reasons as to why he isn't happy. He only has a few days left of his vacation, but meets with Samtyang almost every day and gains insights into why people do show more what they do and what is preventing him from being happy.

This book was written two years after Elizabeth Gilbert's "Eat, Pray, Love" in which she too meets up with a Balinese sage. So it's kind of a "copycat" book in that respect. It can also be compared to "The Celestine Prophecy" in that it conveys consciousness-raising ideas in a fictional format. These ideas are nothing new or mind-blowing, but it has been fairly popular in France, and I see its popularity as all to the good. Sometimes people just need to be reminded of what they already know. show less

Imaginez...
Vous êtes en vacances à Bali et, peu de temps avant votre retour, vous consultez un vieux guérisseur. Sans raison particulière, juste parce que sa grande réputation vous a donné envie de le rencontrer, au cas où...
Son diagnostic est formel: vous êtes en bonne santé, mais vous n'êtes pas heureux.
Porteur d'une sagesse infinie, ce vieil homme semble vous connaître mieux que vous-même. L'éclairage très particulier qu'il apporte à votre vécu va vous entraîner dans show more l'aventure la plus captivante qui soit : celle de la découverte de soi. Les expériences dans lesquelles il vous conduit vont bouleverser votre vie, en vous donnant les clés d'une existence à la hauteur de vos rêves. show less