Oprah Winfrey

I don't know how many middle-aged men will readily admit to reading one of Oprah's book (that's their issue, not mine), but man, am I grateful I selected this audiobook at this juncture in my life.

I've always admired Oprah and find her inspiring, but what drew me to the book was the cast of fellow readers, including such luminaries as President Jimmy Carter, VP Joe Biden, Pema Chodron, Thich Nhat Hanh, Eckhart Tolle, Jay-Z, Congressman John Lewis, Trevor Noah, Stephen Colbert, Sue Monk show more Kidd, Elizabeth Gilbert, TD Jakes, Cheryl Strayed, Rob Bell, Jack Canfield, Cicely Tyson, Sidney Poitier, Ellen Degeneres, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Lin Manuel Miranda, Jordan Peele, Brene Brown, Bryan Stephenson, Father Richard Rohr, and a couple dozen more.

These segments are largely from interviews Oprah has done with these leaders of the mind, heart, or state over the years. She breaks the book up into ten chapters that serve as guideposts on the journey to self-discovery. (The Seeds, The Map, The Road, The Climb, The Reward, etc), laid out in a manner that would serve my teenage kids, who are figuring out who they are and hope to be, as well as a 51-year-old like myself, who in many ways is doing the same thing, for a third, fourth, or even fifth time - I've lost count.

This is easy-to-digest advice from people who have lived through challenges and obstacles that give them the street cred necessary to speak on topics such as adversity, resilience, philanthropy, self-awareness, self-discovery, loss, and hope.

I highly recommend the audiobook, as you get the benefit of hearing these remarkable artists, authors, and leaders speak from the heart, rather than merely reading their quotes on the page. Oprah is, of course, Oprah - guiding you along the journey with a narrative that is reassuring and authentic.

Maybe your life journey is going smoothly right now. Maybe you just can't see yourself reading Oprah. Maybe you don't subscribe to listening to "famous people" tell you how they've navigated their path. I encourage you to move past any resistance and give the audiobook a shot. There are so many diverse viewpoints, so many perspectives, some are bound to resonate. These are leaders of the heart and mind, for the most part, and those who have earned celebrity status outside of those roles all have reasons for being included in these pages.

Thanks, Oprah and friends, for making the path a little clearer. show less

I have read this book more than 10 times and gifted it to more than 20 people. I happened to get it when life was full of unwanted work stress. Looking busy was practiced inevitably by most at work; it still does! Things have taken a u-turn for me since then. The book is an earnest attempt by Oprah to convey we do not need to struggle with our lives so much. It's a brilliant articulation of responses we need on many of our silent 'whys'. It's said that on our last day on earth the person we show more become meets with the person we could have become! If you're curious to find ways to seek your full potential, this is a must read. Oprah took almost 17 years to answer a question "What do you know for sure?" asked by late Chicago Tribune film critic Gene Siskel. This book is the answer. It has good potential to save many wasteful years of one's life when he knows there's no shortcuts in life! show less

This fascinating book produced many “lightbulb moments” for me. Some reviewers have stated that “What Happened to You” contained very few new ideas. I’ve read quite a few self-help books over the decades. Perry and Winfrey covered a lot of territory I had yet to explore. What’s more, they explained complex issues involving brain science in an understandable and interesting way, vividly demonstrating how stress and trauma change us. Oprah boldly shares her personal struggles. I show more never realized that the first couple months of our lives have a disproportionate impact on our emotional well-being for the rest of our lives. Infants with high stress or trauma in their first two months typically will experience more problems than others who had very little stress in their infancy but endured years of stress later in childhood. I do wish the book had spent a bit more time examining the impacts of stress and trauma on teens and even adults. But I highly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in PTSD, brain science or psychology. show less

This is a book which I didn’t expect to get much from. But, surprisingly, I did. This book is a selection of her “essays” from her O magazine which she publishes. It’s very short, only 228 pages. The title comes from a movie critic who asked her this question which at the time she was unprepared to fully answer. These chapters are her focused answer to that earlier question. I found this book informative because it gives you the methodology for why she sees things the way she does. show more It’s also a clear roadmap for how people in Hollywood see things. People in Hollywood all use the same vocabulary and this fixed terminology is meant to cut down on discursive thinking. For this reason, What I Know For Sure is even more informative than for just what Oprah says. It gives you an insight into how Hollywood people become trapped into certain ways of thinking and become herd bound to a culture which admits no variation. These very short chapters (a plus) are organized into 8 subjects: Joy, Resilience, Connection, Gratitude, Possibility, Awe, Clarity, and Power. Oprah is not going to overpower you with vocabulary. Not because she’s not bright, but because she wants to reach the broadest audience possible. She kept my attention even though I don’t care about some of the people she interacts with. She started off working news in Baltimore and then moved to Chicago. From news she switched to her talk show. Things which I found noteworthy: She had a priest come bless her recording studio when strange things began to happen. I assume it was a Catholic priest. Her favorite books: The Four Agreements (Miguel Ruiz), The Seat of the Soul (Zukav), A New Earth (Tolle), Book of Awakening (Nepo), among others. These authors all strive for spiritual evolution and expanding consciousness with little to guide that journey except trial and error. This is an age-old predicament. Do we trust ourselves to reach self-knowledge and enlightenment or should we trust others to help us on the way forward? Oprah seems to say trial and error is the way to trust going forward because trusting a religion or any religion is rigid and stifles growth. Religion is essentially non-spiritually expansive. This is the Tinseltown doctrine of truth, sadly. Needless to say, the actual higher power which Oprah admires from here below is a construction of God who is not Christian at all. It is a theology of Averroes who was a medieval theologian and philosopher. God is removed from the whole world and the people on it, but God can use the people on it to gain in consciousness what God himself lacks. It's a strange vision of reality but one which Oprah’s favorite authors seem eager to embrace. Oprah says, “Our main job in life is to align with the energy that is the source of all energies, and to keep our frequency tuned to the energy of love. This I know for sure.” Oprah knows parts of scripture and quotes Jesus, “Ask, and it shall be given…seek and ye shall find”. But when she talks about God it is as the Creator God, the bringer of peace of heart. She also quotes Isaiah 54:17: “No weapon formed against you shall prosper” which she interprets as everything having a silver lining. She claims her favorite bible verse is Psalm 37: 4, “Delight thyself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Oprah claims she grew up Baptist but never really says if she still considers herself one. She seems to avoid the issue of religious participation on principle. Oprah’s greatest blind spot is her lack of self-criticism. It’s one thing to be harsh in self-judgement but another of being unaware of how we see ourselves in light of the Christian story of salvation which she sees apparently as a closed story. Oprah says she was the product of an illicit encounter, struggled life-long to be accepted, was abused as a youth by a relative, lost a child when she was age 14. I think many female readers would see this book as worthwhile, if read as a memoir, which technically it isn’t. Oprah owns large acreages of Hawaiian and California property. show less