book review on the secret

Book Review – The Secret

The Secret is a phenomenon. Since the book debuted late in 2006 it has sold over four million copies with some thirty other translations now available or underway. It is likely to become one of the best-selling self-help books of all time and is being constantly praised and endorsed by celebrities. Venture into your local bookstore or look around you while waiting at an airport, and you’re bound to see people reading it and absorbing it. They will not just be people who consult astrologers and who listen to Tony Robbins tapes, but normal, average people like the ones who live next door to you. There are almost 1400 reviews of the book printed at Amazon with an average rating of 3.5 out of 5. The breakdown of those scores is interesting: fifty-two percent of them are 5-star, thirteen percent are 4-star and twenty-one percent are 1-star (Amazon does not allow a 0 rating). This means that the majority of people, the great majority even, believe in at least some aspects of the book’s premise and teaching. They believe in the law of attraction.

The Secret began as a DVD. Rhonda Byrne had faced a particularly difficult time in life and came out of it only after she learned The Secret, which is her term for what is commonly known as the law of attraction. In gratitude she created a DVD presentation to share this knowledge and, having seen the remarkable success of this DVD (which has sold in excess of 1.5 million copies), she created a book by the same name. The claims are lofty: “There isn’t a single thing that you cannot do with this knowledge. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you are, The Secret can give you whatever you want.” Imagine that: the power to get absolutely anything. Who can resist that claim?

The law of attraction, which Byrne says is the most powerful law in the universe, states that people experience the logical manifestations of their predominant thoughts, feelings, and words. This gives people direct control over their lives. A person’s thoughts (whether conscious or unconscious) and feelings bring about corresponding positive or negative manifestations. Positive thoughts bring about positive manifestations while negative thoughts bring about negative manifestations. The theory is very simple. Because it is an absolute law, the law of attraction will always respond to your thoughts no matter what they are. Thus your thoughts become things. You are the most powerful power in the universe simply because whatever you think about will come to be. You shape the world that exists around you. You shape your own life and destiny through the power of your mind.

The steps to utilizing this law in life are simple and supposedly founded upon the wisdom of Jesus as we read it in Matthew 21:22. “Whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.” The law of attraction demands only this:

• Know what you want and ask the universe for it.
• Feel and behave as if the object of your desire is on its way.
• Be open to receiving it.

There are aspects of this law that are clearly attractive to the human heart. We all like to think that we have ultimate control over our lives and that we can have anything we want. We all want to control our destinies and to feel that the universe is at our beck and call–that it is a friendly force working with and not against us. This is, I am convinced, what draws people to the law of attraction.

But there are many areas in which The Secret has nothing to offer–in which the law of attraction as the most powerful law in the universe is simply an incomplete, irrational and even depressing answer. Allow me to suggest a few.

First, The Secret has no real ability to respond to the problem of human evil–surely the greatest problem anyone can face.

First, The Secret has no real ability to respond to the problem of human evil–surely the greatest problem anyone can face. Byrne admits that people’s first thoughts, when they hear of the law, is to think of times where masses of people lost their lives. According to the law of attraction, these people were necessarily on the same frequency as the event that took their lives. They may not have had thoughts of the event, but somehow their negative thoughts drew them into it. But this simply does not prove a satisfying answer to the world’s problems. Does this not mean that the millions of Jews who perished in the Holocaust were ultimately responsible for thinking negative thoughts that summoned this even to them? Does it not force us to believe that the people who died when the Twin Towers collapsed on 9/11 were responsible for calling this negative situation to themselves? Does it not mean that a young girl is ultimately responsible for the years of sexual abuse her father imposed upon her? The Secret offers nothing to these people but the understanding that their suffering is somehow their own fault. When we look at The Secret as the law that can bring you anything you want it has a clear attraction; when we look at it from the perspective of one who has suffered, it is clearly flawed.

The law of attraction continues in logical progression until it arrives at the inevitable end result of ascribing divinity to humanity.

Second, the law works itself out in ways that are breathtaking for their selfishness. For example, Byrne warns against listening to people speak about their illnesses or problems lest you begin to think negative thoughts and begin to manifest the negative consequences in your own life. She warns against sacrifice, either financial or personal, saying that sacrifice makes you prove your belief in lack rather than in abundance. She tells you to always place yourself first and to always look out for your own interests ahead of anyone else’s. She puts you in the place of God, as the one who stands at the center of the universe. The law of attraction continues in logical progression until it arrives at the inevitable end result of ascribing divinity to humanity.

The earth turns on its orbit for You. The oceans ebb and flow for You. The birds sing for You. The sun rises and it sets for You. The stars come out for You. Every beautiful thing you see, every wondrous thing you experience, is all there, for You. Take a look around. None of it can exist, without You. No matter who you thought you were, now you know the Truth of Who You Really Are. You are the master of the Universe. You are the heir to the kingdom. You are the perfection of Life. And now you know The Secret.

She goes on: “You are God in physical body. You are Spirit in the flesh. You are Eternal Life expressing itself as You. You are a cosmic being. You are all power. You are all wisdom. You are all intelligence. You are perfection. You are magnificence. You are the creator, and you are creating the creation of You on this planet.” The law offers no higher power than yourself. This makes me wonder: what would the world look like if everyone followed The Secret and devoted themselves primarily to their own interests, forsaking compassion and sacrifice and other “negative” elements of life?

Third, the law, at least insofar as it is described in this book, makes no allowance for what happens when desires clash. What happens when two people set their thoughts on the same thing? While I understand that the universe offers infinite opportunities, can two people equally have the same thing? What happens when what one person wants is harmful to another person? What if one person’s pleasure is another person’s pain? If the law of attraction is the highest law in the universe, it must be that there is nothing to govern such cases.

Finally, the law also works in ways that defy both common sense and human experience. For example, when considering weight loss Byrne makes the unbelievable claim that food can only make you fat if you think it can make you fat. If you determine that food is unable to make you gain weight, you can eat as much as you want and never gain wait or suffer any ill effects. When considering health she suggests that we can heal ourselves of any affliction simply through the power of our minds. Interestingly, The Secret has been championed by Oprah Winfrey who offers her own life as testimony to the power of the law of attraction. The week after Oprah’s endorsement sales of The Secret jumped from 18,000 to 101,000. The week after a second endorsement sales rose to 190,000. Winfrey has since had to soften her enthusiasm as people were following the book’s advice to the extent that they were forgoing medical treatment, believing in the power of their thoughts to heal themselves. Doctors were unimpressed, as were the diseases and disorders which did not respond to the mind’s attempts to destroy them. Byrne even says that the law of attraction can grant immortality. Yet the people who teach this law seem to be aging at the same rate as the rest of us.

As I read The Secret it occurred to me that if the Bible were a product of human minds it would undoubtedly resemble something like this: a celebration of humanity, a portrayal of humans as divine, and probably the most idolatrous thing I’ve ever read. Within the Bible, in the first chapter of the book of Romans, God addresses this desperate desire to rid ourselves of God’s claim to our lives. “Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts…because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.” And amen. The Secret claims to be able to give us everything we could ever want. Yet it can’t even address the fundamental problems of human nature. It represents only the latest in a long line of attempts to revoke God that has continued since the first man turned his back on His Creator. There’s nothing new here but the fancy, twenty-first century packaging.

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The Secret| Book Review| Rhonda Byrne

Author: Rhonda Byrne

Writing: 4.5/5

Presentation: 4/5

Overall: 4.5/5

Genre: Spirituality/Self help.

“ Here’s the problem. Most people are thinking about what they don’t want, and they’re wondering why it shows up over and over again ”- John Assaraf

From time immemorial, the knowledge of how to create your destiny has been passed down. It has been learned and used by a lot of inventors and great thinkers. This ‘secret’ that holds the power to change the face of humanity as well as our individual lives has now been unveiled in this magical book.

The author Rhonda Byrne describes the Law of Attraction as a Universal power that is as true as the laws of physics. Something that can be harnessed to attract abundance. To create a life that you will love to live. The only investment that it will need is your thoughts. Think positive and abundant thoughts and the same will come back to you. In this law of the Universe, like attracts like. A great emphasis has also been placed on gratitude and visualization. You cannot receive more of something unless you are thankful for what you already have.

“I always say, when the voice and the vision on the inside become more profound, clear and loud than the opinions on the outside, you’ve mastered your life.” – Dr. John Demartini

My opinion on The Secret

When I had initially picked up this book to read in my college days, I found the concepts slightly difficult to wrap my head around. As I progressed through the book, I realized every little thought and idea was explained in great detail. The main idea is explained in a variety of different ways so that every reader will understand the gist of it. Initially, some parts might seem a bit repetitive but it seems like the secret does not only have to be taught but ingrained in your mind and hence the repetition makes sense.

One particular metaphor that I liked was that of Aladdin and the lamp from which a Genie appears. The Genie always says one thing, ‘Your wish is my command’. So, whatever you think, say or act upon is assumed to be what you want by the Genie. He will fulfil your wish no matter what. That is exactly how the Universe works. Once it knows what you want, it will rearrange circumstances to make your wish come true.  

This book is filled with quotes by great thinkers and success stories of the law of attraction. Tales of how people have been successful in manifesting love, relationships, money and desired careers have been described in detail. It has dedicated chapters for each aspect of life. Some exercises are also included that you can practice to invite abundance. All in all, it’s a lovely introduction to this Universal power.

The Law of attraction has been very helpful in my journey as well. Everyone should give this book a try, regardless of whether they believe in the law of attraction or not. I would recommend it. However, it’s essential to keep an open mind about it.

There is also a movie with the same name. It is the knowledge from that movie that has been compiled into this book. This book is also part of a series of books by Rhonda Byrne written about the Law of attraction. Some of the people who know about this book say that they enjoyed the audiobook version more than the written one as it inspires them more. I have personally enjoyed both.

So, do you believe in the law of attraction? Have you ever used it? I would love to hear your stories in the comments.

If you like this book, you would also love to read the other books from this series: The Power, The Magic, The Greatest Secret, Hero, How the Secret changed my life: Real People.

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The Secret Summary

1-Sentence-Summary:   The Secret is a self-help book by Rhonda Byrne that explains how the law of attraction, which states that positive energy attracts positive things into your life, governs your thinking and actions, and how you can use the power of positive thinking to achieve anything you can imagine.

Favorite quote from the author:

Table of Contents

Video Summary

The secret review, audio summary, who would i recommend the secret book summary to.

Have you ever set an outrageous goal, never looked at it again, and later realized you’ve already accomplished it?

This once happened to famous talk show host Oprah Winfrey . She read a book called The Color Purple and immediately recognized herself as destined to portray one of its characters in a big Hollywood movie. Miraculously, she got a random call to audition for a secret movie, which turned out to be… The Color Purple . However, when she didn’t hear back for months, she let go of the idea. Right then, she received the call from Steven Spielberg .

That was in 1984. For the next 20 years, Oprah couldn’t quite explain how she’d managed to turn this fantasy into reality – until author Rhonda Byrne told her about The Secret . This global bestseller has sold almost 30 million copies. Millions of people consider it the perfect blueprint for achieving your goals. Today, we’ll analyze it.

Here’s the essence of  The Secret book in 3 lessons:

• The law of attraction is one of the most prevalent principles in the world.
• To use the law of attraction, you must think about what you want, not what you want to avoid.
• The three steps of the law of attraction are asking, believing, and receiving.

Do you have a big, crazy vision? Here’s how to prime yourself for achieving it.

If you want to save this summary for later, download the free PDF and read it whenever you want.

Lesson 1: One of the strongest rules in life is the law of attraction.

While Byrne packaged the idea in a new way, which appealed to the masses, the law of attraction itself is as old as we are: like attracts like. In Germany, we have a saying: “As you shout into the woods, so they echo back.” In essence, the law of attraction states that what you think and feel determines what you’ll attract into your life .

The concept has been written about as long as self-help books are a thing. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, for example. Rhonda herself first found it in  The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace Wattles. They all describe the same thing in different forms. Let’s say you focus on all the negative feedback you get as an artist. In doing so, you’ll encourage more criticism. Similarly, a person who hates money will never become wealthy, and so on.

What the book is often criticized for is its overemphasis on the power of the law. While there is a concept in psychology called priming , that shows we intuitively act based on influences, you can’t live your entire life this way. So yes, it’s important to put yourself in the right state of mind to achieve your goals, but that alone won’t cut it.

Lesson 2: The law of attraction only works when you think in positives, not negatives.

Another case study of the law of attraction is Jim Carrey, who, funnily enough, discussed his experience with Oprah in 1997 , also before she knew about  The Secret . As an aspiring actor, Carrey would stop on his drive home every night, think about his future accomplishments and visualize them. He took comfort in the fact that he “[did] have these things, I just don’t have a hold of them yet, but they’re out there.”

He even wrote himself a check for ten million dollars and post-dated it 5 years . Lo and behold, he did end up making the sum from Dumb and Dumber , just around the deadline. What’s remarkable about the way Carrey did it is that he always envisioned the positives that would come into his life, rather than the negatives he was trying to avoid.

When it comes to our internal monologue, loss aversion is a powerful driving force. We’re a lot more worried about losing what we have, rather than getting what we want. That’s why most of us subconsciously play not to lose, instead of playing to win. In part, this is why people who take more risks have less competition. Fewer people shoot for great than for average.

Plus, if you’re trying to convince yourself, framing something as a win sounds more inspiring than driving yourself with fear.

Lesson 3: To manifest your dreams, you must ask, believe, and then receive.

Besides regularly thinking about your goals, visualizing them, and framing them positively, Rhonda suggests an actual, three-step process you can use to make the law of attraction work for you:

• Ask . This is about being specific in what you want out of life. Vague questions get vague answers . Use a present tense structure and write down what you want from a perspective of gratitude: “I’m grateful to have [INSERT DESIRE].”
• Believe . If you don’t have unwavering faith in your goal, why should others? This is about radiating confidence, so that the people you meet along the way will support you. Don’t be blindly optimistic, but in a go-getter spirit.
• Receive . Imagine how you’ll feel once you accomplish your goal. What would life be like? Visualize. This’ll prime your actions in the right direction.

Again, I’m all for planning, being motivated, and believing in yourself. However, the one big caveat to all this is that your actions have to back up your state of mind. As Gary Vee says “the law of attraction only works if you do.” So think positive thoughts, prep for success, pay attention, and then work like a madman to get what you want.

They say the best books split the audience, and this one definitely does. Some people swear on it like gospel, others dismiss it as feel-good mumbo jumbo. I think the truth is, as so often, somewhere in the middle. Yes, the power of positive thinking works, but only to an extent, and it’s not the be-all, end-all. Read The Secret , but take it with a grain of salt. Reflect on it, and then come to your own conclusions about it .

Listen to the audio of this summary with a free reading.fm account:

The 29 year old local news anchor, who thinks her career is ‘ruined’ because she’s not at a big station yet, the 43 year old actor, who’s been fighting his way through Hollywood for two decades now, and anyone who’s easily excited by new ideas.

Last Updated on August 15, 2022

Niklas Göke

Niklas Göke is an author and writer whose work has attracted tens of millions of readers to date. He is also the founder and CEO of Four Minute Books, a collection of over 1,000 free book summaries teaching readers 3 valuable lessons in just 4 minutes each. Born and raised in Germany, Nik also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration & Engineering from KIT Karlsruhe and a Master’s Degree in Management & Technology from the Technical University of Munich. He lives in Munich and enjoys a great slice of salami pizza almost as much as reading — or writing — the next book — or book summary, of course!

*Four Minute Books participates in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising commissions by linking to Amazon. We also participate in other affiliate programs, such as Blinkist, MindValley, Audible, Audiobooks, Reading.FM, and others. Our referral links allow us to earn commissions (at no extra cost to you) and keep the site running. Thank you for your support.

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Description

This is the secret to life..

Author Rhonda Byrne, like each of us, has been on her own journey of discovery. In The Secret, she explains with simplicity the law that is governing all lives, and offers the knowledge of how to create – intentionally and effortlessly – a joyful life.

Now for the first time in history, all the pieces of The Secret come together in a revelation that is life transforming for all who experience it.

WATCH THE SECRET TRAILER

Change your life by changing your thoughts. It is as simple and as complicated as that.

I was changed to believing in myself and fulfilled. I feel ready to take the world on!

A must read for anyone seeking spiritual enlightenment or feeling down about life.

Amazing. It’s a book that could turn your life upside down in a good way.

All my life I’ve felt there is more. Now I understand ‘I AM’ and ‘no idea is original.’

This is an awesome book. Life changing content. Thank you.

If you haven’t read this, I suggest you do. This book has changed my life.

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The Secret review

Table of Contents

The Secret is a popular and controversial book by Rhonda Byrne. Read on to learn more about the main message behind it.

The Secret documentary and book by Rhonda Byrne have touched the hearts and minds of many people worldwide. This self-help book based on the film of the same name shows people that their thoughts can change their lives.

Here we’ll discuss the main themes and philosophy behind the book.

What is The Secret about?

The Secret began as a documentary. The author Rhonda Byrne faced a particularly rough period and managed to get through it thanks to “the secret.”

Interestingly, Plato, Shakespeare, Beethoven, and Einstein are said to have known and used the secret to achieve what they wanted. To share the idea with the rest of the world, Byrne made the documentary.

According to the author, it can change your life and help you get everything you want. The documentary features experts like Bob Proctor, John Assaraf, Jack Canfield, etc.

Some of these experts specialize in quantum physics and metaphysics, while others are motivational speakers or psychologists .

Due to the success of the documentary, Rhonda Byrne wrote a book covering the same subject. One of the inspirations for the book was The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace Wattles.

The Secret covers the law of attraction and states that the power of positive thinking can help you do anything you want. According to the author, positive thoughts can bring good things your way, and this bestselling book explains the secret to a joyful life.

The book was also an instant success and bestseller. The author Rhonda Byrne was interviewed by Oprah Winfrey, after which the sales skyrocketed. There wasn’t a person who didn’t at least hear about the book.

After the success of her first book, Rhonda Byrne wrote five more personal development and self-help books, which form The Secret series. All the books from the series made the New York Times bestseller list, including:

How The Secret Changed My Life

The Greatest Secret

The Secret was adapted into a movie named The Secret: Dare to Dream, starring Katie Holmes and Josh Lucas.

The controversy – Explaining the pros and cons of The Secret

According to Rhonda Byrne, the law of attraction (New Thought law) is the most powerful law in the universe. She states that our thoughts shape and guide our life. In other words, our life is the manifestation of our predominant thoughts, emotions, and words.

It’s up to us to choose the thoughts that directly control our life. Positive thoughts will bring good things to us. Likewise, negative thoughts can attract bad things. Besides this, Byrne emphasizes the importance of visualization and affirmative thoughts.

For example, saying “I am smart” or “I can do it” is much more enforcing and positive than saying “I will fail” or “I’m not strong enough.”

The Secret is still a popular book. Regardless, it divides opinion. Some claim that the book offers fresh insight into the human psyche and helps us embrace a new mindset, while others say it’s just a bunch of superstitious nonsense and silly quotes.

The pros of The Secret

People who like and support the book often say that it changed their life. After reading the book for the first time, they became aware of their thoughts, tried to be more positive, and enjoyed the results, whether in the professional or personal sphere.

The book made them question their thoughts and behaviors and change for the better. Some of the main advantages people experienced were motivation, empowerment, and visualizing goals.

Plus, many recognized the power of love. According to the book, love is the highest frequency one can emit and has many positive aspects.

The cons of The Secret

But is this book really the secret to a happy and fulfilled life? Many argue that it’s not.

According to critics, the book focuses on narcissism and depicting ourselves as the center of the universe, which isn’t right. It extols the virtues of entitlement and self-absorption that can only lead to one feeling worse instead of better in the long run.

Another flaw many people point out is that the book focuses on thoughts instead of actions. You can’t just think about having an expensive car, a great job, or lots of friends and think it will happen; you need to act on it.

Some critics expressed reservations regarding people who lost their lives in horrible tragedies. Did these people have such negative thoughts that they deserved to die? Were their thoughts responsible for the tragedies?

As you can see, the book has its pros and cons, and it’s no surprise it’s considered controversial. Whether you like it or not depends solely on your interpretation.

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What is the main message of The Secret ?

The main message is that positive thoughts can attract positive things in your life.

Is the movie The Secret a true story?

No, it’s not based on a true story.

What is the secret to success?

Depends on whom you ask. Some say it’s positive thinking; others say it’s luck, intelligence, or hard work. Ultimately, there’s no universal secret to success. If there were, we would all be successful.

How true is The Secret book?

Again, it depends on whom you ask. Some claim the book is phenomenal and offers a unique insight into the human mind, while others say it’s narcissistic and irrelevant.

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The Secret by Rhonda Byrne Book Summary

After suddenly losing her father in 2004, Rhonda Byrne’s life fell into turmoil. Her relationships with colleagues and loved ones frayed, and she became increasingly despondent. However, during this period of soul-searching and self-inquiry, she discovered what she refers to as “The Secret” to life. By tracing its origins throughout history, she realized that the world’s greatest thinkers, from Plato and Shakespeare, to Edison and Einstein, all knew The Secret, and it was the key to their success. 

Post Contents

What Is The Secret About?

The secret revealed, the secret made simple, how to use the secret, powerful processes, the secret to money, the secret to relationships, the secret to health, the secret to the world, the secret to you, the secret to life.

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Believing wholeheartedly in the power of The Secret, Byrne decided the next step was to write a book. The Secret includes the wisdom of the 24 different teachers featured in the film, in addition to Byrne’s tips to help you live a life you’ve only dreamed of. With The Secret , Byrne states that you can be, have, or do anything you want and get to know who you really are.

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Across nearly all religious thought and as testified by some of the greatest thinkers of our time, the law of attraction is said to be the most powerful law in the universe. It’s a law that began at the beginning of time and that determines the order of things within the universe. It forms your life experience – and it does so, Byrne believes, through your thoughts.

Byrne argues that all those who become wealthy have done so by using The Secret, either consciously or unconsciously. As they think predominantly about wealth and don’t let contradictory thoughts enter their mind, wealth comes to them. This, according to Byrne, is the law of attraction in action. Similar arguments can be found in Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich . Like Byrne, Hill believed that by repeating a set of daily mantras and reprogramming your thoughts, you can manifest great riches.

Consequently, Byrne believes that your current life is a reflection of your past thoughts. You attract what you think about the most. To change your life, you must change your thoughts. You literally think your life into existence. What you’re thinking now will create your future life. One way to master your mind is to learn how to quieten it. Each teacher who contributed to The Secret practices daily meditation. By quieting your mind, you become aware of your thoughts and, thus, learn that you can control both your thoughts and your life.

Building on this, Byrne believes that your feelings are your greatest tool. Because they are caused directly by your thoughts, they let you know what you are thinking. By becoming aware of what you are feeling, you can uncover what you’re thinking. Byrne believes it’s impossible to simultaneously feel bad while having good thoughts.

By shifting your thoughts to focus on what you want, your feelings will eventually confirm that your frequency has changed as you will start to feel good. From here, the law of attraction will take over and manifest these thoughts as reality.

• Ask: To get what you want, you must first ask for it. However, you must be clear about what you want before you ask for it.
• Believe: Here, you must believe that what you want is already yours. Understand that the moment you ask for it, you will have received it. Once you ask, the universe shifts to accommodate for your want. You must have faith in the law.
• Receive: The final step in the process is simply receiving what you’ve asked for and relishing in it.

Now that you know the steps of how to put The Secret into action, Byrne suggests starting small. This means thinking about your day in advance. At the start of each day, you should think about the tasks you have to do, but visualize them going the best possible way they could. This sends out positive frequencies to the universe and, due to the law of attraction, will manifest in reality. This helps you live a life of intention.

As you begin to change your thought patterns, powerful changes will take place in your life. One of the most beneficial steps to begin changing the way you think is to practice gratitude. Start by making a list of all the things you are grateful for. This will shift your energy and, thus, your thoughts. Make gratitude part of your daily routine, and you will see dramatic, positive changes in your life. By feeling more grateful for the things you already have, you start to attract more of the good things.

In addition to gratitude, practicing visualization is also an excellent technique for using the law of attraction. By visualizing what you want, you generate thoughts and feelings as if you already had what you desire. This demonstrates a deep trust in the universe. Creating vision boards can be particularly helpful when visualizing, especially if you put the board in a place that you’ll look at frequently each day.

The law of attraction can be applied to every area of life. Money is no exception. However, to invite more money into your life, you must focus on your future wealth, not on any thoughts that say you don’t currently have enough. By focusing on the latter, you will only create more circumstances in which you won’t have enough. Yet, by visualizing and believing that you already have more than enough money, you will manifest it as a reality.

By doing so, you will instantly see your relationship to money change. You will feel more at ease with your finances, and then money will begin to flow into your life. By feeling happy in the present, you will get everything you could want. By radiating feelings of joy, the universe will reflect that back to you in abundance. Byrne argues that this is the fastest way to accumulate money. Wealth is a mindset.

Any action that we take is first preceded by a thought. Therefore, by looking at our actions, we can see the physical manifestation of our thoughts. If you want to cultivate something in your life, you must ensure that your actions don’t contradict your wants. You must act as if you’ve already received your deepest desires. 

This is also true for relationships. If you don’t treat yourself the way you want others to treat you, your actions contradict your desires for a happy, healthy relationship. First, you must start with yourself. You are responsible for your own joy. When you independently create joy in your life, you’ll naturally be more loving to those that surround you. This will attract more people to you.

By treating yourself with love and respect, the law of attraction will bring people into your life who love and respect you. However, if you don’t love yourself, you will block all of the gifts the universe has to offer. Instead, you will only attract more people, situations, and circumstances that strengthen your belief that you’re unlovable or a bad person. By starting to focus on the positive parts of your character and what you like about yourself, you’ll begin to change your frequency and attract better partners.

In the healing arts, the power of the placebo effect is well-known. It’s a powerful phenomenon in which patients are cured even when they’ve been given, for example, a sugar pill as opposed to a pharmaceutical drug. According to Byrne, this proves that by simply thinking and believing that you’ve been cured, you manifest it as a reality. She controversially believes that if you bring an abundance of positivity and love into your life, you can cure yourself of disease.

Byrne suggests visualizing thoughts of perfection, as she argues that illness cannot reside in a body that has harmonious thoughts. Likewise, if you feel unwell, don’t reinforce any negative thought patterns by talking about how unwell you feel. Instead, do the opposite and talk about how great you feel. According to Byrne’s logic, you can think yourself to a state of perfect health. 

Byrne argues that if you resist your feelings, you prevent yourself from changing your reality. To change your reality, you must go within yourself and create a new frequency with your thoughts and feelings. By resisting something, you give more energy and power to it. The universe, therefore, sends you more of what you resist. 

Consequently, Byrne argues that you cannot help the world by focusing on the negative aspects of it. By absorbing yourself in negative events, you add to them, and you bring more negativity into your life. While you may feel helpless to big world events, you have the power to help change them. By focusing on abundance and love, and transmitting these thoughts out into the universe, you can change the course of events.

Byrne believes that humans are the most powerful transmission receptors for energy. Every individual vibrates at their own frequency dependent on their thoughts and feelings. The same is said of all the things that you desire. These things are composed of energy and, thus, when you think about what you want, you cause that thing to vibrate at your frequency so that it comes to you. This is because the law of attraction states that like attracts like.

As you are energy, and energy can neither be created or destroyed, the energy of your being will always be. Your energy will always exist. Further, Byrne states that what exists does so within one universal mind and, thus, we are all one. Therefore, when you have negative thoughts, you separate yourself from the one mind and all that is good. Consequently, you should let go of past hurts and negative thoughts.

By becoming aware of your true power, you realize that you are the master of your world. It’s the awareness that is key. By bringing awareness to your thoughts and feelings, by asking yourself what you are thinking and feeling throughout the day, you bring awareness to the present. By doing so, you bring awareness to any negative thoughts and feelings, and you are in a position to transform them into positive frequencies.

You get to fill your life with whatever you want. With The Secret, you get to have a fresh start. Start doing more of what brings you joy and commit yourself to happiness, and the law of attraction will bring you more joyful things in abundance. As The Secret lives within you, the more you use its power, and the more you will draw it to you. Byrne believes that the world turns, the birds sing, and the sun rises and sets all for you. You are the perfection of life, and that is the truest form of The Secret.

You can buy The Secret by Rhonda Byrne on Amazon .

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by Lee Child & Andrew Child ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 24, 2023

An enjoyable, fast-moving yarn.

Trouble could be Jack Reacher’s middle name in this 28th adventure in the series.

In Chicago in 1992, Roberta and Veronica Sanson throw a recovering heart-attack patient out a hospital window. Thus begins a series of murders the women commit as they try to get someone to answer an important question about an event that happened in December 1969. On the team investigating the murders is Capt. Jack Reacher of the military police. Previously, he had been demoted from the rank of major, but that is literally another story. Reacher is a strange man, “naturally suited to two states of existence. Instant, explosive action. And near-catatonic stasis. It was the in-between he struggled with.” Faster and smarter than any four bad guys, he’s a superhero who deserves to have an action figure in his likeness if one doesn't exist already. But he and his team have their hands full with the Sanson sisters, who are killers on a mission. Back in 1969, there had been a team of scientists working on a secret project, and the sisters demand to know the name of the eighth team member, who all the victims insist to their death does not exist. The investigative team is puzzled as they realize someone is picking off retired scientists one by one, and “former CIA assets start dropping like flies.” There are some interesting lines: When a high-ranking government official comes under suspicion, Reacher says, “This is America. The law applies to him the same as everyone else.” Readers who follow current events may find the statement pointed. And Roberta chastises a victim: “There you go. Underestimating a woman, again. Will you never learn?” The plot gets a bit complicated, and readers will find a few nice twists. But mainly, Reacher provides the entertainment with his not quite believable fighting skills.

Pub Date: Oct. 24, 2023

ISBN: 9781984818584

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Delacorte

Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023

MYSTERY & DETECTIVE | SUSPENSE | SUSPENSE | GENERAL MYSTERY & DETECTIVE | GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE

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Awards & Accolades

Our Verdict

New York Times Bestseller

by Max Brooks ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 16, 2020

A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.

Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z (2006).

A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.

Pub Date: June 16, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7

Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine

Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020

GENERAL SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE | SCIENCE FICTION | SUSPENSE | GENERAL SCIENCE FICTION | SUSPENSE

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BOOK TO SCREEN

by Tana French ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 5, 2024

An absorbing crime yarn.

A divorced American detective tries to blend into rural Ireland in this sequel to The Searcher (2020).

In fictional Ardnakelty, on Ireland’s west coast, lives retired American cop Cal Hooper, who busies himself repairing furniture with 15-year-old Theresa “Trey” Reddy and fervently wishes to be boring. Then into town pops Trey’s long-gone, good-for-nothing dad, Johnny, all smiles and charm. Much to her distaste, he says he wants to reclaim his fatherly role. In fact, he’s on the run from a criminal for a debt he can’t repay, and he has a cockamamie scheme to persuade local townsfolk that there might be gold in the nearby mountain with a vein that might run through some of their properties. (What, no leprechauns?) “It’s not sheep shite you’ll be smelling in a few months’ time, man,” he tells a farmer. “It’s champagne and caviar.” Some people have fun fantasizing about sudden riches, but they know better. Johnny’s pursuer, Cillian Rushborough, comes to town, and Johnny tries to convince him he could get rich by purchasing people’s land. Alas, someone bashes Rushborough’s brains in, and now there’s a murder mystery. The plot is a bit of a stretch, but the characters and their relationships work well. Trey detests Johnny for not being in her life, and now that he’s back, she neither wants nor needs him. She gets on much better with Cal. Still, she’s a testy teenager when she thinks someone is not treating her like an adult. Cal is aware of this, and he’s careful how he talks to her. Johnny, not so much: “I swear to fuck, women are only put on this earth to wreck our fuckin’ heads,” he whines about Trey’s mother, briefly forgetting he’s talking to Trey. The book abounds in local color and lively dialogue.

Pub Date: March 5, 2024

ISBN: 9780593493434

Page Count: 480

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2024

MYSTERY & DETECTIVE | SUSPENSE | POLICE PROCEDURALS | GENERAL MYSTERY & DETECTIVE | GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE | LITERARY FICTION | SUSPENSE | GENERAL FICTION

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An Honest Review of ‘The Secret’ by Rhondy Byrne

‘ The Secret’ mentioned in this book supposedly leads you in the direction of achieving anything that you put your mind to. This book by Rhondy Byrne was suggested to me by a close friend. And when I was given the opportunity to write the book review, I felt so excited because there is so much that I want to say about this book.

The Secret is a self-help book that discusses the Law of Attraction. From what I have learned so far, the Law of Attraction is based on three strong pillars of Ask, Believe, and Receive. The book emphasizes on directing your thoughts in a direction that leads you to achieve all your goals. The book also urges you to believe in your thoughts and your potential to achieve whatever you aspire for. 

But like most of the other books, it has some pros and cons, some benefits and downsides. 

To keep my review on an optimistic side, I would like to discuss the pros or the benefits of this book first. 

1. Motivation

I personally felt that The Secret gives a generous amount of motivation to those who wish to achieve anything, whether small or big. If you want a dose of motivation, this book next to perfect. In fact, it urges us to maintain a goal-oriented mindset as it revolves around the idea that you attract whatever you focus your energy and thoughts on. 

This book also shares some insights and effectual strategies that can be put to use. The best thing about the book, according to me, is that it is full of examples that make it easy for us to understand. The examples are quite relatable as well. 

2. Empowerment

Why do you think that 1 percent of the population earns around 96 percent of all the money that's being earned? Do you think that's an accident? It's designed that way. They understand something. They understand The Secret, and now you are being introduced to The Secret.

These words by Bob Proctor are quoted from page no 6 of The Secret . These words are stuck in my head and they are very correct, according to me. The author further explained this by stating that wealthy people are wealthy because they think about wealth and abundance all the time. They do not allow controversies, negativity, or self-doubt to creep in their heads. They are clear about what they want and chase it tirelessly.

This particular excerpt from the book was very empowering for me. In fact, it urges you to believe in yourself and to believe in what you want, which is crucial for attaining your aim. They scream, “If they can, you too can.” It delivers the message that you can achieve anything if you really put your mind and soul to it.

You are the most powerful magnet in the Universe! You contain a magnetic power within you that is more powerful than anything in this world, and this unfathomable magnetic power is emitted through your thoughts.

These words from page no 7 also felt empowering as they make us realize our existence, uniqueness, and might in the universe. It also reflects how powerful our thoughts can be if we direct them in a constructive direction. 

3. Like Attracts Like

The Law of Attraction, the principle of this book, states that you attract whatever you focus your energy on (good or bad). This works with every aspect of life like relationships, possessions, goals, and anything else you are able to focus on—even your own health. There are various examples in the book to support this. 

But the most relatable for me was the one that highlighted the fact that our mood and our thoughts are affected by simple things like the type of music we listen to. If we are feeling low, sometimes we prefer slow and rather sad melodies over the happy ones. In turn, we feel even more terrible by the sad lyrics and the slow music. This is because we attract more sadness. 

Know more about the Law of Attraction in this video

4. Visualization of the Goals

The best thing about The Secret , according to me, is how it accentuates us to visualize our goals in order to achieve them. It points out that it's not always a straight line between where you are and where you want to go. Furthermore, we can't always detect when things will turn around, but perseverance and a belief in oneself is the key. 

In fact, some people often struggle with achieving even short term goals. This might be because they unconsciously not clear about what they want. They might be in an elusion that they’re clear about their goals but this isn’t always the case. If you’re clear about what you want and believe in yourself, then no one can stop you from achieving what you wish for. 

Positivity has no meaning without negativity, pros cannot be defined without cons and benefits never come without downsides. 

So, I found some downsides to this book as well. These are as per my understanding and my point of view.

1. More About Thoughts and Less About Action

The major downside of The Secret , according to me, is that it talks more of thoughts and less of action. It states that we can also gain expensive cars, enormous house, and wealth just by putting out minds on it. So according to this argument, we can achieve anything and everything by simply sitting on a couch and thinking hard about all the materialistic things. Gaining these things obviously need actions, hard work to be specific. 

This is another downside of this book. It talks so much about materialistic things and little about the internal rewards of our goals. 

2. Rejection And Loss

This book focuses so much on the power of thoughts and it claims that one can attract whatever he/she wants. But there are some things which he simply can’t attract no matter how hard we think about it.

For example, we lose our loved ones. We grieve deeply and we want them back with us at any cost. But no one returns from the dead and that’s a fact. We simply can’t have them back with us. 

There is another example. Many people get rejected in love. They think about that person 24/7 and they want them so badly. They even imagine their ‘happily ever after’ with them even after getting rejected. But just imagining these stories is of often no use. 

3. No Credit Given to Failures

The author seems to believe that we can build million-dollar businesses just by thinking hard about it. A firm belief is obviously important. But in order for a business to survive, top-notch and clever business strategies are equally important. Innovation is another important factor that determines whether a business can stand the test of time or not. 

The Secret by Rhondy Byrne is an exceptional self-help book for the people who know how to put their thoughts into action. But if someone fails to capture the true essence of this book, this can be as a justification of laziness and lack of action. 

Read about more amazing Non-Fiction Books.

Written By - Neha Kundu

Edited By - Kashish Chadha

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Word of Mouth

Submitting a book for review, write the editor, you are here:, the secret: a jack reacher novel.

There is nothing quite like a Jack Reacher novel. Lee Child has been penning thrillers featuring his favorite protagonist for decades. Now he has released his fourth Reacher story written with his brother, Andrew Child.

In many of these books, Reacher is a large figure with an eagle’s sense of justice who roams the country and gets into situations that require a hero. There are others, like THE SECRET, in which Reacher is called upon by his own government to help clean up a potentially deadly mess. This latest effort is set in 1992, which makes some of the post-Cold War rumblings more significant than they would be in the present day.

"THE SECRET is just what you would expect from a Jack Reacher novel --- fast-paced, no-nonsense and extremely hard-hitting."

Keith Bridgeman, who is in his early 60s, wakes up in his hospital bed where he is recovering from a cardiac arrest to find two strange women standing there. They identify themselves as Veronica and Roberta Sanson, and they are interested in a top-secret bioweapons project in India that he was a part of in 1969. Before they end his life by throwing him out of his hospital window, they inform him that they are the daughters of Morgan Sanson. This allows Bridgeman to go over in his head who he wronged during that mission as his body races towards the pavement.

It turns out that Bridgeman is just the start. Two other apparently innocent U.S. citizens, Owen Buck and Varinder Singh, die mysteriously. The response is swift from Secretary of Defense Charles Stamoran, who puts together a team to look into these deaths and try to find a connection. Among these folks is the one and only Jack Reacher. If Stamoran had done a better job vetting these candidates, he might have had second thoughts about Reacher, who will hunt down the truth like a bulldog no matter where it leads.

Readers are already privy to the fact that Stamoran had something to do with the tragic events that took place in India when thousands of innocent lives were claimed due to the mishandling of chemical weapons. The seven members of that team are now on a hit list kept by Veronica and Roberta, who also insist on learning the name of the notorious eighth individual who was really pulling the strings.

Meanwhile, more murders are being committed at the hands of these ruthless assassins, who sort of remind me of Bambi and Thumper from the James Bond classic DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER. When talk of Russian involvement in the 1969 case becomes a thing, Reacher and company get their hands on a former Soviet who provides some much-needed information concerning the identity of that eighth member.

THE SECRET is just what you would expect from a Jack Reacher novel --- fast-paced, no-nonsense and extremely hard-hitting. While fans wait patiently for the second season of “Reacher” to hit Amazon Prime Video, it might be a nice idea to dive into this exciting new book so you can get your Reacher fix right now.

Reviewed by Ray Palen on October 27, 2023

The Secret: A Jack Reacher Novel by Lee Child and Andrew Child

• Publication Date: June 25, 2024
• Genres: Fiction , Suspense , Thriller
• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Dell
• ISBN-10: 1984818619
• ISBN-13: 9781984818614

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

The Secret Hours by Mick Herron review – secrets and spies

This companion piece to the Slough House series uncovers intrigue and corruption in the secret service, from 90s Berlin to the Cabinet office

M ick Herron’s new novel opens with a simple assertion: “The worst smell in the world is dead badger.” The poor beast itself turns up soon after, as does a “flight kit”: the stash of documents, currency and disguise kept close at hand by spies just in case. A frantically violent night-time chase through unexpectedly hostile Devon farmland quickly follows. But it is not the action, or even the tradecraft, that will reassure Herron readers that they are on secure ground with The Secret Hours, his 16th novel across 20 years. It is the stench of that badger.

Herron has become something of a laureate of decrepitude. His Slough House series features the fabled Slow Horses, British secret agents cast out to the periphery of the shadow world via an imaginatively comprehensive assortment of personal, operational, moral or other failings. In those books both the dilapidated building and its equally distressed inhabitants are subjected to a detailed physical scrutiny that doesn’t shy from matters of hygiene and odour. Most particularly in respect of Herron’s leading protagonist, Jackson Lamb, the flatulent, corpulent, unwashed leader of the Slow Horses, captured in all the spirit of his brilliance and boorishness by Gary Oldman in the Apple TV+ series .

While The Secret Hours is billed as a standalone novel, it is really more of a lean-to, or even an extension. Among the new faces there are plenty of familiar names, storylines reappear in one guise or another and the world is still populated by the joes and the dogs and the milkmen and the rest of the glossary of Herron’s Spook Street. The action revolves around an inquiry into the secret services set up a couple of years back by the then prime minister – unnamed, but who had taken a minibreak at Peppa Pig World and had a superinjunction in place relating to an “eighth or ninth’’ child: we get the gist – as an act of petty revenge for the way they had cramped his style when he had been foreign secretary. The nuts and bolts of the inquiry were facilitated by the PM’s special adviser, an “interminable” blogger with his own thoughts about the functioning of the state – again, we get the picture.

Of course, the security services are as comfortable fending off their own government as they are foreign ones, and aristocratic Whitehall operator First Desk, head of the service and veteran member of Herron’s cast, easily enough ensures the inquiry will trundle on for ever and achieve nothing. However, roll forward to the present day and while the PM may be gone – “the inevitable conclusion of his bin-fire of the vanities” – the zombie committee is sparked into activity via some fun skulduggery in a supermarket that results in the deposit of a genuinely secret file. By now some other interested parties have their own motivations for airing the file’s contents. The story that emerges stretches from Berlin in the 90s to the Cabinet table today, and casts light on one of the most sensitive cases in the security service’s history. Coincidentally, it also illuminates important myths of origin from the Herron universe that have previously been opaque or lightly sketched.

Herron’s cultivated air of default world-weariness doesn’t preclude outbreaks of icy cynicism and admirable idealism as well as a certain wry self-awareness. There are lots of references to espionage fiction, and there’s even a spy writer on the secret committee, gleefully taking notes, who has been “pegged by some as the heir to le Carré – one of an admittedly long list of legatees”, writes the primary legatee in the genre. In fact, the bulk of Herron’s jokes land well. A notoriously scruffy agent explains to a colleague his difficulty with clothes. “‘I had a leather jacket once, he said. ‘Made me look like Van Morrison.’ ‘Well, that’s not so – ’ ‘Now. Like Van Morrison looks like now.’ ‘Oh. I’m sorry.’”

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Maybe the politicos are a bit on the nose and readers would have grasped that events are taking place in the present day without needing asides about kale smoothies and Wordle. But Herron obviously relishes his digs at the many real-life shambles that have played out so garishly since, say, 2016. Here he also pretty seamlessly and efficiently ventilates issues of corruption, surveillance, ownership of data, and the private sector takeover of the state, against all the ripping yarn of the espionage tale. And if there is any sense that Herron has filled in his background with broad brushstrokes, as ever he has reserved his most delicate and affecting work for his characters in the foreground. The baggage they carry, the predicaments they face, the forces that, generally, thwart them and ultimately the bonds that tie them are formed over long periods of close contact, whether in the squalid environs of Slough House or other equally dismal workplaces co-opted by the defenders of the realm. It’s always the people that really matter, and perhaps at the heart of the entire Herron project is its appreciation of “the biggest secret of all: that spies were just like everyone else, especially when you locked them in an office”.

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Book Review

New Tiger biography searches for the secret ingredient in Woods’ competitive life

Andrew Redington

What do we talk about when we talk about Tiger Woods? The career-defining triumphs, the charisma, the controversy, the comebacks and—as he plays less yet still serves as a living wayfinder for those attempting to follow his path—the gaudy statistics. What Bob Harig posits in his new Tiger biography, Drive: The Lasting Legacy of Tiger Woods , out March 16 through St. Martin's Press, is that we should be looking more closely at the invisible hunger that propelled Woods to the ludicrous heights and sustained him through every challenge, every injury, every mistake along the way. It's there in his title—the essential, inimitable drive to greatness.

Harig joins a lengthy list of Tiger's literary chroniclers—one that includes himself, from 2022's Tiger & Phil: Golf's Most Fascinating Rivalry . Drive stands out for its format, which can best be described as a series of vignettes from Tiger's career that illustrate his resilience in the face of obstacles, both self-inflicted and otherwise. One chapter may focus on his foundational win at the 1997 Masters , another his limping victory at the 2008 U.S. Open (saddled by a torn ACL and two stress fractures) and another his seven-year made-cut streak, the likes of which we'll never see again.

"To accumulate the résumé he did in 20-plus years of professional golf, there had to be an inner fortitude that pushed him," Harig writes, "an attitude that did not allow him to settle for what likely would have been good enough."

Harig—and Tiger—make a convincing case. This is certainly the most thorough documentation of the physical suffering Woods endured while accumulating his 15 majors and 82 PGA Tour wins, and it effectively demonstrates the sheer force of will required to simply play at many stages of his career. We all know about the duel against Rocco Mediate at Torrey Pines, for instance, but Harig leaves you convinced that nominally lesser feats, such as simply making the cut at both the Masters and PGA Championship in 2022, are equally impressive. Not to mention his unlikely 15th major triumph , 11 years after the one preceding it, in 2019 at Augusta.

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Woods' February 2021 car crash is an obvious focal point of this narrative. While there's no new information on the cause of the accident, Harig narrates the story with a keen attention to detail and plenty of reaction from Woods' peers. This serves as a microcosm for the book at large; in terms of new access to Tiger, Harig surely would have liked more, but his connections with other players past and present, as well as the fact he's probably spoken as much with Woods as any other journalist in the last 25 years, ably make up the gap.

Plus, the premise is ironclad. For mysterious reasons, "hard worker" is never on the tip of the tongue when describing Woods' legacy, and it should be. This aspect is not as glamorous or incendiary as the triumphs and tragedies dotting his personal and professional life, but it's the glue tying the narrative together, and the engine of both his initial rise to success and the inexorable wave of unlikely comebacks that continue to the present.

Woods is approaching his 50th birthday, his body seems to be in a constant state of disrepair, and there's no indication that he'll ever compete at his former level. But when forced to answer everyone's favorite question—"Is Tiger done?"—you have to reckon with the remarkable, cyclic history of suffering and rebound. Harig isn't the type of writer to make rash predictions, but he lays out the case by implication: Count him out at your own peril.

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‘The Secret’ book review

‘the secret’ book review will tell you about the law of attraction and how to apply it in your life. keeping reading to know more about how the law of attraction can help you in living more fulfilling lives., table of contents, final thoughts, key takeaways.

The Secret encourages people to visualize their goals clearly in order to attract what they want. ‘The Secret’ book review proposes various ideas that are unexpected, intriguing, and possibly debatable, such as-

• You can achieve almost any goal you set your mind to if you focus your attention on it and think not only that you can do it but also that you have already done it.
• When you focus on what you don’t want, you unintentionally attract it into your life. For example, if you persistently dwell on what is bothering you, you will attract more of the same problems (and associated anxious feelings) into your life. Instead, focus on what you actually want in your life, and you will obtain more of it.
• The Law of Attraction, which states that you attract whatever you focus your energy on (good or bad), applies to relationships, belongings, aspirations, and anything else you can think of—even your own health.
• Other ideas and specific tactics are shared in the book, as well as a history of the usage of the Law of Attraction and examples of how it has worked in the lives of many people, making it an entertaining and educational read.

Pros and cons of The Secret 

The Secret may be beneficial to some, but impractical to others. Hence, consider the benefits and drawbacks before investing time and money in this book.

• It is an empowering book
• It encourages visualization
• It boosts motivation

It pushes us to get into a better state of mind in order to keep the motivation to pursue goals. It helps us implement the broaden-and-build theory that also supports this strategy, revealing that when we’re feeling happy emotions, we tend to build our resources more. Overall, it’s a nice read that can help you achieve your goals while feeling less stressed.

• The ideas expressed in the book might conflict with religious beliefs
• The book might promote unwarranted blame

There has also been criticism of the notion that we make our own terrible conditions in life; the apparent examples of children born into abuse or millions of people born into extreme poverty do not seem to fit with that explanation of reality.

The law of attraction can be debatable as it is not a scientifically confirmed ‘law,’ but rather an anecdotally witnessed phenomenon.

The law of attraction can explain a lot and be used for good, but it does not account for all of the bad things that happen to us. Challenges are a part of life, and facing them makes us stronger; criticizing ourselves and beating ourselves up over our difficulties is completely unproductive.

• ‘The Secret’ provides a variety of views that are unexpected, intriguing, and possibly disputed.
• ‘The Secret’ encourages us to improve our mental state in order to maintain motivation to pursue goals, as well as research on broaden-and-build theory to develop our resources.
• This book further elaborates that when we are feeling joyful emotions, we tend to increase our resources more and make better choices.

Did you find this blog informative? If so, please share your thoughts in the comments section below. Click here to contact us for more information on the secret. We would be happy to assist you with your queries.

Liked this blog? Read next: 8 best books for beginners | Enter a new realm with each book.

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In Téa Obreht’s Latest, a Refugee Seeks Home in a Ruined World

“The Morningside” reckons with climate change and its fallout while finding hope in the stories we preserve.

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By Jessamine Chan

Jessamine Chan is the author of “The School for Good Mothers.”

• March 18, 2024
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THE MORNINGSIDE , by Téa Obreht

The elegant, effortless world-building in Téa Obreht’s haunting new novel, “The Morningside,” begins with a map. Island City resembles Manhattan, but alarmingly smaller, the borders of the city redrawn by the rising water. There’s the River to the east, the Bay to the west. Here, hurricanes and tides have made building collapse a constant danger, the freeway is visible only on low-tide days, food is government rations, the wealthy have fled “upriver to scattered little freshwater townships,” and gigantic birds called rook cranes are everywhere.

Obreht’s third novel (after her critically acclaimed best sellers “The Tiger’s Wife” and “Inland”) builds upon her short story from The New York Times Magazine’s Decameron Project , in which 29 writers were commissioned to write stories inspired by the cataclysmic mood of 2020. It takes us decades into an eerie imagined future, when a curious, lonely, magic-inclined 11-year-old climate refugee named Silvia (Sil) and her mother have journeyed 5,000 miles to Island City. They’re part of the federal Repopulation Program, which recruits people from abroad to “sway the balance against total urban abandonment.”

Because of war and the “displacement of earth” that eventually erased their homeland (known only as “Back Home”) from the map, they fled when Sil was only a year old. After many desperate moves, they’ve reunited with their only living relative, Sil’s aunt Ena, the superintendent of a formerly grand, now mostly empty 33-story apartment tower called the Morningside, once “the jewel of an upper-city neighborhood called Battle Hill.”

The book’s central mystery is the rumored role of Sil’s mother in a major criminal case (cryptically referred to as “the Belen case”), but it’s a testament to Obreht’s skill that the details of this world fascinate as much as the characters, together forming a picture of dystopian urban planning. Setting the story in a country that resembles America, Obreht envisions a more generous and ideologically aligned government — and a more robust democracy — than we have now. The Repopulation Program is “a way for the administration to cover the climate debts it owed around the world without raising taxes”; Sil and her mom are waiting for a new townhouse promised to them (and to all Repopulation families) for their role in the city’s revitalization.

The only child in the Morningside, Sil yearns to understand her mother, culture and homeland. But her loving, secretive mother, burdened by “the jealous, vengeful forces that had shadowed her all her life,” is committed to hiding their origins, won’t tell Sil anything about her father, and makes them live by strict, isolating rules. They don’t keep pictures or records. They can’t reveal compromising information. Most important, Sil can speak “Ours,” their native tongue, “only at home, only with family.”

Aunt Ena, however, wants to reminisce, offering Sil not just scrapbooks and stories, but the beginnings of a spiritual and cultural inheritance through folk tales. According to Ena, there’s a “world underneath the world.” As for the building’s most mysterious resident, Bezi Duras, a renowned, elderly painter who lives in the penthouse and emerges only in the evenings to walk her three enormous black dogs, Ena tells Sil that Bezi’s dogs are enchanted: They’re men during the day and dogs at night. She shares a folk tale about a mountain spirit called a Vila, whose three sons roam in animal form.

Sil wants to confirm that Bezi is such an enchantress, but this knowledge can’t be acquired directly. Per Ena’s instructions, she must drift into insight. She must be ready. So Sil searches for “little clues to the enchanted truth,” while trying again and again to gain entry to Bezi’s penthouse. With proof, she’ll be able to share this “strange and powerful” secret with her skeptical mother.

Most of the action in the first half takes place within the building, as Sil helps Ena, and then her mother, while waiting for a spot at school. I was especially moved by Sil’s reliance on talismans and rituals and how she makes “protections,” creating a feeling of safety in her new home using scissors, an old perfume bottle and a jar of fig jam that connects her to her ancestors.

While surveilling Bezi, Sil meets a middle-aged Black novelist named Lewis May, the building’s former superintendent, who promises her a key to Bezi’s penthouse if she’ll retrieve letters he hid in the building years earlier. Through May’s story line, Obreht seamlessly weaves in the history of Island City, but I struggled to feel invested in his subplot about fraud and literary theft. However, May comes to play a crucial role late in the book, in a stroke of ingenious plotting.

Sil finally gains a friend her age when Mila and her mother move into the building. Though Sil’s mother is critical of the newcomers, who are also from Back Home, Sil is besotted with the brazen Mila, who leads both Sil and the book toward greater adventure and danger. I want to tell you about Sil and Mila roaming Island City, Sil’s mother’s new career, and how a cosmic bargain relates to the Belen case, but don’t want to spoil the novel’s immensely satisfying twists.

Throughout, I marveled at the subtle beauty and precision of Obreht’s prose: Bezi’s dogs “looked like they were made of soot and steel wool”; figs have an “old-new sunlight taste.” Calling Sil and her mother’s native language “Ours” and their homeland “Back Home” grants the story a feeling of universality. Though we eventually get allusions to real-life wars and war crimes, Sil could be any young refugee wondering what her parent survived, trying to make sense of buried trauma and forge a deeper connection: “The great, rushing force of what she knew had followed her everywhere we went. It had followed me, too, even though I neither recognized it nor knew its name.”

Read in the context of today’s conflicts and injustices, climate emergencies, and political and racial divisions — together more dystopian than any dystopian novel — the book surprised me most with its undercurrent of hope. It flows from Obreht’s portrait of family and community, and the suggestion that stories and magic offer, if not a solution or a means of survival, then a way for a child to connect to her heritage and try to make sense of an impossible reality. By weaving in folklore and ample wonder, Obreht gives her climate fiction ancient roots, forcing us to reckon with the ruined world that future generations will inherit, while reminding us that even in the face of catastrophe, there’s solace to be found in art.

THE MORNINGSIDE | By Téa Obreht | Random House | 304 pp. | $29

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Two great new basketball books set the mood for March Madness

‘the real hoosiers’ is the remarkable story of oscar robertson’s high school team, and ‘kingdom on fire’ recaptures the complexities of john wooden’s ucla dynasty.

Eighty years ago, an extraordinary collegiate basketball game took place. It’s such a shining moment, it’s madness that March 12 isn’t an annual hoops holiday. On that Sunday morning in 1944, when most folks (including local cops) were at church, the Duke University medical school team traveled across town to play the all-Black North Carolina College Eagles behind locked gym doors. “The Secret Game” — a legitimate contest with a referee and a game clock but no spectators — was the first college game in the segregated South with Black and White players on the same court. The Eagles’s fast break helped them torch Duke, 88-44, but the competitive juices were still flowing afterward, so the young men did something even more extraordinary: On a Jim Crow hardwood, at a time when Black teams weren’t even allowed in the NCAA or NIT tournaments, they split up the teams and ran it back, shirts and skins.

I’ve been a basketball junkie for more than 40 years but had never come across this incredible story until it popped up as a narrative detour in “The Real Hoosiers: Crispus Attucks High School, Oscar Robertson and the Hidden History of Hoops,” by Jack McCallum, one of two terrific new basketball books out in time to make your tourney banter that much more intelligent. “The Real Hoosiers” is the story of a dominant but unheralded high school team that played during the same placid Eisenhower days as the squad in the beloved movie “Hoosiers.” The Crispus Attucks Tigers, led by one of the best to ever do it, Oscar Robertson, won a state title in 1955, becoming the first all-Black team in Indiana — and “quite likely,” in McCallum’s estimation, the United States — to do that. (They won it again the following year.)

In 1954, Attucks lost in the state tournament to Milan High School, the rural team that inspired the fictional Hickory High in “Hoosiers.” McCallum uses that film, and the racial dynamics of its conservative “Behold, the smart, scrappy white kids!” ethos as a jumping-off point for how much more improbable the Tigers’s real-world heroics were. For starters, they didn’t have a gym. They also dealt with consistently biased officiating, racist invective from opposing fans, restaurants that wouldn’t serve them, bigoted newspaper columnists, death threats and the murder of peer Emmett Till.

McCallum makes quick work of the movie’s legacy to tell a much deeper and richer story about life under de facto legal segregation in 1950s Indiana. The “most northern state in the South,” as it’s been called, was home to the second coming of the Ku Klux Klan, which is why the book goes well beyond simply resuscitating those Crispus Attucks Tigers and giving them their just due. “The Real Hoosiers” has a real edge to it.

McCallum, now in his mid-70s, pulls all the tricks from a Hall of Fame career out of his righteous writer’s bag to show what these teenagers endured while compiling an 85-6 record in Robertson’s three varsity seasons. He jumps back and forth in time, throws in fun footnotes about figures like Cab Calloway and Kurt Vonnegut, weaves in historical antecedents and ancillary tales, offers technical basketball analysis, and breaks the fourth wall with commentary and jokes, both grandpa groaners and one-liners dripping with animus at racial injustices past and present.

Nowhere is that animus felt more than in a chapter titled “Basketball and Blood in the Same Town Square.” In 1926, 90 miles north of Indianapolis in Marion, Ind., the town square hosted a party after the local boys beat Martinsville (whose team featured a sophomore guard named John Wooden; hold that thought) for the state title. A raucous bonfire raged all night. Four years later, a crowd of 5,000 — a quarter of Marion’s population — gathered once again for a different purpose. This time, as McCallum describes it, “They were waiting — many of them hoping — to witness their first lynching.”

On Aug. 7, 1930, Black teenagers Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, who were in jail on unsubstantiated murder and rape charges, were brutally beaten, dragged to the Marion town square, strung up on a maple tree and left hanging for nearly 12 hours. Local photographer Lawrence Beitler captured the depraved indifference of the townspeople, some of whom undoubtedly reveled in the lynching as they had the hoops championship a few years before. The infamous photo would inspire Billie Holiday’s haunting classic “Strange Fruit.”

Strictly speaking, there is no direct link between the Marion grotesquerie and what Crispus Attucks players overcame during their dominant run, but does there need to be? Political and cultural eras bleed into one another, and they certainly did for Wooden, the Hoosier farm boy who went on to claim 10 NCAA titles as a coach in the California sunshine, including seven in a row during a time of massive American upheaval. Scott Howard-Cooper captures the wild juxtaposition of the on-court discipline required to win 88 consecutive games and the swirling campus insanity of the era in “Kingdom on Fire: Kareem, Wooden, Walton, and the Turbulent Days of the UCLA Basketball Dynasty.”

Over time, after retiring in 1975, Wooden went from being renowned as a great hoops tactician to being seen as a kind of cartoon of the humble, hard-working “Hoosiers” mind-set. “Kingdom on Fire” restores the neurotic Wooden ground down by the expectations of winning and pining for simpler days, before he coached two of the best college centers of all-time, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (still Lew Alcindor when he played for Wooden) and Bill Walton. Add in Wooden’s quirks, like being scared of L.A. traffic and believing ice in water causes stomach cramps; flaws, like discouraging interracial dating as late as 1970; and a willingness to experiment on-court well into his successful career, and you have a fascinating character, not a human motivational poster.

Hagiographies are for hacks, so Howard-Cooper doesn’t tiptoe around the subject of Sam Gilbert either. Gilbert was the millionaire building contractor/UCLA benefactor who made sure that players were always flush with cash for travel, cars, dinners, drinks, discos and, allegedly, abortions. Gilbert’s illicit largesse was an open secret, motivation for players to come to UCLA, so his prime seats near the bench weren’t an accident. As time went on, Gilbert’s profile grew, but as long as UCLA kept winning, he kept bolstering, whether Coach Wooden knew what he was up to or not (I’m calling it “willful ignorance” at best). The players knew Gilbert delivered and wanted him around, even if — according to Howard-Cooper, and a surprise to me — both Kareem and Walton considered leaving UCLA.

In those years, UCLA was more of a commuter college, filled mostly with well-tanned, “What Me, Worry?” White Angelenos. Abdul-Jabbar, whose New York City high school coach calling him the n-word played a role in why he ended up on the west coast, ultimately wanted to transfer to the University of Michigan, which had a much more robust Black student body and was fairly close to Detroit’s jazz clubs. Walton, who was a serious activist and not just the goofy Deadhead he can seem on broadcasts today, yearned to be in the anti-Vietnam War action at Cal-Berkeley, where kids were fighting in the streets every day. The two centers respected Wooden apart from UCLA itself, stayed put and got the rings, of course, but their collegiate basketball years were far more complicated than many readers might have realized.

“Kingdom of Fire,” like “The Real Hoosiers,” places readers back in more interesting times, before the stories they tell were sanded down or inflated or forgotten. While filling out the brackets this year, consider getting your hoops mind right with these two substantial histories. The teams in them might seem a very far cry from the billion-dollar Big Dance bonanza of today, but look closer. The past will be there at tip-off. Three of the giants in these books still walk among us. Walton is 71, Abdul-Jabbar is 76 and Robertson, “the Big O,” is 85, winding down a long life that early on found him dribbling and shooting on a dusty, vacant Indianapolis lot, right about the time Black and White collegiate cagers secretly stepped on a court together.

Patrick Sauer has been a freelance writer for more than 20 years for many publications, some that still exist. He also co-hosts the live online talk show “Squawkin’ Sports,” which features interviews with authors of sports books.

The Real Hoosiers

Crispus Attucks High School, Oscar Robertson, and the Hidden History of Hoops

By Jack McCallum

Hachette. 325 pp. $30

Kingdom on Fire

Kareem, Wooden, Walton, and the Turbulent Days of the UCLA Basketball Dynasty

By Scott Howard-Cooper

Atria. 360 pp. $28.99

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Film review: Christspiracy: The spirituality secret

Stephen brown reviews a new documentary about world religions and meat-eating.

A still from the documentary Christspiracy: The spirituality secret

IN A competition for the worst film title ever, Christspiracy: The Spirituality Secret (Cert. 15) would certainly stand a good chance. The title also fails to do justice to how comprehensive this documentary is in asking whether there is an ethical or spiritual way to kill animals .

Kip Andersen’s previous films explored the environmental impact of the meat trade and the adverse effect that its products have on health. The director admits to being religiously ignorant (though adopting certain Buddhist-style practices); so he teams up with Kameron Waters, a young born-again Christian. Together they chronicle how all religions appear to exploit animals, even those whose primary tenet is the sacredness of every life. Much investigation revolves around that somewhat overworked question: What would Jesus do? But the pair examine animal sacrifice from the earliest of times — long before Jesus — and across all the great world religions.

This is not a film for the squeamish, as we witness multiple scenes of cruel slaughter. Less would have been more without losing the point. There is no doubt the makers’ hearts are in the right place. Pretty much all the Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim, and Christian leaders interviewed stumble to justify meat consumption. Carnivores will be left wondering whether there is any theologian on the planet who can produce a robust argument for meat-eating.

Hands down, the vegetarians win every argument, though often with fairly dodgy exegesis. They mainly quote apocryphal Gospels and the Dead Sea Scrolls as favouring their case while declaring into the bargain that Christianity deliberately suppressed these writings. It is claimed that Abrahamic religions ignore facts such as that Noah, Daniel, and God (Genesis 1.29) advocated vegetarianism. Despite the holy nature of cows in Hinduism, opposition to festivals of mass slaughter is dealt with severely in India. Islam, it is said, flies in the face of Muhammad’s sacred attitude towards sentient beings with its halal method of animal slaughter. Even Buddhism differentiates between killing animals oneself and eating meat as the result of death in some other way.

The most cogent interview is with the Revd Dr Andrew Linzey, whose many books have argued the case for Christians to renounce a meat diet. I struggled with a textual interpretation that the filmmakers seize on: Jesus cleansing the Temple. Biblical condemnation is of avaricious moneychangers in a house of prayer. The film reasons that their wealth came through revenue from animals slaughtered there. One ancient meaning of pecuniary refers to livestock.

While there is a certain naïvety, verging on fundamentalism, in much of the documentary’s approach, it does usefully summarise many common misgivings about killing animals. The film works best of all when exploring possible links between human treatment of other creatures and slavery, misogyny, and genocide. Once we take the spiritual high ground, elevating humanity (men, in particular) to the status a superior order to the rest of God’s creation, permission is given to violate the rights of others. “Holocaust”, after all, began in scripture to described the burnt offerings of animals. It has, by association, come to denote the horrors of Nazi death camps.

The film is only, at this stage, being screened in cinemas on 20 March.

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'The American Society of Magical Negroes': You don't wanna join this club

Aisha Harris

Aren (Justice Smith) and Roger (David Alan Grier) in The American Society of Magical Negroes. Focus Features hide caption

Aren (Justice Smith) and Roger (David Alan Grier) in The American Society of Magical Negroes.

Lately, I've been musing on the concept of time and its relationship to Black art and identity. I keep bumping into this question: What time do we all think we're living in right now?

In the year of someone's lord 2024, a recent episode of Feud: Capote vs. The Swans conjured up James Baldwin – the same James Baldwin who once wrote, "I don't like people who like me because I'm a Negro; neither do I like people who find in the same accident grounds for contempt" – as a Magical Negro to Truman Capote.

50 Years Of NPR

The best of james baldwin: favorite pieces from the npr archive.

A straight-faced excavation of this old Hollywood trope, which has been on the wane for some time, is startling enough. But now there's also Kobi Libii's feature debut, The American Society of Magical Negroes, which attempts to skewer it. The comedy writer and performer imagines an underground network of Black mystics who dedicate their lives to placating white people for the safety of Black people everywhere. "White discomfort," as one character opines, is the "nemesis" of Black existence.

If this all sounds like the premise for a classic Key & Peele sketch, you wouldn't be too far off . The trouble is, as far as I can tell, no one involved with writing Key & Peele had anything to do with the Society of Magical Negroes .

Code Switch

'key & peele' is ending. here are a few of its code switch-iest moments.

The movie has at least two crucial factors working against it. For one, the Magical Negro trope isn't anywhere near as pervasive in Hollywood as it was when Spike Lee coined the term more than two decades ago. So despite being set in the present day, Libii's social commentary brings with it no new enlightenment on the dominant stereotypes Black people face now, despite a nearly two-hour runtime.

Second, it has no Black characters. To be clear, there are real Black performers playing these roles on screen. But one would think fully human, complexly written roles ought to exist in a movie where the goal is combatting multiple centuries' worth of one-dimensional representation. Here, they decidedly do not.

The Illuminati, but make it respectable

In Society of Magical Negroes , Justice Smith plays Aren, a dull and depressing L.A. artist whose specialty is dull and depressing abstract yarn installations. His latest work is on display at an art show, but no one "gets" it. When a white collector mistakes him for the waitstaff, Aren obliges and gets the man a drink instead of trying to convince him to buy his art.

A member of the actual waitstaff has been observing him all night and introduces himself. It turns out he's Roger (David Alan Grier), a jolly older man who's arrived to recruit Aren into the American Society of Magical Negroes, a "firm" that views itself as a group of world-class superheroes. He leads him to their secret headquarters, tucked away behind a Black barbershop, with hallowed rooms and halls that resemble Hogwarts or the Clue mansion. The visual world-building in this regard is the film's sole inspired choice.

Egotistical tech bro Jason (Drew Tarver) is Aren's first "client." Focus Features hide caption

Egotistical tech bro Jason (Drew Tarver) is Aren's first "client."

Each Society member is assigned a white "client" who's experiencing some sort of crisis and is dangerously close to taking out their anxieties on innocent Black people. (A "white tears meter" assists in monitoring the threat level at any given moment.) The Magical Negro's job is to befriend and counsel their client through all their issues until they get whatever it is they want. Aren's first guinea pig is Jason (Drew Tarver), a disgruntled, egotistical tech bro at a software company called MeetBox, who's angling for a promotion he almost certainly doesn't deserve. Aren is hired at MeetBox and immediately gets to work practicing his skill of being a personality-less doormat, which has a great effect on clueless Jason.

Did I mention this is also a workplace rom-com? Sure, why not? Aren discovers one of his other new colleagues is Lizzie (An-Li Bogan), a woman with whom he had the gawkiest and most unsexy of meet-cutes at a coffee shop earlier in the day. Lizzie happens to be Jason's "work-wife," but he's also into her, so that complicates Aren's adherence to his Magical Negro responsibilities and tests his commitment to The Cause.

Author Interviews

'magical negro' carries the weight of history, maybe we're all just magical negroes.

So many disparate ideas and tones are being mashed up here, and none of them gel. Libii spends a ton of time obsessing over the details and internal rules of these proud, respectability politicians. Yet he also has a slippery grasp on the trope he seeks to interrogate. In this world, the Magical Negro is broadened out from its very specific real-world definition – Spike Lee was referring to movies with "magical, mystical" Black characters in films like The Legend of Bagger Vance and The Green Mile – to an all-encompassing label that includes any Black person who's ever merely decided "Not today, Satan" and resisted the bait when dealing with racial microaggressions at work and Crispus Attucks.

Movie Interviews

Spike lee: black people have 'been fighting for this country from day one'.

Those muddled conflations would be less jarring if Aren were written as anything other than a convenient vessel for showcasing a convoluted premise. We know nothing about him besides that he's a failed, self-loathing Rhode Island School of Design alum who's so spineless he'll awkwardly hold the door for a parade of oblivious exiting passersby before finally entering a coffee shop for himself. Before becoming a Magical Negro (I can't believe this is an actual sentence I'm writing), he has no community to speak of – no friends, no real job, and no family, except a white mom he offhandedly mentions. (This is somehow both very illuminating and not at all illuminating at the same time.) Where did he grow up? How can Aren afford to be a struggling artist with a decent apartment in Los Angeles in this economy? Has Aren ever spent any time with Black people? (Magical Negroes don't count.)

Lizzie (An-Li Bogan) and Aren (Justice Smith) have a tedious meet-cute at a coffee shop. Tobin Yelland/Focus Features hide caption

Lizzie (An-Li Bogan) and Aren (Justice Smith) have a tedious meet-cute at a coffee shop.

His character arc, if you wish to call it that, concludes with him superficially liberated. In the film's climax, he gives a grandstanding speech that's What It's Like to Be Black 101, a far more grating version of Barbie 's climactic Feminism 101 monologue. The moment is wholly unearned, and the epiphany lands with a thud because Aren didn't really start from any place real to begin with. There's nothing radical or daring about his journey to self-discovery, which hinges almost entirely on his romantic pining for Lizzie. In fact, Libii's script doesn't even try to engage with Black radicalism because if it did, The Society would have to come under far more rigorous scrutiny than the film is interested in pursuing. The Magical Negroes, so proud to have single-handedly "raised the Black life expectancy," at least according to society head Dede (Nicole Byer), exist in a world where the likes of Harriet Tubman, Marcus Garvey, the Black Panthers, and Bree Newsome never existed. The movie's finale seems content with that omission.

What time are we living in now?

Nicole Byer is Dede, head of the American Society of Magical Negroes. Focus Features hide caption

Nicole Byer is Dede, head of the American Society of Magical Negroes.

So: What time are we living in now? It depends on who you ask and where you look. Not unlike American Fiction , Society of Magical Negroes is convinced Black people on screen and in real life are, by and large, contending with the same stereotypes and barriers that we were 20 years ago. But that's its own kind of retrograde nostalgia trap to fall into, the kind that can only be constructed by ignoring key parts of history and the present reality.

There are pressing issues like pay inequities and Black-created TV shows being canceled far too soon. But there's also been so much exciting work being made by filmmakers on every level over the last decade – emerging voices like Nikyatu Jusu , Raven Jackson and Juel Taylor ; newly-minted titans like Issa Rae and Jordan Peele; established vets like Gina Prince-Bythewood. They've told stories spanning a breadth of genres, sensibilities and character studies, the stuff their predecessors dreamed of. Amid this landscape, it's hard not to view the Magical Negro as – thankfully – a relic.

Writing more than 25 years ago, bell hooks lamented how a dominant white supremacist environment forced too many Black artists to be hyperfocused on producing "resisting images," thus overwhelming their creative and upsetting artistic integrity. At the time, she observed that Black filmmaking was still a "fertile frontier" because of the lack of radical images, but that she foresaw a "far distant future" where Blackness will be "overworked, overdone" just as whiteness has been. We're a little bit closer to that future than we've ever been. But evidently, we've still got some ways to go.

10 Things To Do In Hogwarts Legacy Most Players Never Discover

• Hogwarts Legacy features hidden interactions, like tipping a street musician who gains new instruments over time.
• Players can find secret rooms and chests behind fireplaces and explore locations like the Hogwarts Kitchen.
• There are puzzles to solve, such as using the clock tower pendulum and casting spells to access hidden areas.

Hogwarts Legacy is full of characters to meet, locations to explore, and secrets to uncover - but there are a few hidden interactions that players might not realize are there. Of course, considering the massive open-world map, which contains both a detailed replica of Hogwarts and a sprawling expanse of land full of caves and camps beyond the school walls, finding every last interaction is no small task. However, there are a few secret things to do in Hogwarts Legacy that are particularly worth noting, as they're especially fascinating.

Although there is a large variety of quests in Hogwarts Legacy , regrettably, it can still become easy to get caught up in the repetitive nature of many of the easily found side quests that revolve around a simplistic fetch quest theme. These basic pursuits ask the player to retrieve an item and return it to the NPC or area that needs it, and they can feel a bit tiresome. For the most curious of witches and wizards, however, Hogwarts Legacy also features some hidden activities and missions that have some unique attributes but are easy to overlook at a simple glance.

10 Incredibly Subtle Details Hidden In Hogwarts Legacy

Street musician with growing instrument collection, located in hogsmeade and surrounding hamlets.

One of the most immersive and charming features of Hogwarts Legacy is the incredible attention to small details that developers added to the game, many of which are overlooked by most players. The traveling street musician, Ernie Lark, is a prime example of this. When players see him playing a catchy tune on his floating instruments, they have the option of tipping him 10 Galleons.

Each time the player sees Ernie and tips him 10 Galleons, they may notice that he will gain a new instrument at the next encounter if they pay close attention. While he starts with a single French horn, he'll eventually be able to use a violin, lute, accordion, drum, and even a strange, snake-like flute. It's a very small detail, spaced out over some time, so some Hogwarts Legacy players might not notice this heartwarming progression.

Every Hogwarts Legacy Ending Explained (In Detail)

Finding a secret room and chest behind fireplace, located in the hogwarts library.

Throughout the game's events (and throughout the Harry Potter series as a whole), the library has been consistently proven to contain some of the wizarding world's most fascinating secrets. One lesser-known tidbit, however, is that it's possible to go through the fireplace and reach a secret chest in Hogwarts Legacy . All that players will need to do is cast Glacius to extinguish the flames, then duck through to the secret room behind it. If not just for the excitement of discovering this hidden area, the large chest behind the fireplace provides an additional incentive.

Hogwarts Legacy's Demiguise Statues Locations Never Made Any Sense

Visiting the hogwarts kitchen, entrance located near hufflepuff's common room.

The Great Hall always has some delicious food on the tables, and sadly, the responsibility falls on the hardworking house elves who are made to prepare all the meals behind the scenes. Unbeknownst to some witches and wizards, visiting this iconic location in Hogwarts Legacy is possible . The entrance to the Hogwarts Kitchen is cleverly disguised as a painting near the Hufflepuff common room, but if players "tickle the pear," they'll be allowed in. The kitchen contains a few chests with valuable loot, but it also provides a peek into the everyday lives of Hogwarts house elves.

Puzzling Bridge With Hidden Chests

Located on the bridge in the viaduct courtyard.

In Hogwarts Legacy 's magical world, nothing is ever as simple as it seems, and not even something as seemingly normal as a bridge is excluded from this sentiment. Not merely for decorative purposes, the braziers and manhole on the bridge in the Viaduct Courtyard sneakily conceal a puzzle in plain sight. By casting Incendio on each of the braziers and matching the numbers to symbols on the manhole cover, the puzzle becomes solved, and rewards are granted. The manhole will open, revealing a ladder to the viaduct containing multiple chests below.

How To Solve The Bridge Puzzle In Hogwarts Legacy

Climbing the clock tower, and more chests, located within the clock tower.

Hogwarts Legacy is full of mysterious puzzles, including many that are not necessary to complete the main quests in the game but are cool side activities. While players will have visited the clock tower location to duel other students in the Crossed Wands tournament, they were probably too busy casting spell combinations to notice that the giant, swinging pendulum is the key to another puzzle.

By freezing the pendulum in accordance with the symbols on the ground (which correspond to those on the various doors), it's possible to climb all the way up the iconic Clock Tower . If that isn't reward enough, players will find a handful of chests as they make their ascent.

Hogwarts Legacy: How To Solve The Clock Tower Puzzle

Well-hidden art studio behind another fireplace, located in the south wing faculty tower.

As it turns out, the secret room behind the library fireplace isn't the only one of its kind. By using Glacius on the fireplace in the South Wing Faculty Tower, another secret passage becomes clear, with a spiraling staircase that leads to a room. This incredibly well-hidden room appears to be an art studio and is full of hand-drawn sketches depicting various buildings and architecture.

There are also a couple of collectibles located therein, such as a Field Guide page and a Collection Chest - but more excitingly, this unique artwork is something that most Hogwarts Legacy players never discover.

Secret Werewolf Tapestry Room That Tells A Sad Tale

Located in the bell tower wing.

While some students may be under the impression that they've visited every room in the castle, one particular room in Hogwarts is disguised in plain sight. In the Bell Tower Wing, a faded tapestry with a large letter K serves as a doorway to a secret corridor and room. Therein, the player will be met with a collection of mysterious statues, a chest, and even a short, entertaining story. If they cast Lumos on each of the tapestries in the back room, they'll magically shift to tell a cautionary tale about a witch bitten by a werewolf.

The Book Of Admittance & Quill Of Acceptance

Located at the headmaster's office in hogwarts.

Solving the Key of Admittance puzzle is quite tricky, which therefore makes finding the Book of Admittance in Hogwarts Legacy one of the hardest things to do. To overcome the obstacle that is the unthinkably complex door-locking mechanism, players will need to have completed the late-game quest, " Polyjuice Plot, " and unlocked Level 3 of the Alohamora spell. It's worth taking the trip after completing these requirements, however, as it's possibly one of the coolest locations in Hogwarts Legacy - featuring the Book of Admittance and Quill of Acceptance, alongside a stunning view of the castle from Headmaster Black's office.

All 13 Brooms In Hogwarts Legacy, Ranked Worst To Best

The ghostly deathday party, located below the lower grand staircase in hogwarts.

While witches and wizards celebrate their birthdays, the ghosts of Hogwarts celebrate their deathdays instead - and the player can crash one such deathday party in Hogwarts Legacy . This gloomy banquet can be found in the Slytherin Dungeon, locked behind a Level 1 Alohamora spell. Inside, a group of ghosts will be dancing together, and one of Hogwarts Legacy 's funniest NPC interactions can be witnessed. This ghastly party is a sight to behold, but since it's carefully tucked in an unassuming corner of the castle, most students will miss out on the fun.

Hogwarts Legacy Review: A Living, Breathing, Wizarding World

Well, well, well quest, located near aranshire hamlet.

" Well, Well, Well " is a particularly evasive Hogwarts Legacy quest that even some of the most experienced witches and wizards may never find. It can only be obtained by exploring the wilderness near the Aranshire hamlet in Southern Hogwarts, in which the player can discover a talking, magical well . The well will spit up an almost comically vague treasure map, depicting a tree in a dilapidated structure (which could realistically be anywhere).

For this reason, not many players will find the end location for Hogwarts Legacy 's " Well Well, Well " quest, which is located underneath a tree slightly southwest of Irondale, near an ancient magic hotspot. Thanks to the overgeneralized nature of the map, which is of little to no help, most players won't solve - or even discover - this secret in Hogwarts Legacy .

Source: TheBrothersGrim117/YouTube

Hogwarts Legacy

Franchise Harry Potter

Platform(s) Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, PlayStation 4, Steam, Xbox One

Released 2022-02-10

Developer(s) Avalanche Software

Publisher(s) Warner Bros. Games

Genre(s) Open-World, Action RPG, Adventure

Mode Single-Player

Editor’s Note: Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling has been accused of transphobia by those in the LGBTQ+ community. Although not directly involved in the development of Hogwarts Legacy, Rowling does stand to earn royalties from the game. We would like to reiterate our support for trans rights and that trans identities are valid. Support services are listed below for trans people impacted by discussions of transphobia.

In the USA:

• Trans Lifeline : (877) 565-8860
• The Trevor Project: 1-866-488-7386
• Trans Lifeline : (877) 330-6366
• Youth Line : 1-800-268-9688
• Switchboard : 01273 204050
• Mermaids : 0808 801 0400