In Sweet Company: Conversations with Extraordinary Women about Living a Spiritual Life

In Sweet Company takes readers on a spiritual odyssey into the hearts and minds of some of the most influential women of our time —Olympia Dukakis, Sister Helen Prejean, Riane Eisler, Zainab Salbi, Margaret Wheatley, Katherine Dunham, Reverend Lauren Artress, Grandmother Twylah Hurd Nitsch, Sri Daya Mata, Rabbi Laura Geller, Le Ly Hayslip, Miriam Polster, Alma Flor Ada, and Gail Williamson. For all these women, their spiritual life nourishes them and serves as a dependable compass for decision making. Written with warmth and wisdom, In Sweet Company tells their stories, their personal journeys, and relates their thoughts on living a spiritual life.

In Sweet Company takes readers on a spiritual odyssey into the hearts and minds of some of the most influential women of our time —Olympia Dukakis, Sister Helen Prejean, Riane Eisler, Zainab Salbi, Margaret Wheatley, Katherine Dunham, Reverend Lauren Artress, Grandmother Twylah Hurd Nitsch, Sri Daya Mata, Rabbi Laura Geller, Le Ly Hayslip, Miriam Polster, Alma Flor Ada, and Gail Williamson. For all these women, their spiritual life nourishes them and serves as a dependable compass for decision making. Written with warmth and wisdom, In Sweet Company tells their stories, their personal journeys, and relates their thoughts on living a spiritual life.

Publishers Weekly

Into this series of extended conversations with women representing different facets of contemporary American spirituality, journalist and teacher Wolff threads another story: her own struggle for order and meaning after a car accident impaired many of her cognitive abilities. The eclectic group of 14 women she profiles includes prominent religious figures like Sri Daya Mata, an American who became a monastic disciple of the Indian-born Kriya yoga practitioner Paramahansa Yogananda and then the third president of the Self-Realization Fellowship. There are also less typical figures, like management guru Margaret J. Wheatley and the late Gestalt psychotherapist Miriam Polster. Even those who represent Judeo-Christian traditions, like Episcopal priest/psychotherapist/ labyrinth devotee Lauren Artress, bring an unconventional perspective that will appeal to readers who prefer their spiritual practice to push the margins. Each chapter begins with a biographical sketch and concludes with helpful references for those who want to know more. Appetizing as this quintessentially American smorgasbord of spiritual lives is, there is something distracting about the author's "gee-whiz" style that lessens the book's impact. Readers who aren't bothered by that self-conscious tic or by Wolff's own rather intrusive role in the interviews may be inspired and enlightened by these conversational profiles. (Feb.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Margaret Wolff is a writer, speaker, and consultant whose work celebrates women's growth and development. For the past 20 years, she has brought together groups of women to create hundreds of "learning communities" — support groups, workshops and retreats that span the developmental divides of a woman's life and programs that foster self-discovery and spiritual integration, conflict resolution and forgiveness, and a deeper sense of meaning and purpose. Her website, InSweetCompany.com, receives thousands of hits each month, and her growing monthly newsletter reaches 2500 people. She is active in speaking to many different kinds of groups and organizations and estimates that she reaches 6000+ people per year, with substantial back of room sales.