Review by centfie -- From Drift to SHIFT by Jody B. Miller
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Review by centfie -- From Drift to SHIFT by Jody B. Miller
[Following is a volunteer review of "From Drift to SHIFT" by Jody B. Miller.]
3 out of 4 stars
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This is a book review of Jody B. Miller's From Drift to Shift which was published in the year 2017. The book is a good read for readers who are stuck and unhappy in life, hence needing external motivation to develop their self -motivation. Generally, it consists of stories of real people who decided to take a new path in life due to their circumstances. Out of their suffering they found their purpose in life. The author not only tells of other people making the shift but also includes her own story briefly. The book starts with a brief introduction which includes an anecdote about how Jody B. Miller started her shift by throwing away treasured items that had been passed across three generations of women in her family. Then the book picks up momentum with interesting stories which will leave the reader feeling motivated already. The narrative flows smoothly and her use of dialogue increases its readability.
The expected aim of the book as stated in the introduction is to make the reader aware of “ discarding expectations that bind us and hold us from living life as our true selves both in work as in relationships.” After reading From Drift to Shift, I can attest that indeed the tales of those people are inspirational stories of shifting your mindset and finding yourself. Although, I think it leans more on work than on relationships. In the stories, work is the major point of emphasis and not relationships. Basically, the people experienced major shifts in their life that led them to a certain career path.
The idea of From Drift to Shift is that people can find fulfillment and happiness after experiencing a period of suffering which enables them to know their real purpose on earth. The emphasis is on finding happiness in other aspects of life instead of looking for it in money and wealth.
I think the best chapter in the book is Chapter 3 which is entitled as 'Simplicity.' The narrative here was told clearly and wittily. It tells of the author’s interaction with the culture of the Achuar Tribe of Amazon forest and leaves the reader yearning to know more about their 'Shift.' The paragraphs were placed in their appropriate places and I did not spot any typos or other issues in this chapter. If I was to rate this book chapter by chapter, I would give Chapter 3 four stars.
The general structure and organization of the whole book is impressive. Given, it is first divided into parts that explain the various stages of the shift process. Each part is divided into chapters with specific stories. At the end of a chapter, there is a summary labeled as 'takeaways', which gives the key points that the author intended to pass across. Just going through the take away lessons at the end of the chapter is enough to encourage the reader to take action. Jody also uses quotes by famous people such as Winston Churchill, Tupac Shakur, among others to introduce different topics. I can confidently say that the book is well organized.
Jody B. Miller has done a fantastic job of teaching and encouraging the reader. However, I choose to give From Drift to Shift a 3 out of 4 stars rating because it has a few errors which, if removed, will probably render it worthy of 4 stars. In Chapter 2, page 47, quotation marks miss in a whole paragraph of words said by a character. Since the author narrates in first person to refer to herself, the emission could confuse the reader. The sentence starts like this; “Thank goodness the second biopsy confirmed that....” but it’s not the author speaking thus, it needs to be put in quotes. In Chapter 4, page 87, there is a description of Erik, Andy's friend, that says he was “dangling from him parachute." It should be 'his parachute.'These are just a few examples. I realized that chapter 4 carries a lot of such petty errors that do not deserve to be in this amazing book.
Furthermore, I think the additional information given in the appendix could have been minimized. For instance the long description about deities and archetypes should be in a separate book because it seems to dilute the purpose of the book. Also, the information seems too long after reading the interesting short stories before it. There is also the passage from the book of Job in the Bible which could have been summarized instead of copying word for word. I also found it ironic that the author describes David and Goliath's story as mythological and yet the Job passage was not described as such. Additionally, I noticed several definitions of key terms were given in the book, including the word shift. Nonetheless, the definition of the word drift is missing. This book needs professional editing to rectify and shorten it a bit.
From Drift to Shift is a fantastic book and I would recommend it to anyone who is going through tough times mentally, emotionally, spiritually or physically. The reason behind this recommendation is that the stories are real life experiences of people who nearly gave up but did not and finally succeeded in their endeavors after recognizing signs showed them that they needed to 'shift.'
******
From Drift to SHIFT
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
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3 out of 4 stars
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This is a book review of Jody B. Miller's From Drift to Shift which was published in the year 2017. The book is a good read for readers who are stuck and unhappy in life, hence needing external motivation to develop their self -motivation. Generally, it consists of stories of real people who decided to take a new path in life due to their circumstances. Out of their suffering they found their purpose in life. The author not only tells of other people making the shift but also includes her own story briefly. The book starts with a brief introduction which includes an anecdote about how Jody B. Miller started her shift by throwing away treasured items that had been passed across three generations of women in her family. Then the book picks up momentum with interesting stories which will leave the reader feeling motivated already. The narrative flows smoothly and her use of dialogue increases its readability.
The expected aim of the book as stated in the introduction is to make the reader aware of “ discarding expectations that bind us and hold us from living life as our true selves both in work as in relationships.” After reading From Drift to Shift, I can attest that indeed the tales of those people are inspirational stories of shifting your mindset and finding yourself. Although, I think it leans more on work than on relationships. In the stories, work is the major point of emphasis and not relationships. Basically, the people experienced major shifts in their life that led them to a certain career path.
The idea of From Drift to Shift is that people can find fulfillment and happiness after experiencing a period of suffering which enables them to know their real purpose on earth. The emphasis is on finding happiness in other aspects of life instead of looking for it in money and wealth.
I think the best chapter in the book is Chapter 3 which is entitled as 'Simplicity.' The narrative here was told clearly and wittily. It tells of the author’s interaction with the culture of the Achuar Tribe of Amazon forest and leaves the reader yearning to know more about their 'Shift.' The paragraphs were placed in their appropriate places and I did not spot any typos or other issues in this chapter. If I was to rate this book chapter by chapter, I would give Chapter 3 four stars.
The general structure and organization of the whole book is impressive. Given, it is first divided into parts that explain the various stages of the shift process. Each part is divided into chapters with specific stories. At the end of a chapter, there is a summary labeled as 'takeaways', which gives the key points that the author intended to pass across. Just going through the take away lessons at the end of the chapter is enough to encourage the reader to take action. Jody also uses quotes by famous people such as Winston Churchill, Tupac Shakur, among others to introduce different topics. I can confidently say that the book is well organized.
Jody B. Miller has done a fantastic job of teaching and encouraging the reader. However, I choose to give From Drift to Shift a 3 out of 4 stars rating because it has a few errors which, if removed, will probably render it worthy of 4 stars. In Chapter 2, page 47, quotation marks miss in a whole paragraph of words said by a character. Since the author narrates in first person to refer to herself, the emission could confuse the reader. The sentence starts like this; “Thank goodness the second biopsy confirmed that....” but it’s not the author speaking thus, it needs to be put in quotes. In Chapter 4, page 87, there is a description of Erik, Andy's friend, that says he was “dangling from him parachute." It should be 'his parachute.'These are just a few examples. I realized that chapter 4 carries a lot of such petty errors that do not deserve to be in this amazing book.
Furthermore, I think the additional information given in the appendix could have been minimized. For instance the long description about deities and archetypes should be in a separate book because it seems to dilute the purpose of the book. Also, the information seems too long after reading the interesting short stories before it. There is also the passage from the book of Job in the Bible which could have been summarized instead of copying word for word. I also found it ironic that the author describes David and Goliath's story as mythological and yet the Job passage was not described as such. Additionally, I noticed several definitions of key terms were given in the book, including the word shift. Nonetheless, the definition of the word drift is missing. This book needs professional editing to rectify and shorten it a bit.
From Drift to Shift is a fantastic book and I would recommend it to anyone who is going through tough times mentally, emotionally, spiritually or physically. The reason behind this recommendation is that the stories are real life experiences of people who nearly gave up but did not and finally succeeded in their endeavors after recognizing signs showed them that they needed to 'shift.'
******
From Drift to SHIFT
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
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Latest Review: Three loves and other stories by Lata Gullapalli
