Review by sararahimi -- Followed my Star by AR Annahita

[sararahimi]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Followed my Star" by AR Annahita.]

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1 out of 4 stars

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Review: Sara Rahimi

The book Followed My Star written by AR Annahita is quite comprised. Both in its lay-out, as its content. The author tries to go through a journey with the reader, in which the authors discovery of her philosophy should educate the reader and help him or her understand the revelations the author had. The emphasis of Followed My Star is trying to reach world peace by making each individual understand the negative contribution they have in the world. Hence, these groups of individuals who will have the luck of coming to similar realisation as the author had, that evil is bad, should be able to make a change as a group by aiming at a peaceful co-existence. Unfortunately, although the author claims to have an interest in philosophy, her book lacks any knowledge that goes beyond common sense. (Her personal common sense that is) Philosophical books are known for having a certain theme they want to explore, whether it is ethics, metaphysics, human existence, epistemology, and so on. The aim of a philosophical book is to explore that theme in a philosophical manner, in which the author raises questions and then uses their oeuvre of knowledge, books, references to make logical connection and thus arrive to an answer.
I would rather call this a self-help book for two reasons. Firstly, it tries to tackle complicated issues like racism, happiness, existence, the meaning of life and so on without any in depth analysis. For example:

‘’I gave it into the hands of God and was thankful that he could take them from me. I was thankful to not feel the weight any longer. Finally to be free; free from everything in life and have no needs any longer…I finally found what I was searching for, for so long. I didn’t know the entire time, that I didn’t need anything in this world to achieve it. The only thing I needed was God and myself.’’ (p.1)

There is no explanation as to why anyone should have a similar experience. Rather, the author establishes that this type of action just has to happen and that there is a God , who plays a role in it. However there is no explanation as to how it works, why this works, why it would work for anyone. The lack of depth of bringing up topics like God and happiness demand a serious analysis.
The same goes for the mentioning of other topics later on:

‘’People blame their own suffering and political unfairness of their country to
Religion. They have madness in them that turns evil and they use the bad sides of
their Religion in order to act. It is very stupid and each country has this problem in
someway. For example some people use their madness and turn it against another race.
Their Idol becomes Hitler and their madness becomes unstoppable. All evil uses the
weak and vulnerable.’’ (p.2)

When someone starts to partake in a discussion concerning religion, racism or the idolisation of a dictator, they ought to know what they are talking about and the seriousness the topic has. Regardless of the generalisation that all people blame their suffering on religion, it is quite something to make such a statement and then not have the data or social analysis necessary to back it up. Throwing around topics like religion and racism without fleshing them out or explaining their logical connections beyond the common sense interpretation are not worth writing about. Especially if it is written in such poor language, as seen here for example:

‘’ How do Americans react, if they hear that I am born in Iran? They disappear suddenly in front of my eyes, they suddenly are quite, shocked and feel trapped.’’ (p. 2)

Another example:

‘’ I’ve imagined many times and wished for to live away from everything on an island
or to have my own farm with my family. Like the ones generations back. I know that
everyone thinks about it and wishes to be away from everything. This hectic, fast
paced and unromantic world is becoming for us all too much. I wished also to not
know that much.’’ (p.6)

This is immediately the second reason as to why I cannot take the book seriously. The poor language makes it hard to find the content worthwhile, when there is such a big contrast between the complicated topics the author is trying to tackle and on the other side the poor linguistic execution.

Another point that is very important to me is the fact that the author assumes a lot of things as self-evident. For example:

‘’ Love, marriage, family, God and happiness will be always in our lives.’’ (p.6)

There is no reason to assume everyone agrees with this interpretation. It is odd the author even assumes this, seeing how the book is supposedly targeting all individuals of the world in order to establish world peace.

Another example:

‘’ It is not always the teenager’s fault to become pregnant; it is the fault of our extreme
society. Extremely blocking the education of sex, when it is the strongest development in that age.’’ (p.7)

Says who? And why? What is your source to claim something so big? Why are random topics being thrown around without any explanation or source?

‘’ Homosexuality exists since centuries and they are born this way. They love the same
way as any other human being does, just with their own sex. You cannot say to a
homosexual that their existence is a sin. The Bible tries to create an illusion of the
human being that is perfect, but in reality nothing on earth is perfect. No human
being is perfect and the world and life doesn’t run perfect. It is not a sin to be
homosexual and they should have every right as any other human being.’’ (p.7)

I do not even know where to start with everything that is wrong with this paragraph.

All in all, the author has good intentions. I am certain this book was written with big ideas in mind and the fact that she hopes this book might cause world peace is praise worthy.
Do I think people should read it though? Not if they are looking for something with more substance.
The book lacks depth, proper language and coherency. It does not reference any authors. Most of its content is nothing more than the feelings and thoughts of the author, which does not even go beyond common sense. That is even nicely put, seeing how I was frustrated throughout the book that the author could not keep her focus on one topic and how she jumped from one idea to the next without any in depth explanation as to why the previous idea was even remotely good or plausible.
A philosophical book? Definitely not.
A nice attempt at expressing your ideal for world peace? Sure.

1 out of 4

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Followed my Star
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[Izesicle]

You know, i refused to label this book as self-help so i googled the different types of nonfiction to find a better category. The closest i could find was persuasive writing or opinion piece. Feel free to check out my review. I rated it 1 out of 4 stars.