Title: The Pursuit of the Personal Renaissance Experience
Author: Peter G. Justus, M.D.
Publisher: ReadersMagnet, LLC
ISBN: 978-1-950947-03-4
Genre: Non-Fiction
Pages: 124
Reviewed by: Suzanne Gattis
Pacific Book Review
Peter Justus’s The Pursuit of the Personal Renaissance Experience: Finding Opportunities For Happiness in the Ever-Present Now is an intriguing read filled with personal stories and research from various fields which make the reader evaluate the way they are approaching different aspects of their lives. It raises the question of whether, through doing often mundane things in a new way (and with a new attitude), we too can have a personal renaissance experience.
The book starts off stating that everyone wants to be happy but went on to explain that many of us do not know how to define what happiness is to ourselves. Throughout this book, readers navigate how to find this ever-elusive happiness in their daily lives. It circumvented the genre of self-help, which I liked, and it landed squarely more on an educational theme; making it fresh and unique in its goal of defining the psychology inherent in attitude adjustments.
I enjoyed the idea that the premise of this book came from the simple act of brushing teeth, a menial task that many of us tend to not contemplate much in our day-to-day routine. Justus takes us through evolutionary ideas, drug use, politics, religion, golf, and other personal traits to drive his ideas into our heads and make us look at the world in a different way. In an almost Malcolm Gladwell-like writing, juxtaposing popular cultural knowledge against intellectual beliefs, this book is teaching readers his opinion of what we should do. There are many real-life examples to apply it to.
It is obvious the writer is a well-educated man and he makes a strong argument. I found the text was organized well, and topics flowed in appropriate order throughout the book. I would recommend this book for others to read, especially those who not only enjoy seeing the world differently, but also wish to see their own personal world in another new and different way.
