Pearlie of Great Price: Following a Dog into the Presence of God

Spiritual awakening is "a strange mystery with few rules and even fewer explanations," writes spiritual guide Hart, who describes in this memoir her own journey, which includes stints with Buddhism, psychology and Sufism. Living on an inheritance and financial assistance from her mother, Hart spends a decade trying to find peace through her studies and time spent with various communities. After six years with a Sufi teacher, she is told to leave the community and to learn instead from her dog, Pearlie. Hart writes well, and some spiritual seekers will resonate with parts of her travels into and out of her own darkness. Others will find her focus on the world's (and especially Pearlie's) responsibility to be her teacher distressing. The author euthanizes Pearlie, who is suffering from cancer and seizures, only when she feels that Pearlie's work with her is done. Hart writes continuously of her losses and sadness, but expresses little concern for the needs of others. Even as she talks about her growing ability to love near the end of the book, she is asking if her own life will be sweet, leaving readers with the impression that she still has further to walk. (July)