Transforming Pain to Power: Unlock Your Unlimited Potential

Beaty (The Tallest Tree in the Forest—Paul Robeson) hasn’t allowed himself to be pigeonholed—he’s an actor, singer, playwright, and motivational speaker—and he attempts to help others break out of their self-imposed shackles in this 12-step approach to mental and emotional health. Raised in a chaotic household with a father who was constantly in and out of prison, Obie and NAACP award–winner Beaty experienced his share of tumult until he found his outlet in the performing arts. He begins by reminding readers that they are worthy of love and that their potential is limitless. Moving into more difficult tasks, he advises that readers need to understand and own their pain before they can move beyond it. Beaty leads readers through exercises of introspection, encouraging them to break patterns of negative thinking and, in some cases, selfish behavior. Various exercises and statements of affirmation lead readers through the book. Whether or not this transformative exercise requires such a liberal employment of quotes and poems from Beaty’s plays to make his point is up for debate. At times, the quotes feel like padding and detract from the Beaty’s points. However, readers in search of an empowering guidebook for emotional health could do worse. Agent: Ian Kleinert, Objective Entertainment. (Mar.)