Secrets of the Monarch: What the Dead Can Teach Us about Living a Better Life

In her new book, author and spiritual medium DuBois (who inspired the NBC television series Medium) looks to those who have passed-whom DuBois can sense, contact and communicate with-for lessons on how to live, following the example of monarch butterflies who take ""several generations... to secure the survival of their future families."" Using personal stories of family and work-speeches, book tours, consulting and meeting one-on-one with people and their dead relations-DuBois attempts to demonstrate the very real power that the dead hold over the living, and vice-versa. Unfortunately, for every fascinating story or innovative idea-assisting on a serial murder case, ""living two or three lifetimes in one""-there's any number of pointless tales (""For example, I appeared on a game show called 1 vs 100 on NBC...""), stale observation (""taking risks is what legends are made of"") and hoary cliches (""Don't spin your wheels,"" ""remember what the road to hell is paved with""). The conversational style is easy to read but employs lots of cute rhetorical florishes; though it will probably please DuBois devotees, and provides some sound material for those interested in the life of a professional ghost whisperer, anyone else will find this meandering memoir less than inspiring.