Title: Seven Tips to Survival: Overcoming the Speed Bumps on Your Journey
Author: Youlanda Cumings Washington
Publisher: Brilliant Books Literary
ISBN: 9798889454144″
Pages: 164
Genre: Spiritual Fiction
Reviewed by: Rhonda Maya
Hollywood Book Reviews
Author Youlanda Cumings Washington’s Seven Tips to Survival: Overcoming the Speed Bumps on Your Journey is a spiritual account portraying the essence of God’s love in its center. It aptly brings out the way one must tackle the challenges of life by touching upon various Biblical references. It consists of seven sections, each of which serves as a spiritual eye-opener for the reader.
This book kick-starts with the narrative of a woman called JC, who seems to be listening to various cassette recordings she has recorded in the past. These recordings serve as a key element in this narrative. JC, the protagonist, is a woman from a lineage of black female educators residing in the United States. She is a strong-willed woman who firmly believes in attaining God’s love through His word. As she listens to her cassette recordings, she recounts the lowest points in her life and how she emerged free from them with the help of God. While doing so, she engages in a quest to formulate strategies to combat life’s challenges and strategies factors that spark one’s decision to overcome their hurdles. These insights of JC are presented as the ‘seven survival tips’ by Youlanda Washington.
In this book, the author brings forth several Biblical references such as the Wilderness Journey of Jesus, His Promised Land, His intervention into the affairs of man, and His unadulterated love for His children. While citing these references, Youlanda tries to decode the profound connection between a person and God through JC’s insights. This entire narrative comes full circle as it starts with JC’s tumultuous past and progresses by depicting her restoration from her downfalls, “the secret of intimacy”, an appetite and thirst for God and the journey of one’s lifetime from the Wilderness to their own ‘Promised Land’.
The entire story is told from a third-person point of view, excluding the parts wherein JC’s cassette recordings are mentioned. The author has tried to establish a sense of cohesion throughout her book by interconnecting the titles of her chapters in each section. The last few words of a chapter become the title of the succeeding chapter. Youlanda Washington has skilfully arranged the content of her story right from its introduction to its conclusion, thereby making the crux of her book, God’s love for man, even more impactful.
All of the seven survival tips described by the author in her book will help one to understand the importance of God in one’s life. Throughout the book, Youlanda tries to highlight that pure belief in God could help a person mold oneself and identify a better and bolder version of oneself. The readers can expect an intense spiritual revelation of themselves upon finishing this book. As a spiritual-fiction narrative, it impressively sews Christian spiritual disciplines along with JC’s spiritual soul searching. The questions and tips after each section will help the readers develop a better understanding of themselves. This book is highly recommended if you like to explore or read about Christian spiritual disciplines.