Smile at Strangers: And Other Lessons in the Art of Living Fearlessly
This curious book—part personal journey, part karate tutorial—explores how Schorn changed her approach to life through the study of karate. She first took up karate because she felt both powerless and fearful in her life. Through her experience at a women’s-only karate school, she finds personal empowerment and a strong and supportive community. Schorn writes about how she is able to apply the lessons she learns in the dojo to her daily life, thus enabling her to negotiate more successfully with her husband and to help establish boundaries in her career and at home. Yet Schorn’s transformation comes slowly; this is not a self-help book that delivers easy answers. Instead, in following Schorn as she pursues her two black belts, the book quickly makes apparent that transformative change comes with extensive work and no small bit of pain but brings with it the ultimate satisfaction of finding inner strength. --Eve Gaus