Whitney Scott for BOOKLIST writes: "Chester depicts the randomness of the universe as a life-shattering force in this deeply satisfying and mature work about self-knowledge, and learning to let go as a form of healing." Rachel Barenblat writes in THE WOMEN'S TIMES: "This is one beautiful, well-written midlife coming-of-age novel that is worth having on the shelf." And Steve Louden of the Oconomowoc Enterprise Staff says: "While Kingdom Come is a sad love story that delves into the spiritual aspects of dying, Holy Personal is a book of life."

See HOLY PERSONAL, looking for small private places of worship, for more detailed reviews of that book.

Laura Chester writes with a deep commitment to lyrical language. Reading Kingdom Come felt as if I were listening to a wistful, beautiful country song. This is a confident, sure-footed, tender love story that evokes life, life-style, and loss on two sides of the continent.

Chester deftly and completely captures the innards of the relationships between men and women, between children and mother, among friends and lovers-- I was left breathless. More than once I found myself stopping mid-sentence to re-read a particularly brilliant part (one tour de force that sticks in my mind is on page 199... that perfect, quirky, exactly right list of memory evokers). The writing is terrific. Chester has told my story, practically moment by moment. The growing/grown children parts are amazing. She has told the story of almost every woman of our age that I know. I'm insisting everyone I know should read this book. Wonderful, wonderful.

I bought this book because I thought that this book would surprize me with pictures that facinate me and filled with eye candy and interesting ideas or people. What I found was something less "fantastic" but more personal. The book is written from an aspect from a personal perspective of the authors travels. Written from the authors first person impressions and interviews. When I first got the book I flipped through it and didn't find it exciting, I might have forgotten about the book because of the less then fancy impression but I started reading a few chapters here and there and the Author writes about each picture... what was happening when she took the picture, and what it means to the person who created the place of worship. The book turns out to be very well written, amazing "feel good" impression of looking into a personal view of peoples spirituality.

PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY says that Holy Personal "is a fascinating, in-depth study of how spirituality can express itself in that most intimate of worlds, the home." John Manikowski for the Berkshire Eagle writes:"beautifully written, lavishly illustrated." In describing Little Rose Chapel he goes on to say-- "Every detail has been carefully planned, created and designed from within a deeply spirited heart, through immense love and with a devotional direction that almost seems fantasy like, but it is real." BOOKLIST says, "Holy Personal honors the presence of the Divine in the midst of life." And Clarissa Pinkola Estes for THE BLOOMSBURY REVIEW writes: "In Holy Personal, two dozen devout souls speak about their handmade sanctuaries, many of which shelter images of Mary and various santos. It is clear water from the artesian well. These site builders symbolize in real time the holiness they feel in their hearts. From a Moonlodge in New Mexico to stupas, from a Sandstone Cathedral to a Garage Chapel, we follow the artistic devotions of those not bound by the doctrinaire, but are instead freshly cut by the thorns of the Mystical Rose, those who can live in the atomic moment of merger with the Divine, who are overflowing with gratitude--this last being one of the holy proofs that Spirit has in fact visited the longing soul. The photographs by Donna DeMari, are worthy of long meditations."

This is a carefully researched and beautifully written book with excellent photography. I recommend it for anyone who has an interest in religion and/or spirituality. Is is truly inspiring.

I found this book by accident in a bookstore one day, and ended up on the floor reading the whole thing in one sitting. It is a compelling and insightful account of the author's journey towards healing from SLE, exploring various natural and conventional therapies, and eventually finding relief using anthroposophical medicine, a system somewhat like homeopathy developed by Rudolph Steiner. This also led me to investigate this form of medicine and the field of anthroposophy in general.

Laura Chester is a gem. She writes and excellent journey of her issues with Lupus SLE. It is a wonderful insight to her soul and can help hundreds in dealing with this terrible disease. I think a big, big, big part of the diary is how she discribes her physician, Dr. Jesse Stoff. This medical doctor writes the forward to this amazing book and is mentioned many times on how he helped Laura understand this disease and what she had to go through to immune her immune function and left her body beat the disease. What Lupus patients have to understand is that Laura Chester's journey and experience is being true to herself on why the disease happened in the first place because of stress and imbalanced lifestyles and dealing with infection. All of these things are outlined in Dr. Jesse Stoff's two other books, The Prostate Miracle and Chronic Fatiuge Syndrome: The Hidden Epidemic. What's interesting in the updated version of Lupus Novice is that Laura doesn't even remember a lot of the pains she went through because she's on the road to recovery and that the past has nothing to do with her future of wellness, since it was her past issues in her life that caused the stress which lead to her disease. This is truely a fasinating book that I recommend at our Institute of Anti-Aging and Longevity to all our Lupus patients along with Dr. Stoff's other two books. In fact, the American Lupus Foundation, highly recommends Lupus Novice also to all the people with Lupus. Again, an outstanding book about, love, compassion, determination, self-actualization and witnessing to all those who suffer from lupus. Anyone interested in the protocals that Dr. Stoff applied to Laura Chester can email us at the Institute of Anti-Aging and Longevity... or call us at 1-800-878-6659 and we will be more than glad to put you on the road to recovery.

This small book is truly a gem. With turn-of-the-century photographs and beautifully written prose-poems, Laura Chester captures childhood memories, which sends one back into their own childhood. It is a real pleasure.

Chester's choice of poetry is especially exciting! Based on my enjoyment of this selection, I have purchased and am reading "Unmade Bed" by the same editor. A very worthwhile and enjoyable collection!

Why aren't there more great books like this one with real substance, humor, love and life. This had it all. Best to read quickly so that you can keep all the various characters in mind-- a bit like going to a new country and being filled to the brim with it all.

HRH fans - stay away! This is a very, very poor book, with no additional revelations about The Man. This is an exercise in fawning. Skip it, and wait for the HRH movies that rumor has in development at several Hollywood studios.

This book has come under heavy criticism for not covering any new ground (both authors have written about Howard Hughes before). That may be so (the large biblography indicates the extent to which Hughes life and death has already been dissected). However, outside of America there is less of an obsession with Hughes; so if this is the first book you have read on the subject (as is the case with this reviewer), it is actually pretty entertaining - and that is how it should be read: as entertainment rather than heavy-duty information.

Phelan and Chester, after giving a reprise of Hughes' life and death, plunge into an analysis of the chaos he left behind: no will, not much idea of how much money was in the estate, no list of assets, not even a clear place of legal residence. The person press-ganged into the role of fireman was William Lummis, a lawyer and cousin of Hughes.

In ways that only Americans can manage, the determinaton and settlement of Hughes' estate was the subject of an avalanche of litigation and bizarre claims, as a parade of fake wills and fake relatives appeared and then were removed from the stage by a large hook. In fact, the outright looniness of some of these claims makes for the most entertaining aspect of the book, although they were perhaps not much stranger than Hughes' own life.

Lummis gradually managed to consolidate the estate: the last big struggle was with the IRS. The estate (under a billion dollars; the figure varied depending on how and when it was calculated) was eventually divided amongst Hughes retainers and employees, his relatives, and the bulk (after tax) going to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The HHMI had been set up as an elaborate tax dodge, but it eventually managed to rebuild itself as a genuine philanthropic and research organisation. So Hughes (as one commentator noted) did leave a useful legacy after all - but probably not what he expected.

This book might not add much to the pool of knowledge about Hughes, but for those to whom the subject! is fairly new ground, The Money is a pretty good read.