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Lorraine Segal
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Angels and Earthworms: An Unexpected Journey to Joy, Love, and Miracles Kindle Edition

by Lorraine Segal (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 21 ratings
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How many big mistakes can you make and still end up with an amazing life? A whole lot, it turns out, especially if the Goddess has your back.

Lorraine Segal is a misfit little Jewish girl growing up in a conservative Christian community: smart, funny, fierce, and utterly miserable. But a loving Goddess shows up just in time.

With persistence and humor, Lorraine learns to embrace her mistakes and herself, moving from desolation to miracles.

Along the way, she accidentally yet actively participates in major cultural movements of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, including the Berkeley peace movement, radical feminism, gay rights, the AIDS crisis, twelve-step addiction recovery, with bonus adventures in teaching ESL, lesbian ballroom dancing, and surviving mobbing in toxic academia. Through stories both poignant and hilarious, Lorraine shares her progress from the cramped confinement of her 1950s childhood all the way to her rich, layered life today, as a happily married lesbian, conflict transformation expert, and writer.

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    October 25, 2022
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From the Publisher

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A delightfully quirky, transformational memoir." —Lisa Tener, The Joy of Writing Journal

"The stories in this memoir are a series of sparkling jewels, funny and poignant by turns." —Ginger Moran, American Queen

"Tender and laugh-out-loud funny. I felt wrapped in cherished memories and fascinating glimpses of LGBTQI cultural history." —Laurel Etheridge

"Stories told with extraordinary candor and eloquence, which become the magic and mirror we can all draw from as we navigate our life's journey." —Dennis Pitocco, Reimaginator 360° Nation

"With charm and insight, this memoir takes you on the step-by-step journey of how Segal found ways to heal herself with all the detours on the way." —Isabel Aurbach

"A fascinating read with lots of heart. I recommend!" —Marian Linder, The Emotionally Available Partner

About the Author

​​After surviving the '50s and '60s, as well as twenty years in toxic academia as a tenured professor, Lorraine Segal was inspired to start her own business, Conflict Remedy. Now she happily teaches, coaches, blogs, and consults around workplace conflict transformation. She's been writing a well-received blog about conflict, communication, and forgiveness for ten years (which you can find at ConflictRemedy.com) and contributed to the anthology, Stand Up, Speak Out Against Workplace Bullying. She is addicted to reading novels and enjoys walking and hiking in beautiful Northern California, where she lives with her wife. Her cartoon muse, Bookie, insisted that she write Angels and Earthworms, which details her transformation from miserable self-doubt to self-acceptance, true love, spiritual awareness, and right livelihood. --This text refers to the paperback edition.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0BHBZ74P8
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ BooklingPress (October 25, 2022)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 25, 2022
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1677 KB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 21 ratings

About the author

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Lorraine Segal

Lorraine Segal

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​​After surviving the ’50s and ’60s, as well as twenty years in toxic academia as a tenured professor, Lorraine Segal was inspired to start her own business, Conflict Remedy. Now she happily teaches, coaches, blogs, and consults around workplace conflict transformation. She's been writing a well-received blog about conflict, communication, and forgiveness for ten years (which you can find at ConflictRemedy.com) and contributed to the anthology, Stand Up, Speak Out Against Workplace Bullying. She is addicted to reading novels and enjoys walking and hiking in beautiful Northern California, where she lives with her wife. Her cartoon muse, Bookie, insisted that she write Angels and Earthworms, which details her transformation from miserable self-doubt to self-acceptance, true love, spiritual awareness, and right livelihood.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
21 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Alex Young-Davis
5.0 out of 5 stars A fast-paced romp and window on how big movements started
Reviewed in the United States on November 8, 2022
Verified Purchase
Lorraine Segal’s memoir Angels and Earthworms: An Unexpected Journey to Joy, Love, and Miracles is a fast-paced romp back to Berkeley in its heyday, from dance raves to Sistah Boom, from singers to healers. A masterful storyteller, Segal drives her strait-laced childhood to breakout moments of self-discovery. In episodes like “They’re stealing your hats!” Segal provokes deeper questions: Are most of us afraid to call out wrongdoing? Do we turn the other way? Or do we dare we speak up? In another incident one lesbian accused another of not being “real” because she “caught her” wearing (gasp) earrings. Segal notes that it’s ironic to look back on how radical and free we thought we were, but the pressure to conform was as great as in the most traditional sorority.” A fun and enlightening read.
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BB
4.0 out of 5 stars Great relatable stories about life
Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2023
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Thank you for sharing this portion of life's challenges and miracles that you experienced. I could identify with both and am blessed to know you. There is fun, laughter, thought provoking aspects that encourage one to keep reading, and maybe look a little deeper. I know i did.
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Wendy R
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, heartfelt biography
Reviewed in the United States on November 7, 2022
Verified Purchase
Written with insight and compassion—the same qualities Lorraine brings to her profession of enabling people to have better relationships with self and others, as well as providing helpful resources for difficult workplace issues. Her website and blog conflictremedy.com have been a gift to me re dealing with some difficult issues. Insight and kindness go a long way and I am grateful for her wisdom.
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Helen L. Stewart
5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling, difficult but also funny! Timely given the current global political environment.
Reviewed in the United States on October 26, 2022
The author tells it best: “Young girls who seemed ordinary turned out to have extraordinary powers that they could learn to use to save themselves and their people.” Saving herself and her people is essentially what Lorraine Segal has accomplished in writing Angels and Earthworms.

In a time of intense othering in the world and projections onto others our own fears of unworthiness, this book is timely indeed. The author addresses anti-Semitism, misogyny, religious and class cruelty through the eyes of a young girl and later a striving professional in an academic setting. She also leaves the world of chic atheism behind for a spiritual journey tailored to her own unique circumstance and needs.

What began as a litany of Candide-like tales of micro aggression and relentless outright bullying morphed into a sometimes raucous, sometimes riotous collection of stories about the author’s coming of age and coming out exploits in the Nineteen Sixties and Seventies. There is plenty of pathos and inner dialogue here, but also rollicking fun, spontaneity, and a travelogue of fascinating places in the world that would make any travel writer proud. As someone who lived in the Metropolitan Boston area during the Seventies and the San Francisco Bay Area in the Eighties during the chiaroscuro times of activism, burgeoning feminism, and AIDS, reading Angels and Earthworms was, for me, an awesome ride down memory lane. I chuckled as I was reminded of old-school feminist gatherings and requirements for adhering to outsider-defined conformity and purity, especially when it came to dress and counter-cultural social conventions.

The author’s recitation of grievances quickly morphed into an anthem for activism, with a healthy dose of humor and even compassion for warring parties whose stories reflected a much broader range of experience with conflict than her own. Furthermore, Segal did not flinch when, years later, she realized that she, too, had been complicit in bullying a co-worker. To her credit, she willingly turned the lens on her herself and her own shortsightedness, permitting the reader to do the same. “I decided I could make living amends by talking about what I had done whenever I teach a class on bullying.”

Ms. Segal could easily have stopped at “Poor me; the world has done me wrong.” Her experiences were real, and she could have garnered a lot of sympathy. Instead, she took her stories to a deeper level as a tool for resistance, activism, and social change; for reframing false assumptions; and for doing her part to end bullying behavior. For Segal, the bad times did not destroy her, although they might have. Instead, they shaped life purpose and gave her a voice. There was indeed method to all that madness, and she emerged a better person for her troubles.

There are hints that Segal’s internalized oppression, especially about her Jewishness, remain a work in progress. On the other hand, if she had achieved perfection in this book and claimed to be free from all bias, especially that directed at herself, what she wrote would be less believable and compelling. What she has accomplished is compelling indeed. Angels and Earthworms is a good read!
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Laurie Ann Lepoff
4.0 out of 5 stars must read if you were a feminist in the 70s!
Reviewed in the United States on January 31, 2023
If you were around the bay area feminist community in the 70s, you will love this book. It is so much fun to read a memoir that is in many ways all of our memoirs. I kept thinking, oh my God I remember that! Or, oh my God, I had forgotten all about that! Full disclosure, part of the book actually is my story because I'm in it, but I was equally fascinated by the parts that were not about me that covered the years after Lorry and I went our separate ways. The book covers a time that was unique, innovative full of horrendous mistakes and tremendous personal growth. It is fun and informative to see it through another person's eyes.
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christine
5.0 out of 5 stars An authentic biography and a joy to read!
Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2023
This book was a heartfelt and authentic recollection of Lorraine’s life and the hardships, celebrations, and growth that occurred for her. It was open and honest making it very relatable. Hearing her experiences made me question and think deeper about my own spirituality and how my higher power works in my life. It also informed me about feminism how important it really is. I loved going back in time and hearing what was going on in the years described. I absolutely enjoyed the humor throughout, which was very healing for me. What an amazing recollection of a beautiful life. It proves life doesn’t have to be without difficulties to be absolutely beautiful. Miracles are available to all!
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Kat Katt
5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible & Captivating
Reviewed in the United States on February 21, 2023
Lorraine’s writing takes me back to various phases of my life as she puts into words feelings I have never been able to express properly. It has been quite a spiritual journey for me to read this book. My hope for others is that they enjoy their own personal journey as they read this magical book.
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Franklin Taggart
4.0 out of 5 stars An enjoyable and inspiring memoir
Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2022
My reading of this memoir was interrupted by life events a few times, but it seems like the story here was a parallel narrative to my own. The cycle of crisis, self-discovery, growth, and integration is a familiar one, although I'm probably different from the demographic the author had in mind.

I've found there are two kinds of memoirs. One is self-serving, an opportunity for the author to solicit notoriety or approval. The second is a story that uplifts, inspires, and moves people emotionally for their own benefit. This book is securely in the second category.

I also appreciate the author's humor. There are several laugh-out-loud moments mixed in with the difficulties.
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