Soul on the Run

by Robin Korth

Soul on the Run is the gut-wrenchingly honest portrayal of one woman’s search for herself, and her refusal to continue playing the game of “let’s pretend everything is okay.” What’s more, it reminds us—when we are honest with ourselves—we can start life over at any age. Korth’s words are pithy and raw, sometimes almost brutal, and often just plain funny. There are common sense insights into doing life and a sometimes mystic questing into the hidden avenues of the human heart. To read this book is to journey into your own heart and spirit. The questions and comments of this woman’s piercing search for joy and meaning will spark your own. You cannot read this book without becoming a participant in your own soul’s journey towards life.

Genres: Personal Growth, Self Help

199 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 18, 2014

About the author

Robin Korth, BA MSN

I am a renegade and an outlaw. I am a dancing soul with a huge heart and a history strewn with errors and missed steps. I am a lady that did life “wrong” for more years than I care to admit. I tried to do a version of life that my culture and my family thought was valid. I failed miserably with much pain and sorrow to show for it.

In 2006 I walked away from that life and ventured into one with my spirit soaring and my soul pounding the pavement of living. Here is what I discovered: We are meant to live full-on, gut-wide and happy. We are meant to know our power and beauty as human beings and to rejoice in this gift of our days on this planet.

And this is what I share with others. I do it with laughter and honesty and with the insight born from my own life and learning. I do it with great love and with great passion.

For this is my life and I intend to share it and dare it all the way—until I am done.

“Let’s be honest, open and brave!” —Robin Korth

"Soul on the Run" is a 2014 Foreword Reviews’ INDIEFAB Book of the Year Awards Finalist!

Reviews

[Michele · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Honest, insightful and at times a little scary are just some of the words that come to mind after reading this book. It took me places in my own life and mind that I hadn't visited or thought I needed to re-visit. I found myself thinking about passages in the book throughout the day and couldn't wait to come home to read more. Not a quick read, but a very thought provoking, need to digest kind of book. When we are truly honest with ourselves and realize that we are not all "just fine" in our "great" lives, we can truly become honest. Loved it!

[Tess · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a powerful wake up call for those of us who are ready to fully live our lives. Each page has inspiring and gutwrenchingly honest statements and questions for us to ponder and breath into. I found that I was highlighting something on every page. Robin is supportive and nurturing throughout the book, encouraging us to look deeply into ourselves no matter what crud we have inside. Thank you, Robin, for sharing every part of you with us. You are such a gift!

[Lisa J Shultz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Soul on the Run is meant to be sipped and savored. Read a few pages with your morning coffee, in the bathtub or just before bed. Let Robin Korth's wisdom soak in and swirl around. A good gift book for a girl friend.
Internal layout needs improvement as well as the cover design to attract buyers though.

[Bella · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is written and printed sort of like diary entries, with brief sections of ruminations all ending with a "challenge" and a part called "On this day" that reads like a little prayerful wish for readers. The author shares about her personal struggles and then broadens them to problems and challenges that we all face as humans, like loneliness or having compassion. Overall it's not a bad book but it falls short of being helpful to personal growth or saying anything original. It's passages are too short to be helpful and too vague to feel spiritually contemplative. I was really expecting a more in depth type memoir or book a reader could study from what I read of the book's summary.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Korth has opened up her heart and let us see all of the contents and she challenges us to do the same with ours.

I found this work moving and thought-provoking. I love books that challenge growth in me.

DO NOT sit down to whiz through this book. It is more of a journey of self-evaluation and thought. I would lay the book down to attend to my regularly daily business and thoughts of it would echo though my brain and heart throughout the day.

I received a digital copy of this book from NetGallery in exchange for a fair and honest review.

[Toobuffrn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good. Really just alot of thoughts, almost like journal entries, but positive and thought provoking.

[Dawn Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Soul on the Run by Robin Korth

196 Pages
Publisher: Balboa Press
Release Date: April 18, 2014

Nonfiction, Health, Mind, Body, Self-Care, Self-Empowerment, Self-Help, Memoir

Robin chronicles her life from her early 20s with anorexia and bulimia to alcohol in her 50s. She realized she needed to find her true self. Her path was hard and she tells us how the road to find ourselves is personal.

I spent over a year working on healing my soul. This book complements that work. Although this is a short book, the message is powerful. If you are looking for uplifting messages this is a nice book. She includes a few lines from my favorite poem, Desiderata.

[Debi Stout · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I first saw the book, Soul on the Run by Robin Korth, I thought it was a book about running and how someone got inspired to run. Of course, that's probably because my runner's mind is programmed to think "run, run, run."

Once I downloaded the book onto the Kindle app on my iPad, I started reading the Soul on the Run and quickly received confirmation that my preconceived idea was totally incorrect. In fact, "on the run" was clearly a figurative expression as it pertained to this book!

To provide a bit of background about me - let me tell you that a friend once called me very "black and white". Maybe it's because I'm a realist, maybe it's because I've worked for lawyers over 30 years, I'm not sure, but I tend to have a hard time finding what I used to call the "gray area". This same friend told me "gray" isn't the correct word there, and the space between "black and white" is the panoramic view that I am missing. So okay, I sometimes have a hard time seeing the "panoramic view" of things.

In keeping with my personality, when I pick up a book to read, I always start at the beginning, read through the middle, and go on to the end. Well guess what, people? That "rule" does not have to apply to this book. Soul on the Run is more fashioned after someone's private journal - an entry of notes, sayings, poems, concepts, thoughts, ideas - that are seeking, fixing, learning, discovering, changing, not changing, accepting - well, you get it - discoveries.

Soul on the Run is a book of self-discovery and of growth. Ms. Korth shares her story - a story of coming from a dark and damaged path to finding hope and light in life. Don't expect this book to sugarcoat everyday struggles - she makes that clear right from the beginning. Ms. Korth sets the tone for the book right in its introduction. Ms. Korth has opened up her heart and let us see all of the contents and she challenges us to do the same with ours.

I caught myself opening it to pages way past where I was reading just to see what Ms. Korth had written on that page, and then zooming back to the front area and reading another separate page. I would read a page or two and then close the book up. I'd go about my regular daily business and find myself thinking about what I had read and feeling it in my heart.

I can see that Soul on the Run is going to be a book that I will be keeping around for quite some time so that I can enjoy the pages each day as I interpret and apply them to my life depending on where I am emotionally, or maybe I'll just random openings of the book as a daily surprise.

I found the following entry that I really liked, so I'm sharing it with you so you see what I'm talking about when I try to explain the book:

"My body is the 'delivery system' of my soul. If I am abusing this beautiful gift or simply not taking care of it, something is 'out of sync' within me. I don't love or like myself enough to honor and respect this powerful and glorious machine that allows me to experience and share myself with the world around me.

And for me, this 'out of sync' was a wounding to my soul that began in the earliest years of my life. It has taken enormous courage, deep honesty and continued willingness to tear away my denial and go on the journey to consciously and bravely heal these wounds one day--one tear, one cry of understanding and self-loving truth--at a time."

Ms. Korth's website talks about an app called "Robin in Your Face" that consists of motivational and thought-provoking, life-changing thoughts/audio recordings. This app is available in two versions on GooglePlay and on the Apple AppStore, the "lite" version is free and I think the full version is only 99 cents!

I agreed to receive an electronic version of this book at no cost from NetGalley in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

[Lorilin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am surprised by how little depth there is to this book. I was hoping Korth, a divorced mom and recovering alcoholic, was going to open up and share her personal story. In the introduction, she briefly describes her struggle to get out of a long and unhealthy marriage, as well as her battle to overcome alcoholism and bulimia. I wanted to know more about that. It sounded like she had been through a lot, learned from her mistakes, and was in a better place for all of it. I was intrigued by that story.

But that isn't what this book is about. Surprisingly, Korth shares next to nothing about her personal struggles. Instead, Soul on the Run is mostly a collection of corny and cliche affirmations presented in meandering, unfocused, stream-of-consciousness vignettes. Each chapter of Soul on the Run is broken up into at least three parts. First, Korth makes a personal statement of growth (I used to be that way, now I am this way). Second, she gives a little prayer to the reader in the "On This Day" section (on this day, I hope you feel joy, etc.). Last, she finishes with a specific "Challenge" (do something differently today, self-reflect, ask for a hug, etc.).

This format had the potential to be engaging and insightful. Unfortunately, though, both the content and writing style of Soul on the Run are cheesy, overwrought, and confusing. For example, "My sorrows and my disappointments can burn and tear. They wound my heart and cause my soul to whimper in dreams..." Or "Don't you just love it when your smile and your heart and your spirit jump all at the same time?" I mean, huh? What does any of that really even mean? Somehow Korth manages to fill an entire book with a bunch of words that don't say anything. In fact, I got the feeling that she was hiding behind meaningless gibberish so she could avoid having to spell out the black and white truth of her painful experiences.

Ultimately, this book missed the mark for me. It lacked substance and focus, and it definitely did not deliver on (what I interpreted to be) a promise to know Korth's personal story. Soul on the Run ended up being nothing that I was expecting and, unfortunately, nothing that I wanted either.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

*I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley*
I think everyone has done things in their life they would consider failures. The key is being able to pick yourself up, learn from those failures, and become a better person because you have lived and learned. Robin Korth exposes herself in Soul on the Run of the many failures she has had in life, and although, in her opinion, it took a long time to finally admit to the “wrongs” and truly discover herself, what she discovered was a human being that has the power and beauty to be a part of this world, to live life for her, as well as share her discovery and learning with others. The “introduction” tells Robin’s struggles through life, and her eventual turnaround into discovering herself. The main body of the book, offers her thoughtful insights which I feel are thought-provoking and motivating. They come across as random bits of wisdom, as well as challenges to the reader to question the status quo.

Although I didn’t agree with all of Robin’s thoughts, the majority definitely leave you soul searching. There are enough of them that you can pick and choose the ones the really resonate with you. My biggest take-away was to be honest with yourself about everything you do on a day-to-day basis. Why do you help certain people? Or pretend to be someone else around them? Is it only so they will like you? Stop pretending! Be yourself! Only then can you really be alive. There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ way to live, but we can all improve in some way and Soul on the Run inspires the reader to question the world and ourselves, but really, to just be you. Wonderful, inspirational read!

[Melek · Rating 1 out of 5]

According to what I've seen from that foreword and the introduction, I expected to just fall for this book. Apparently, that wasn't what happened. All I had was a book full of corny and clichéd sentences and occasionally, some stuff about her life and past. That's the most shallow self-help book I have ever read, and it's not even well-written so that I can have something to say something good about the writer or the work. I wanted to be nice and go with, "This wasn't a book for me," but I can't do that. This is just bad. 0/5

[Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Soul on the Run is a book of self-discovery; A story of coming from a dark and damaged path to finding hope and light in life.
It is not a book that is going to sugarcoat everyday struggles, and that is apparent from the very beginning. The introduction sets the tone for what Robin Korth has to say to her readers.


Read the rest of my review here!

[Angela Street · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book although it reminded more of reading a person's personal journal where she had jotted down thoughts than it did a traditional book. I think it would have been even better put together more in a daily devotional type format. The writing was powerful and thought provoking and made a lot of sense. There were some exercises that you could work to gain insight. I would recommend it.

[Dav · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of what I read, I already know/knew. I suppose it's nice to be reminded, and I think maybe in the future I'll dip in and enjoy it, but as a first reading, it's a lot of the same in various forms...

[Pam Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant books a journey of self discovery and acceptance, how to rediscover your self and unmask the false reality that we all live in at one time or another.