Book Review - If Your Ever Need Me, I Won't Be Far Away

About the Book
It’s rare when someone bares their soul with such startling honesty and grace, that you cannot remain unaffected and instead find yourself transformed, enhanced and able to look at your own life with a reawakened passion.

Bruce F. Rosen’s new book If You Ever Need me, I Won’t Be Far Away, is a guide for those who want to learn, in the words of the author “what it means to be really alive”. The book chronicles what is it like being raised by a psychic mom, who supported her family by reading tea leaves for the famous including Marlon Brando. She faced many trials and tribulations, from her husband’s affair, an attempted rape, to a battle with cancer. Yet, she loved life. Forgiving his father and living fully with his mother’s joy, Rosen shows that even a difficult path through life can be successful.

Rosen pays tribute to his family and their uniqueness…a mom who foretold who he would marry and who helped rich and poor alike with her psychic ability; a sister who inherited her mother’s second sight, and his uncle, a Jewish gangster stock promoter, that survived a bomb that exploded under his bed the night before he was to testify in a headline grabbing trial.

He reflects on the journeys he has taken and the memorable experiences he had while traveling around the world, such as Costa Rica where merchant marine seamen gave him his first introduction to ladies of the night; London, when he was blocks away from the terrorist bombings; and Bangkok, during the coup, and train hopping cross country as a teen.

He strives to understand why things happen the way they do, including a successful marriage of 25 years, a marriage that came to an end. He evokes the signs of the times through his passion for sports, music, spirituality, and politics and weaves the music of his generation into the narrative, bringing forth the memories of where we were and what we were feeling at certain times in our lives.

Prevailing through his losses, he reaches the conclusion and shows how to be happy and successful stressing that you should never give up on your dream, because it’s who you are. His goal is to inspire people to rediscover themselves and harness the joy that surrounds them every day.

About the Author
Bruce Farrell Rosen is Managing Director at Wells Fargo Advisors and author of If You Ever Need Me, I Won’t Be Far Away.

Rosen has written professionally for over three decades and has been featured in such publications as The San Francisco Chronicle, The San Francisco Examiner, Nob Hill Gazette, Asian Week, and on the cover of Personal Excellence which has featured the likes of Deepak Chopra, Oprah Winfrey, and Nelson Mandela. His radio interviews include In the Spirit, Blog Talk’s Conversation Radio and Unlimited Realities, and Healthylife.net’s Healing Heart and Home and Strategies for Living. In addition to a stint as a journalist in Chinatown, he has crafted essays on sports, politics, economics, and music. The piece that he wrote on his boyhood idol, Sandy Koufax, appeared in the Baseball Hall of Fame. His slice of life series titled “Diary of a Creative Banker” and a composition on Princess Diana have been featured on the BBC.

He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy from U.C. Santa Barbara and an M.A. in International Relations from San Francisco State University. The father of two sons, he lives and works in San Francisco, California.

My Take on the Book
This is a story that eloquently puts reality and honesty first and allows the reader truly into the life of the author. In many cases this book was very raw, but it was so well written you are drawn into the emotion and the feelings that the author has.

Throughout the entire book you can see and feel the tangible struggles that he has, with the loss of his mother, the finality of his marriage and so much more.

I was truly drawn into the book itself and although the book is long you can easily get through it as it is the type of book that does engage you as a reader.

The only part of the book itself that distracted me a bit was that the personal story is interspersed with essays on other issues that are important to the author. While these essays were still well written, I felt that the more compelling story was the personal one that he was telling!

A great book and one that I would highly recommend!

All opinions expressed in this review are my own and not influenced in any way by the company.  Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer or provider. Please refer to this site's Disclaimer  for more information. I have been compensated or given a product free of charge, but that does not impact my views or opinions.

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