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Formats
Ebook Details
  • 09/2017
  • 9780995567924 B075GXYRQC
  • 148 pages
  • $11.89
Paperback Book Details
  • 06/2017
  • 9780995567900 B075GXYRQC
  • 207 pages
  • $17.00
Mario Kfoury
Author
Coffee Shop University
Mario Kfoury, author

Adult; Other Nonfiction; (Market)

The place Bailey’s Gym, Los Angeles, California—6am—the fall of 1999… From a bourgeois neighborhood in Beirut to the schools of the streets of Europe and the United States, the story takes you on a journey of self-exploration and transformation that goes through weight rooms, boxing rings, libraries and the stock market. Relentless, unconventional and independent; these successive experiences yield immense benefits for personal development.  Your life is not set in stone, it’s a gift for which the first page is carved in your DNA and the rest is yours to pen. When history fades pale next to our daily trials and tribulations, survival comes from a boundless, insatiable thirst for learning, social justice, as well an iron will for breaking up with tradition, and walking the unbeaten trails drawing our prints in the dust and mud we all come from.

Reviews
KIRKUS REVIEW

Debut author and private investor Kfoury presents a self-reflective meditation on religion, the stock market, and existence in general.

The book begins in 1999 with the author living in Los Angeles. He’d left Lebanon for America in 1987 and was “devoted to becoming independent, experiencing the American dream and testing what they taught us at school about real life.” This mission would take Kfoury to martial arts training in California, flight school in Florida, and to London, England, while “following [his] bliss.” The book is only loosely based on the author’s tangible experiences, though; the primary focus is on headier topics, such as Stockholm syndrome, karma, and the difference between “religious morals and secular ethics.” Later portions explore the stock market through the eyes of a trader, discussing the importance of the “Elliot Wave Theory,” used to forecast financial markets; the origin of candlestick charts, which signify price fluctuations, with rice trader Munehisa Homma in the 18th century; and how “Most people on the short term charts are sitting ducks for the big guys with the big guns to slaughter.” The final pages contain what the author calls “The Golden Principles,” such as “All monotheistic religions are guilty of worshipping ‘man-god’, therefore destined for war.” There are quite a few ideas to take in, overall—some thick with jargon (“All the Moving Averages calculations of the IKH are based on the 50% retracement of their respective periods”) and others alive with sentiment, such as the idea that the financial market is a “ruthless and amazing teacher.” This combination makes for a book that’s dense, impassioned, and unique.

Although the book is less than 200 pages long, including a lengthy bibliography, it offers a large amount of material for readers to chew on. Chewing and digesting are two different things, however, and unless readers have more than a cursory knowledge of finance and philosophy, they may need to do further research to get a fuller understanding of what the author’s trying to convey. Some of the work’s humanizing portions, such as a reference to Baz Luhrmann’s 1999 single “Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)” and a story of a flight over the Hudson River, help to ground it, though it’s still, by and large, a book of ideas, and some of those ideas end up being more convincing than others. For example, in Kfoury’s account of a deep conversation that he had in 1990s Florida with a woman named Gaia, she insists that “God is not a man. She might be a woman, or neither, but definitely not a man.” Whether this assertion is intended to be a deep truth or simply a counterargument to established religion is unclear. Other statements, though, come across as more insightful, such as the author’s chapter-ending realization that “God exists, but not the way they tell us about.” By the end of the book, the reader will certainly find themselves dwelling on something new.

A dense, personal collection of thoughts on many of life’s great mysteries.

News
11/19/2017
Author’s new book “Coffee Shop University” by Mario Kfoury receives a warm

Reviewed By Romuald Dzemo for Readers' Favorite

Coffee Shop University: A Book about Mythology, Spirituality, Philosophy, Psychology, Religion, Politics, Economics and the Ecology... by Mario Kfoury is a nonfiction read that deals with powerful existential, religious, philosophical and realistic themes. The book reads like the author’s mental journey; its confrontation with the harsh realities of life, a departure from mainstream contemporary culture to adopt a solution-oriented mindset. In this book, the author shares personal experiences and combines Western thought with Eastern philosophy and spirituality to compel readers to look reality in the face, opening their eyes to dread truths about human nature, and offering reflections on topics such as existence, change, conflict, truth, well-being, purpose, and many things in between.

This is a book that will appeal to philosophers, theologians, moralists, and sociologists, a multidisciplinary book that is intelligently written, thought-provoking and laced with deep insights. Every page is filled with astounding wisdom. The author interacts with life and with philosophers from the beginning of the history of human thought, featuring Socrates, Plato and many others. Mario Kfoury makes relevant references to great thinkers like the Tao, Albert Einstein, Dharma, and many others.

I was particularly excited by the depth of thought and the clarity of expression. For instance, about war, for instance, he states: “Any fight, no matter the form or style, is a balance of stamina, distance and timing.” A bit further down he observes that war is nothing other than an individual fight on a collective scale and it never reaches a final verdict nor a perfect settlement. I learned that the greatest victory is one that requires no battle. Coffee Shop University: A Book about Mythology, Spirituality, Philosophy, Psychology, Religion, Politics, Economics and the Ecology... is a book for readers who want to take life seriously and who love to indulge in mental labor. The writing is excellent and accessible and the ideas are expressed with vivid clarity and simplicity of phrase."

You can learn more about Mario Kfoury and "Coffee Shop University" at https://readersfavorite.com/book-review/coffee-shop-university where you can read reviews and the author’s biography, as well as connect with the author directly or through their website and social media pages.

Media Contact
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Phone: 800-RF-REVIEW
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Country: United States
Website: https://readersfavorite.com

Formats
Ebook Details
  • 09/2017
  • 9780995567924 B075GXYRQC
  • 148 pages
  • $11.89
Paperback Book Details
  • 06/2017
  • 9780995567900 B075GXYRQC
  • 207 pages
  • $17.00
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