If you have ever been asked 鈥淲hat鈥檚 your sign?鈥 you have Linda Goodman to thank鈥攐r blame. America鈥檚 first New Age celebrity, Goodman鈥檚 1968 book, Sun Signs, sold over 60 million copies, while the advance for her second book, Love Signs, broke an unprecedented $2.25 million. And yet, while Goodman was teaching the world how to search the skies for clarity, her gaze was fixed upon her own dark, mysterious pursuit.
In 1973, Goodman鈥檚 daughter was found dead and the police declared it a suicide; Goodman believed otherwise. She spent years depleting her fortune, chasing down leads that might uncover the real truth about her beloved daughter鈥檚 death. Headlines criticized and discredited Goodman, ultimately overshadowing the revolutionary nature of her work.
Courtney Ann LaFaive first discovered Goodman鈥檚 books as a teenager. Reading her astrological wisdom decades after its heyday, LaFaive contemplates the redemption of Goodman as a literary and spiritual figure, all the while reckoning with her own impulsive forays into love and relationships. Follow the Signs asks what it means when facts become stranger than fiction and who we become when we must walk away from those we love.
鈥Follow the Signs takes you on an emotional journey through possibility, projection, love, loss, the parasocial relationship, and what it means to believe in somebody鈥攊ncluding yourself. I loved getting to know the very Neptunian story of one of the most important foremothers of pop astrology. LaFaive鈥檚 writing immediately hooked me, and once I started reading, I couldn鈥檛 put the book down. This story doesn鈥檛 just illuminate Goodman鈥檚 life or entertain you鈥攊t stays with you long after the final page.鈥濃擩essica Lanyadoo, astrologer, coauthor, Astrology for Real Relationships: Understanding You, Me, and How We All Get Along, host, Ghost of a Podcast
鈥淚鈥檝e not read anything like this book, with its twinning of celebrity biography and exploratory memoir. Follow the Signs features a quest narrative and a portrait of American mystic practice, so there鈥檚 plenty herein to keep its pages turning. LaFaive is a smart, compassionate guide, and her book shows the great power that comes from examining your story through that of another figure鈥攅ven if the figure is a nebulous one, more steeped in myth than reality.鈥濃擡lena Passarello, author, Animals Strike Curious Poses
