Spinning Karma is a very cleverly written, sartiric look at "fake news" and how actual events are spun by various factions to suit their purpose. Light-hearted and witty, it also scrapes the surface of cultism, as well as meditation. I pictured the Beatles sitting around with Rinoche Schwartz.

Fantastic! I really enjoyed reading this book.

Having read and enjoyed some of Joshua Samuel Brown's travel writing in the past, I went into this book with high hopes and was not disappointed at all.

Brown drew me in from the start with his flawed spiritual guru, Rinpoche Schwartz. Schwartz reminded me of Robert Duval's E.F. "Sonny" Dewey in the movie, The Apostle. Although not exactly the same, Schwartz and Apostle E.F. both have troubled family lives and share some other similarities but what really connects the characters for me is that their sincere attempts to try and be worthy of their spiritual calling, improve the lives of those around them, and generally be a better person themselves backfire. In Sonny's case, tragically. In Schwartz's, hilariously.

When Schwartz dreams up a foolproof plan to energize his tiny Buddhist ashram while reconnecting with his estranged son, his shenanigans instead lead to personal shame, political posturing, international intrigue, headline news, and - in the end - perhaps (or not?) a lesson learned.

As a resident of Taiwan for over 20 years, it was fun to read a story set (in part) here. The author's knowledge of Taiwan shines through in so many ways and captures the spirit of The Beautiful Island's charming people. As crazy as Schwartz's situation becomes, it will actually seem almost totally plausible to anyone who has had to pleasure of living in Taiwan and making friends with Taiwanese. Schwartz's son, Burroughs, has an English class at a factory and the English and Chinese names are perfectly chosen and were probably very fun for Brown to decide upon. I've met more than one Taiwanese A-Yi named "Smacker"!

I was unfamiliar with some of the Buddhist specific words but a few were made clear by the context and others I just looked up.

Thanks to Camphor Press for making a copy available to me on NetGalley.