#Review: Calm in the Storm by Brother Phap Huu and Jo Confino

Calm in the Storm
Author: Brother Phap Huu and Jo Confino
Publisher: Aleph Book Company
Rating: 4.5/5

The cover of Calm in the Storm is the first quiet exhale. The soft blue circle, the bamboo brushstrokes, the minimal typography—it promises stillness without screaming for attention. It doesn’t market peace; it embodies it. And thankfully, the content largely stays true to that promise.

Structured into reflective chapters like What Takes Us Far from Home, Through Any Storm, and Practices to Return Home, the book feels like a guided conversation rather than a lecture. The blend of Zen wisdom (from Brother Phap Huu) and contemporary reflection (from Jo Confino) creates a bridge between ancient mindfulness and modern anxiety. That dual voice is one of the book’s strongest merits—it prevents the tone from becoming either overly mystical or overly corporate.

The language is intentionally simple, almost meditative. Short sentences. Gentle repetition. A lot of breathing room between ideas. It is meant to be accessible—and it is. However, that simplicity occasionally drifts into predictability. If you’ve read Thich Nhat Hanh or similar mindfulness literature before, some ideas—returning to the breath, questioning your stories, choosing happiness over being right—may feel familiar. Not repetitive in a lazy sense, but certainly echoing a well-worn spiritual vocabulary.

Yet, where it succeeds is in application. The practices offered are practical, not abstract. The tone never feels preachy. It feels like someone sitting beside you saying, “Let’s slow this down.” That relevance, especially in today’s hyper-productive, anxiety-fuelled culture, makes it timely and genuinely useful.

It is not revolutionary but definitely grounding.

Find the book here.