::THE SLICE REPORT WITH MONA AUSTIN

THE BLUEPRINT: A Plan for Overcoming Life’s Obstacles, available May 18 For some people, obstacles are minor bumps in the road on the way to success. For others, obstacles represent a major catastrophe of epic proportions threatening to disrupt any chance of success they may have otherwise had. But for seven-time GRAMMY® award winner Kirk Franklin, obstacles represent the challenges needed to propel you through life. In THE BLUEPRINT: A Plan for Living Above Life’s Storms (Gotham Books; May 18, 2010; $25.00), Franklin reveals how he turned negative aspects from his own life—drugs, an absent father, teenage parenthood, poverty, etc.—into blessings by learning from them and moving forward. The beauty of THE BLUEPRINT is that Franklin by no way claims to be perfect or have insider knowledge of how to live your life wisely, but rather puts his setbacks and faults on full blast and suggests that oftentimes people, like Franklin at one point, go through life without a plan for success, simp...