Inspirational without being patronizing; a well-organized collection.
Christian-themed first-person accounts on loss and redemption.
One man was grievously injured in an auto accident. A married man with two children lost his 10,000-square-foot restaurant and beautiful beachside home in Hurricane Katrina. A young woman’s father died of brain cancer. Their tragedies, which were recorded by debut author Smith, are slightly softened by their unshakeable faith in God’s “ultimate plan.” This faith, and the refusal to let tragedy reign, informs the entire collection. The title refers to how people share the same set of steppingstones through a difficult situation, primarily by placing their faith in God and the notion that it will all work out somehow (although hard work, persistence, and a lack of fear of government agencies play big roles, too). Quotes by historical figures, including Ralph Waldo Emerson (“God enters by a private door into every individual”), and chapter-by-chapter review questions offer readers the chance to get outside perspective as well as write down their “steps.” These steps include “notice the mistakes,” “honor your responsibilities,” and “live up to your word.” Although the book’s tone is serious, there are flashes of humor: the man who lost his restaurant and struggled to collect insurance on his decimated properties ends up inventing the “FEMA martini—’cause it takes a while to hit’cha!” The essays themselves are tightly paced and engaging. Death, loss, betrayal, illness—nothing can keep these people from embracing forgiveness and the will to keep going. Whether stranded along the Gulf Coast or facing difficulties in the plains, in early adulthood or much later along in life, the subjects in this collection offer their own reflections on how to transform a disaster into a personal triumph.
Inspirational without being patronizing; a well-organized collection.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-4624-1164-1
Page Count: -
Publisher: Inspiring Voices
Review Posted Online: Nov. 5, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.
The authors have created a sort of anti-Book of Virtues in this encyclopedic compendium of the ways and means of power.
Everyone wants power and everyone is in a constant duplicitous game to gain more power at the expense of others, according to Greene, a screenwriter and former editor at Esquire (Elffers, a book packager, designed the volume, with its attractive marginalia). We live today as courtiers once did in royal courts: we must appear civil while attempting to crush all those around us. This power game can be played well or poorly, and in these 48 laws culled from the history and wisdom of the world’s greatest power players are the rules that must be followed to win. These laws boil down to being as ruthless, selfish, manipulative, and deceitful as possible. Each law, however, gets its own chapter: “Conceal Your Intentions,” “Always Say Less Than Necessary,” “Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy,” and so on. Each chapter is conveniently broken down into sections on what happened to those who transgressed or observed the particular law, the key elements in this law, and ways to defensively reverse this law when it’s used against you. Quotations in the margins amplify the lesson being taught. While compelling in the way an auto accident might be, the book is simply nonsense. Rules often contradict each other. We are told, for instance, to “be conspicuous at all cost,” then told to “behave like others.” More seriously, Greene never really defines “power,” and he merely asserts, rather than offers evidence for, the Hobbesian world of all against all in which he insists we live. The world may be like this at times, but often it isn’t. To ask why this is so would be a far more useful project.
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-670-88146-5
Page Count: 430
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1998
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
