A useful and motivational guide to achieving goals through conversation.
A self-help manual that offers very simple steps to getting what one wants out of life.
This latest book from professional speaker Hutchens, author of The Secrets Leaders Keep (2015), invites readers to imagine how they could change their lives if they had a magic wand that they could wave over trouble spots in their lives. One could conjure a work environment, for instance, in which “meetings are suddenly productive problem-solving sessions, and that putz in procurement actually helps you close the deal.” Such a wand really exists, Hutchens assures readers, and its most basic component is something that’s fundamental to human existence: talking. The author’s “Four Tenets of Getting What You Want” all revolve around improving one’s conversation skills, and they hinge on the conceit that “life happens one conversation at a time.” If you carefully and forcefully navigate your way through conversations (including those you have with yourself), you can reach your goals, Hutchens asserts. The process involves the five key steps, which each receive their own chapter: “Clarify Your Real Want,” “Seek Connection or Power—Rarely Both,” “Tune In to All the Conversations,” “Own Your Shit and De-stink Theirs,” and “Know Your Lines—Both What to Say and Where to Draw ’Em.” Over the course of this book, Hutchens writes with likable vigor. She consistently displays complete confidence in the effectiveness of her steps, laying them out by using anecdotes, bullet-pointed lists, and ample space for readers to answer self-help prompts. Some steps seem fairly vague and self-evident, such as clarifying one’s goals and being accountable for errors. But Hutchens’ repeated emphasis on getting across your ideas more clearly, “whether you’re conversing with a boss, a neighbor, your spouse, or your kid’s coach,” is refreshing, as are her reminders to use humor to defuse tense situations. The book’s interactive elements will encourage readers to step back and look at the world in proactive terms, and the author’s plainspoken clarity drives home the point that everyone possesses the tools to improve their existence.
A useful and motivational guide to achieving goals through conversation.Pub Date: March 30, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5445-0693-7
Page Count: 230
Publisher: Houndstooth Press
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
These platitudes need perspective; better to buy the books they came from.
A lightweight collection of self-help snippets from the bestselling author.
What makes a quote a quote? Does it have to be quoted by someone other than the original author? Apparently not, if we take Strayed’s collection of truisms as an example. The well-known memoirist (Wild), novelist (Torch), and radio-show host (“Dear Sugar”) pulls lines from her previous pages and delivers them one at a time in this small, gift-sized book. No excerpt exceeds one page in length, and some are only one line long. Strayed doesn’t reference the books she’s drawing from, so the quotes stand without context and are strung together without apparent attention to structure or narrative flow. Thus, we move back and forth from first-person tales from the Pacific Crest Trail to conversational tidbits to meditations on grief. Some are astoundingly simple, such as Strayed’s declaration that “Love is the feeling we have for those we care deeply about and hold in high regard.” Others call on the author’s unique observations—people who regret what they haven’t done, she writes, end up “mingy, addled, shrink-wrapped versions” of themselves—and offer a reward for wading through obvious advice like “Trust your gut.” Other quotes sound familiar—not necessarily because you’ve read Strayed’s other work, but likely due to the influence of other authors on her writing. When she writes about blooming into your own authenticity, for instance, one is immediately reminded of Anaïs Nin: "And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” Strayed’s true blossoming happens in her longer works; while this collection might brighten someone’s day—and is sure to sell plenty of copies during the holidays—it’s no substitute for the real thing.
These platitudes need perspective; better to buy the books they came from.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-101-946909
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2015
Doyle offers another lucid, inspiring chronicle of female empowerment and the rewards of self-awareness and renewal.
More life reflections from the bestselling author on themes of societal captivity and the catharsis of personal freedom.
In her third book, Doyle (Love Warrior, 2016, etc.) begins with a life-changing event. “Four years ago,” she writes, “married to the father of my three children, I fell in love with a woman.” That woman, Abby Wambach, would become her wife. Emblematically arranged into three sections—“Caged,” “Keys,” “Freedom”—the narrative offers, among other elements, vignettes about the soulful author’s girlhood, when she was bulimic and felt like a zoo animal, a “caged girl made for wide-open skies.” She followed the path that seemed right and appropriate based on her Catholic upbringing and adolescent conditioning. After a downward spiral into “drinking, drugging, and purging,” Doyle found sobriety and the authentic self she’d been suppressing. Still, there was trouble: Straining an already troubled marriage was her husband’s infidelity, which eventually led to life-altering choices and the discovery of a love she’d never experienced before. Throughout the book, Doyle remains open and candid, whether she’s admitting to rigging a high school homecoming court election or denouncing the doting perfectionism of “cream cheese parenting,” which is about “giving your children the best of everything.” The author’s fears and concerns are often mirrored by real-world issues: gender roles and bias, white privilege, racism, and religion-fueled homophobia and hypocrisy. Some stories merely skim the surface of larger issues, but Doyle revisits them in later sections and digs deeper, using friends and familial references to personify their impact on her life, both past and present. Shorter pieces, some only a page in length, manage to effectively translate an emotional gut punch, as when Doyle’s therapist called her blooming extramarital lesbian love a “dangerous distraction.” Ultimately, the narrative is an in-depth look at a courageous woman eager to share the wealth of her experiences by embracing vulnerability and reclaiming her inner strength and resiliency.
Doyle offers another lucid, inspiring chronicle of female empowerment and the rewards of self-awareness and renewal.Pub Date: March 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0125-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
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