An absorbing and timely manual that defies simple classification and should appeal to readers of varying religious beliefs.
A songwriter, therapist, and author delivers a spirituality and self-help guide.
In the foreword, Wallace (A Mother’s Manual for Raising Recovering Children with Autism, 2016, etc.) explains that she was called by God to put aside her other responsibilities to write this book. Her overarching message is one of unity across religions, ethnicities, and cultures—and harmony with God as well. Through four sections and multiple short chapters, the author expounds on a variety of matters from an enlightened Christian perspective. The four parts encompass Individual Thoughts, Local Thoughts, Global Thoughts, and Universal Thoughts, followed by acknowledgements and recommended additional reading. Wallace’s own text is in a normal font, with quotes italicized and words directly from God in boldface. Although Wallace’s research on the teachings and writings of theologians and spiritual figures is shared throughout the narrative, this is not a book that focuses solely on religion. The subjects are wide-ranging, from homeless children and environmentalism to the Grammys and creativity. (Some of her topics have been explored more extensively by others, such as “dumbed-down” American culture.) The author argues that the majority of the population—Christians included, and perhaps especially—has grown complacent. While the book was initially written in 2003, she revised and published it in 2016, with many of the issues proving as equally, if not more, relevant now as they were during the beginning of the century. The quotations provide additional depth to her thoughts. She relies heavily on the Roman Catholic author and theologian Thomas Merton but also quotes such diverse inspirations as St. Francis of Assisi, George Washington, and Carlos Santana. Like her other offerings, this book is beautifully written. Anyone seeking more introspection and spirituality but who lacks the time or wherewithal to tackle a heavy text should find this guide engaging. Reading this work is an easy way to avoid the anti-intellectualism that Wallace decries, leading to “a more purposeful lifestyle infused with Divine meaning.”
An absorbing and timely manual that defies simple classification and should appeal to readers of varying religious beliefs.Pub Date: May 12, 2016
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 149
Publisher: Sonrise Publishing
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
For Howard Zinn, long-time civil rights and anti-war activist, history and ideology have a lot in common. Since he thinks that everything is in someone's interest, the historian—Zinn posits—has to figure out whose interests he or she is defining/defending/reconstructing (hence one of his previous books, The Politics of History). Zinn has no doubts about where he stands in this "people's history": "it is a history disrespectful of governments and respectful of people's movements of resistance." So what we get here, instead of the usual survey of wars, presidents, and institutions, is a survey of the usual rebellions, strikes, and protest movements. Zinn starts out by depicting the arrival of Columbus in North America from the standpoint of the Indians (which amounts to their standpoint as constructed from the observations of the Europeans); and, after easily establishing the cultural disharmony that ensued, he goes on to the importation of slaves into the colonies. Add the laborers and indentured servants that followed, plus women and later immigrants, and you have Zinn's amorphous constituency. To hear Zinn tell it, all anyone did in America at any time was to oppress or be oppressed; and so he obscures as much as his hated mainstream historical foes do—only in Zinn's case there is that absurd presumption that virtually everything that came to pass was the work of ruling-class planning: this amounts to one great indictment for conspiracy. Despite surface similarities, this is not a social history, since we get no sense of the fabric of life. Instead of negating the one-sided histories he detests, Zinn has merely reversed the image; the distortion remains.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1979
ISBN: 0061965588
Page Count: 772
Publisher: Harper & Row
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1979
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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