An inspirational and well-written love letter from a father to his children.
Murray, an entrepreneur, offers a memoir, self-help advice, and reflections on life in this nonfiction work.
Mistakes, writes the author, “plant seeds from which a garden of wisdom can grow.” Following a life-altering trip to Nepal, where he unplugged from a fast-paced business career to visit monasteries and villages deep inside the Himalayas, Murray has re-embraced the “cultivation of my own metaphorical garden…breathing new life into dormant seeds while also planting new ones.” Originally written as a private book of “life lessons” for his adult children, the work was read in draft manuscripts by the author’s friends, who encouraged him to release it to a broader audience. While subsequent revisions have changed the names of individuals to protect their privacy, the book retains the feeling of heartfelt guidance from a loving father who has learned from his own mistakes. As the co-founder of Open Door Capital, a private equity firm that has garnered more than a billion dollars in assets, Murray had reached the pinnacle of the American dream. Like many successful entrepreneurs, the author found his career had become “part of my self-identity.” Lessons learned from mistakes, spiritual revelations, and the wisdom that comes with aging led him to re-evaluate his priorities. Covering a myriad of topics, from the value of delayed gratification to healthy lifestyle choices, the author blends autobiographical vignettes with self-help advice. A chapter on spirituality explores his disillusionment with the Catholic faith of his childhood following the hypocrisy revealed by various sexual abuse scandals. This cynicism influenced Murray’s jaded approach to religion more broadly until he connected with a more personal, less doctrinal, form of spirituality while in the monasteries of Nepal. Quoting from Buddhist and East Asian mystics, another chapter offers a series of practical actions readers can take to enhance their mindfulness, allowing them to see “The Miracles All around Us.”
As the author of 2017’s Crushing It in Apartments and Commercial Real Estate(which he claims is “the bestselling self-published real estate book of all time”), Murray explores the “Magic of Being a Creator,” describing the self-empowerment that comes with creating something that makes a positive impact on others. He contrasts this work with other business books he has authored, which he admits were “ego-driven and motivated by all the wrong reasons.” While the book is generally positive in tone, Murray is not afraid to tackle difficult topics—he opens with an account of being beaten up as a 13-year-old by the neighborhood bully. This anecdote and others encourage readers to embrace discomfort. The author compares “doing hard things” to climbing a mountain—the higher one climbs, the more uncomfortable one becomes, but only through discomfort can one can reach mountaintops. While the book’s prose is often sappy, the fact that the author’s principal audience is his children gives him a pass for earnest sentimentality; this isn’t a pseudo-inspirational self-help guide but a heartfelt plea from a father to his children to remember that “You Are Enough” and to prioritize the simple pleasures that come with living a meaningful life. The book includes a list of recommended readings that reflect the author’s Eastern-infused spirituality.
An inspirational and well-written love letter from a father to his children.Pub Date: Dec. 8, 2023
ISBN: 978-0998381619
Page Count: 182
Publisher: Sackets Harbor Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 7, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.
A former New York City dancer reflects on her zesty heyday in the 1970s.
Discovered on a Manhattan street in 2020 and introduced on Stanton’s Humans of New York Instagram page, Johnson, then 76, shares her dynamic history as a “fiercely independent” Black burlesque dancer who used the stage name Tanqueray and became a celebrated fixture in midtown adult theaters. “I was the only black girl making white girl money,” she boasts, telling a vibrant story about sex and struggle in a bygone era. Frank and unapologetic, Johnson vividly captures aspects of her former life as a stage seductress shimmying to blues tracks during 18-minute sets or sewing lingerie for plus-sized dancers. Though her work was far from the Broadway shows she dreamed about, it eventually became all about the nightly hustle to simply survive. Her anecdotes are humorous, heartfelt, and supremely captivating, recounted with the passion of a true survivor and the acerbic wit of a weathered, street-wise New Yorker. She shares stories of growing up in an abusive household in Albany in the 1940s, a teenage pregnancy, and prison time for robbery as nonchalantly as she recalls selling rhinestone G-strings to prostitutes to make them sparkle in the headlights of passing cars. Complemented by an array of revealing personal photographs, the narrative alternates between heartfelt nostalgia about the seedier side of Manhattan’s go-go scene and funny quips about her unconventional stage performances. Encounters with a variety of hardworking dancers, drag queens, and pimps, plus an account of the complexities of a first love with a drug-addled hustler, fill out the memoir with personality and candor. With a narrative assist from Stanton, the result is a consistently titillating and often moving story of human struggle as well as an insider glimpse into the days when Times Square was considered the Big Apple’s gloriously unpolished underbelly. The book also includes Yee’s lush watercolor illustrations.
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-27827-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2022
A juicy story with some truly crazy moments, yet Anderson's good heart shines through.
The iconic model tells the story of her eventful life.
According to the acknowledgments, this memoir started as "a fifty-page poem and then grew into hundreds of pages of…more poetry." Readers will be glad that Anderson eventually turned to writing prose, since the well-told anecdotes and memorable character sketches are what make it a page-turner. The poetry (more accurately described as italicized notes-to-self with line breaks) remains strewn liberally through the pages, often summarizing the takeaway or the emotional impact of the events described: "I was / and still am / an exceptionally / easy target. / And, / I'm proud of that." This way of expressing herself is part of who she is, formed partly by her passion for Anaïs Nin and other writers; she is a serious maven of literature and the arts. The narrative gets off to a good start with Anderson’s nostalgic memories of her childhood in coastal Vancouver, raised by very young, very wild, and not very competent parents. Here and throughout the book, the author displays a remarkable lack of anger. She has faced abuse and mistreatment of many kinds over the decades, but she touches on the most appalling passages lightly—though not so lightly you don't feel the torment of the media attention on the events leading up to her divorce from Tommy Lee. Her trip to the pages of Playboy, which involved an escape from a violent fiance and sneaking across the border, is one of many jaw-dropping stories. In one interesting passage, Julian Assange's mother counsels Anderson to desexualize her image in order to be taken more seriously as an activist. She decided that “it was too late to turn back now”—that sexy is an inalienable part of who she is. Throughout her account of this kooky, messed-up, enviable, and often thrilling life, her humility (her sons "are true miracles, considering the gene pool") never fails her.
A juicy story with some truly crazy moments, yet Anderson's good heart shines through.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2023
ISBN: 9780063226562
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
SEEN & HEARD
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