A holistic, practical approach to self-improvement that may be too far-out for some readers.
A self-empowerment workbook for personal transformation.
In this self-help book, Greer draws on his experience as a Jungian analyst, clinical psychologist, and shamanic practitioner. The first section focuses on accessing and interacting with “hidden wisdom,” defined as “insights from the unconscious or even the collective unconscious.” Dream interpretation, “journeys” (or guided visualizations), and dialoguing with symbols, figures, or feelings are suggested as exercises to unearth hidden wisdom. The author also encourages journaling about “archetypal energies” that live in the unconscious, such as the “Everyday Person” who follows a predetermined path or the “Adventurer” who thrives on new experiences. Greer prompts readers to examine the roles they play and rewrite their personal narratives. The second section explains how to identify values and priorities, and to set goals that align with them. The author advocates pausing for mindfulness and observance, like looking at the sky and asking, “What if this were the last sunset I would see?” Greer asserts that healthy habits create momentum and can move people from struggle to success. The author uses martial arts concepts like kime (“the right force, at the right place, at the right time”) and maai (“right distance”) as strategies for conflict resolution. He promotes being creative, breaking up routines, and imagining possibilities to manifest a better future. Greer’s approach is actionable and customizable; readers receive ample opportunities to reflect, brainstorm, and track their progress. Rather than solely focus on areas of improvement, Greer also stumps for positive reflection, prompting readers to list “Five things that are working about [their] life and what [they’re] doing to contribute to how well they’re working.” However, the metaphysical aspects of the book may not resonate with more empirically minded readers likely to bristle at lines like, “ritually cleanse your energy field by waving a feather to brush away unwanted energies.” Some dialoguing examples also go into unusual territory, such as, “Hello, broken bicycle that appeared to me when I set an intention to dream about my relationship with my mother. What insights do you have for me?”
A holistic, practical approach to self-improvement that may be too far-out for some readers.Pub Date: March 5, 2025
ISBN: 9781685035334
Page Count: 230
Publisher: Chiron Publications
Review Posted Online: March 31, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
Sedaris at his darkest—and his best.
In which the veteran humorist enters middle age with fine snark but some trepidation as well.
Mortality is weighing on Sedaris (Theft by Finding: Diaries 1977-2002, 2017, etc.), much of it his own, professional narcissist that he is. Watching an elderly man have a bowel accident on a plane, he dreaded the day when he would be the target of teenagers’ jokes “as they raise their phones to take my picture from behind.” A skin tumor troubled him, but so did the doctor who told him he couldn’t keep it once it was removed. “But it’s my tumor,” he insisted. “I made it.” (Eventually, he found a semitrained doctor to remove and give him the lipoma, which he proceeded to feed to a turtle.) The deaths of others are much on the author’s mind as well: He contemplates the suicide of his sister Tiffany, his alcoholic mother’s death, and his cantankerous father’s erratic behavior. His contemplation of his mother’s drinking—and his family’s denial of it—makes for some of the most poignant writing in the book: The sound of her putting ice in a rocks glass increasingly sounded “like a trigger being cocked.” Despite the gloom, however, frivolity still abides in the Sedaris clan. His summer home on the Carolina coast, which he dubbed the Sea Section, overspills with irreverent bantering between him and his siblings as his long-suffering partner, Hugh, looks on. Sedaris hasn’t lost his capacity for bemused observations of the people he encounters. For example, cashiers who say “have a blessed day” make him feel “like you’ve been sprayed against your will with God cologne.” But bad news has sharpened the author’s humor, and this book is defined by a persistent, engaging bafflement over how seriously or unseriously to take life when it’s increasingly filled with Trump and funerals.
Sedaris at his darkest—and his best.Pub Date: May 29, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-39238-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
PROFILES
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