A workbook that provides a wealth of cognitive drills for readers already committed to the author’s methods.
A psychologist offers mental exercises designed to revitalize a lagging brain.
In several books, Litvin (Sailor’s Psychology, 2012, etc.) has articulated a new theory about the root causes of cognitive impairment. Damaged complex cells improperly process new information and errantly distribute that data throughout the brain. The result is a disconnect between the nature of a perceptual experience and the manner in which humans interpret it, resulting in a kind of neural misfiring. But this neural breakdown can be rectified without either surgical or pharmacological treatment—exercises can activate dormant parts of the brain by forcing one to translate various types of perceptual stimuli (say, visual) into the symbolism of others (auditory or olfactory, for example). This volume is almost entirely comprised of those exercises, which are explained in Litvin’s Code (2011) at some length but not here. In fact, the only account of the method in this volume is a brief synopsis on the back cover. Since this is the second installment in a series of three workbooks, Litvin can justifiably presume readers are familiar with the nature of the exercises as well as the psychological theory that undergirds it. As presented in preceding volumes, that theory is unspecific, lacking a systematic explication in adequately rigorous scientific terms as well as any empirical evidence. As in Litvin’s Introduction to Brain Stimulation by Psychoconduction (2011), the exercises here are relatively easy to follow and helpfully illustrated by Martirosyan. The mathematical equations in this workbook are certainly more complex than the ones presented in its predecessor and bifurcate into problems of addition and subtraction. What the author exactly means by “intermediate” is never addressed—in Litvin’s Code, he claims some form of these exercises can be profitably completed by children as young as 5 years old. One can reasonably assume this particular title is geared toward middle school students. Litvin also claims that the exercises will be fun, but that doesn’t ring true, especially given the remarkably sophisticated options available today that include vividly created characters and compelling storybook narratives. The author’s exercises, whatever their ultimate cognitive value, look like regimented opportunities for mental discipline that will be especially daunting for children experiencing difficulty learning at school.
A workbook that provides a wealth of cognitive drills for readers already committed to the author’s methods.Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4669-0096-7
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Trafford
Review Posted Online: Dec. 16, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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BOOK REVIEW
From the national correspondent for PBS's MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour: a moving memoir of her youth in the Deep South and her role in desegregating the Univ. of Georgia. The eldest daughter of an army chaplain, Hunter-Gault was born in what she calls the ``first of many places that I would call `my place' ''—the small village of Due West, tucked away in a remote little corner of South Carolina. While her father served in Korea, Hunter-Gault and her mother moved first to Covington, Georgia, and then to Atlanta. In ``L.A.'' (lovely Atlanta), surrounded by her loving family and a close-knit black community, the author enjoyed a happy childhood participating in activities at church and at school, where her intellectual and leadership abilities soon were noticed by both faculty and peers. In high school, Hunter-Gault found herself studying the ``comic-strip character Brenda Starr as I might have studied a journalism textbook, had there been one.'' Determined to be a journalist, she applied to several colleges—all outside of Georgia, for ``to discourage the possibility that a black student would even think of applying to one of those white schools, the state provided money for black students'' to study out of state. Accepted at Michigan's Wayne State, the author was encouraged by local civil-rights leaders to apply, along with another classmate, to the Univ. of Georgia as well. Her application became a test of changing racial attitudes, as well as of the growing strength of the civil-rights movement in the South, and Gault became a national figure as she braved an onslaught of hostilities and harassment to become the first black woman to attend the university. A remarkably generous, fair-minded account of overcoming some of the biggest, and most intractable, obstacles ever deployed by southern racists. (Photographs—not seen.)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-374-17563-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1992
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
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