An appealingly meat-and-potatoes mind-body strategy guide.
Maher offers a program for physical and spiritual healing in this debut motivational work.
The author became a Navy SEAL at the age of 22, and for seven years, he says, he was in peak physical condition: “I was at a sleek 1.8 percent body fat and could run three miles in under fifteen minutes,” he recalls, and he goes on to claim that “I could outperform professional athletes. Pound for pound, I was one of the strongest people on the planet.” Even so, he’ll be the first to tell you how he was also unhealthy due to a condition that he terms “strauma,” which often affects longtime athletes and fitness buffs; Maher defines it as the combined toll that the stress and trauma of exercise take on the human body. “Strauma” manifests as physical pain, he says, but also as anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and a host of other maladies. This book describes the regimen that Maher designed to combat it, which he calls “True Body Intelligence.” It promises a life that’s free from stress, trauma, pain, and even delusion. After a brief account of his early life—which included abuse by a babysitter and other challenges—and his discovery of alternative medicine following a car accident at the age of 32, Maher details the theories and practices that make up “True Body Intelligence.” These generally build on concepts from the world of holistic medicine, although the author offers a more regimented, tough-love twist on them: “I’m not here to be liked,” he writes in the prologue. “What I care about is that you get the sobering truth that no one gave me.” Overall, his promises seem improbably rosy. However, Maher’s focus on the physical effects of trauma results in valuable insights, and his SEAL pedigree may help get his message to reach readers who don’t normally consider their own mental health. As with other works of motivational literature, this book repackages and reorders familiar self-help ideas, but the author’s direct and often pragmatic approach to them may appeal to those who find gauzier holistic guides unconvincing.
An appealingly meat-and-potatoes mind-body strategy guide.Pub Date: Sept. 11, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5445-0518-3
Page Count: 254
Publisher: Lioncrest Publishing
Review Posted Online: Oct. 22, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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