A wise, well-honed collection of speeches that address vital issues with fresh, penetrating insight.
A real estate developer and philanthropist presents a masterful debut collection of exceptionally cogent and timely speeches and essays.
For 60 years, Rose has dedicated himself to the real estate business, but he’s also given speeches—not only about economic issues, but also his other passions, including education, religion, and the roles of philanthropy and government in resolving intractable difficulties. As a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a former adviser to the Clinton administration, Rose speaks and writes with authority, warmth, and candor. He’s no ideologue and certainly no Donald Trump. Instead, he beguiles with his broad knowledge of literature, art, and Judaica (“Judaism is a religion in which human beings talk to, argue with and remonstrate with God,” he insightfully writes), and he skillfully weaves that knowledge into his articulate, fair-minded appeals. He not only champions social and business success; he also argues that those who succeed owe a debt to society: “High standards are important in all areas of life,” he writes, “but particularly in business.” In a time when shrill voices seem to possess center stage, Rose appeals to reason, and he seems to regard his readers as being as reasonable as he is. Ever the stylist, his succinct, well-cadenced prose shows an engaged mind, sharply tuned wit, and compassion and intellect that provide a model for civic engagement. His particularly poignant portrait of Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan offers a warm, engaging study of a complex thinker and political polymath. Although collections of speeches were once quite popular, major commercial publishers relatively rarely publish them these days, and this book fills a much-needed empty space. Although a few more brief remarks on the specific occasions of these speeches might have enriched their context, this collection offers the fruits of a lifetime of dedication to the affairs of the nation.
A wise, well-honed collection of speeches that address vital issues with fresh, penetrating insight.Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2014
ISBN: 978-0692279724
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Half Moon Press
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
IN THE NEWS
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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