A frank, funny self-help book perfect for those who view the genre with a healthy bit of skepticism.
A guide promises to help readers get out of ruts and start living more authentic, fulfilling lives.
At age 35, Vincent (You-Nicorn Journal, 2018, etc.) looked like she had made it, at least professionally. She had a six-figure job at the Oprah Winfrey Network, but her work didn’t excite her, and her personal and inner lives were the “equivalent of a stagnant pond.” So she embarked on an intense journey of self-discovery and self-help and was able to turn her life from ho-hum into something far more satisfying. Now, in her manual, she offers a crash course for others who are looking to change their lives but aren’t sure how or where to begin. Vincent freely (and refreshingly) acknowledges that many, including herself, are skeptical about self-help mumbo-jumbo and openly declares that “this book is for cynics.” But she nonetheless urges readers to give her monthlong program a try, tackling a single chapter and its accompanying action steps per day. Each short, easy-to-digest section focuses on a different challenge or roadblock, such as success, mental health, friendships, forgiveness, and meditation, and the daily steps are meaningful but not so ambitious as to be overwhelming. Rather than demanding that readers transform their lives overnight, the author suggests low-commitment but still impactful activities like writing down a situation they’d like to alter and brainstorming solutions or putting together a list of daily affirmations. The result is a sort of “Whole30” diet for life, a plan meant to jump-start readers on the path to wellness. The author’s own experiences deeply inform her spirited, offbeat work, which gives the advice an idiosyncratic feel—she delves into managing road rage, discusses “esoteric magic items” like talismans and “bath spells,” and explains how Dreiser’s Sister Carrie inspired her attitude about work. It’s a bit of a wild ride at times, but her sheer enthusiasm, combined with her quirky, conversational style and the volume’s charming, uncredited illustrations, makes this an enjoyable and often thought-provoking read.
A frank, funny self-help book perfect for those who view the genre with a healthy bit of skepticism.Pub Date: April 30, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-9994392-5-8
Page Count: 272
Publisher: HEA Publisher, LLC
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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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