An information-packed glimpse into one executive’s journey to an EMBA.
A manager who aced an Executive MBA program delivers a debut workbook to steer others through the arduous process of earning this advanced degree.
This volume seeks to serve a growing need in today’s economy, in which individuals who want to earn an MBA degree can’t always afford to leave behind their full-time jobs—and paychecks—to go back to school. More people are choosing an Executive MBA program, offered by universities that allow part-time and even remote study toward an MBA. Clark’s ambitious manual aims to give students a primer on the skills they’ll need to succeed in a typical EMBA class. The author also presents his business credentials: he has 30 years of experience as a manager and executive in the computer technology industry for “real estate companies, financial institutions, entertainment organizations, glass companies, and telecommunications entities.” His book’s first chapter, “How to Participate in Online Classes,” makes clear how attending a virtual class is different from taking an in-person one—a lesson that folks who haven’t been in school for a few years will likely need. From there, Clark advises readers on how to communicate effectively, write typical business analyses, and collaborate on group projects. The most valuable advice appears in Chapter 2, in which he explains how to structure paragraphs for academic writing. He references the “PIE” method (point, illustration, and explanation) to show students how to build an informative paragraph sentence by sentence. While a typical workbook would stop there, the guide goes on to include actual copies of the author’s completed school assignments from his own EMBA. Clark even lists the grades he received, despite the fact that his knowledge comes across authoritatively throughout the book. Since the author reproduces his class assignments verbatim, those sections tend to be long and distracting, undermining the good example he’s trying to set by providing them. In fact, more than half of the volume’s pages are copies of his assignments. He admits up front that they contain syntactical and grammatical errors, but readers will likely find it difficult to ignore mistakes in the text. While Clark’s business acumen shines brightly, some readers may wonder whether this manual will apply to all EMBA programs.
An information-packed glimpse into one executive’s journey to an EMBA.Pub Date: April 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5455-0898-5
Page Count: 282
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A brief but sometimes knotty and earnest set of studies best suited for Shakespeare enthusiasts.
A brisk study of 20 of the Bard’s plays, focused on stripping off four centuries of overcooked analysis and tangled reinterpretations.
“I don’t really care what he might have meant, nor should you,” writes Smith (Shakespeare Studies/Oxford Univ.; Shakespeare’s First Folio: Four Centuries of an Iconic Book, 2016, etc.) in the introduction to this collection. Noting the “gappy” quality of many of his plays—i.e., the dearth of stage directions, the odd tonal and plot twists—the author strives to fill those gaps not with psychological analyses but rather historical context for the ambiguities. She’s less concerned, for instance, with whether Hamlet represents the first flower of the modern mind and instead keys into how the melancholy Dane and his father share a name, making it a study of “cumulative nostalgia” and our difficulty in escaping our pasts. Falstaff’s repeated appearances in multiple plays speak to Shakespeare’s crowd-pleasing tendencies. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a bawdier and darker exploration of marriage than its teen-friendly interpretations suggest. Smith’s strict-constructionist analyses of the plays can be illuminating: Her understanding of British mores and theater culture in the Elizabethan era explains why Richard III only half-heartedly abandons its charismatic title character, and she is insightful in her discussion of how Twelfth Night labors to return to heterosexual convention after introducing a host of queer tropes. Smith's Shakespeare is eminently fallible, collaborative, and innovative, deliberately warping play structures and then sorting out how much he needs to un-warp them. Yet the book is neither scholarly nor as patiently introductory as works by experts like Stephen Greenblatt. Attempts to goose the language with hipper references—Much Ado About Nothing highlights the “ ‘bros before hoes’ ethic of the military,” and Falstaff is likened to Homer Simpson—mostly fall flat.
A brief but sometimes knotty and earnest set of studies best suited for Shakespeare enthusiasts.Pub Date: April 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5247-4854-8
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Pantheon
Review Posted Online: Dec. 17, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Startling, at times pretentious in its self-regard, but ultimately breathtaking: The Lost Weekend for the under-25 set.
Frey’s lacerating, intimate debut chronicles his recovery from multiple addictions with adrenal rage and sprawling prose.
After ten years of alcoholism and three years of crack addiction, the 23-year-old author awakens from a blackout aboard a Chicago-bound airplane, “covered with a colorful mixture of spit, snot, urine, vomit and blood.” While intoxicated, he learns, he had fallen from a fire escape and damaged his teeth and face. His family persuades him to enter a Minnesota clinic, described as “the oldest Residential Drug and Alcohol Facility in the World.” Frey’s enormous alcohol habit, combined with his use of “Cocaine . . . Pills, acid, mushrooms, meth, PCP and glue,” make this a very rough ride, with the DTs quickly setting in: “The bugs crawl onto my skin and they start biting me and I try to kill them.” Frey captures with often discomforting acuity the daily grind and painful reacquaintance with human sensation that occur in long-term detox; for example, he must undergo reconstructive dental surgery without anesthetic, an ordeal rendered in excruciating detail. Very gradually, he confronts the “demons” that compelled him towards epic chemical abuse, although it takes him longer to recognize his own culpability in self-destructive acts. He effectively portrays the volatile yet loyal relationships of people in recovery as he forms bonds with a damaged young woman, an addicted mobster, and an alcoholic judge. Although he rejects the familiar 12-step program of AA, he finds strength in the principles of Taoism and (somewhat to his surprise) in the unflinching support of family, friends, and therapists, who help him avoid a relapse. Our acerbic narrator conveys urgency and youthful spirit with an angry, clinical tone and some initially off-putting prose tics—irregular paragraph breaks, unpunctuated dialogue, scattered capitalization, few commas—that ultimately create striking accruals of verisimilitude and plausible human portraits.
Startling, at times pretentious in its self-regard, but ultimately breathtaking: The Lost Weekend for the under-25 set.Pub Date: April 15, 2003
ISBN: 0-385-50775-5
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2003
BOOK TO SCREEN
4 Book Adaptations to Check Out In December
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