bookshelf

CREATIVE UNEMPLOYMENT

Name: CREATIVE UNEMPLOYMENT
Author: Darwin Ouderkirk
ISBN: 978-1-4787-6659-9

HOW TO BE HEALTHY, WEALTHY, HAPPY AND FREE

by Darwin Ouderkirk ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 7, 2016

Enthusiastically conveyed personal-development mantras.

bookshelf

The author shares his guiding principles for a more rewarding life (which for him meant not working company jobs) in this debut self-help guide.

In the 1960s, Ouderkirk realized that working for big companies, in his case for several years as a truck loader and in other roles at Standard Oil, got him “no closer to being wealthy, happy and free.” This epiphany led him to study self-development material and forge a new kind of career of “creative unemployment,” or leading with your truest and thus liberating life passions (in his case becoming a solo “network marketer”). In this guide, Ouderkirk discusses how you must first establish the following as top priorities: health (a stroke in the 1990s was his wake-up call to adopt better habits; advice in this section includes a “Things to Avoid” list, including fried foods); wealth (achievable by focusing on passions and engaging in positive-thinking habits and affirmations); happiness (loving self and others, living in the moment, enjoying pets, etc.); and freedom (including setting goals to fuel your own particular destiny as a “unique person of incredible dimensions”). Ouderkirk also uses a CAFE acronym to explain his strategy: to have clarity (be clear what your passions are), awareness (including an awareness of automatic negative thoughts, which must be shed), focus (on what you want, not what you don’t), and, finally, execute desired goals. Several work sheets, including ones to map out goals and celebrate accomplishments, are provided. First-time author Ouderkirk is clearly an eager student of self-development material: he energetically champions positive-thinking precepts, and his four priorities expressed via the CAFE acronym are upbeat handles to help inspire life change and action. His own story of finding “creative unemployment” as a “network marketer” is left rather hazy, however, which is unfortunate. More clarity about the ways his concepts led to successful freedom in his own life would have been welcome. Overall, however, Ouderkirk’s message to seek to become an ELF, or to lead with passion to make work “easy, lucrative and fun,” is an inspiring one.

Enthusiastically conveyed personal-development mantras.

Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-4787-6659-9

Page Count: 114

Publisher: Outskirts Press

Review Posted Online: March 17, 2017

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

bookshelf

NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

bookshelf

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

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

bookshelf

TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

bookshelf

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.