An often amusing collection of linguistic anecdotes, and a light, informative read.
Tanner’s (Igniting Innovation through the Power of Creative Thinking, 2008, etc.) latest book provides detailed histories and poignant behavioral applications of dozens of proverbs.
The author describes his inspiration for compiling the many sayings in this book with an anecdote about his grandson, whose choice to swear at a girl landed him in the principal’s office. Tanner told his grandson that “[f]or every action there is an equal and opposite reaction,” which subsequently helped the boy successfully modify his behavior. “This wisdom, expressed by a proverb, had a forceful impact on his thinking…and kept him out of future trouble,” Tanner writes. In another particularly enjoyable example, the author uses the saying, “Necessity is the Mother of Invention,” to relate an amusing tale of how Japanese farmers created techniques to grow square watermelons, in order to decrease the amount of shelf space they took up in grocery stores. The compact nature of each tale makes this work ideal for selected readings, but it may become tiresome if attempted all in one sitting. The majority of the book is taken up with various proverbs, explanations of their origins, and stories of how they’ve helped people in the real world. Its last section, however, is given over to poems, such as “Xmas Complaint,” which reads, in part: “But alas! Alack! And also woe! / For progress, chimneys had to go. / And Santa’s fame will soon be fleeting; / He cannot fit through central heating!” The choice to suddenly shift into a jokey, poetic vein at the very end of the work detracts from its straightforward, if somewhat on-the-nose, thematic concept. Overall, however, the author’s execution is admirably detailed, visually engaging and emotionally involving.
An often amusing collection of linguistic anecdotes, and a light, informative read.Pub Date: Jan. 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-1492196020
Page Count: 108
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
These platitudes need perspective; better to buy the books they came from.
A lightweight collection of self-help snippets from the bestselling author.
What makes a quote a quote? Does it have to be quoted by someone other than the original author? Apparently not, if we take Strayed’s collection of truisms as an example. The well-known memoirist (Wild), novelist (Torch), and radio-show host (“Dear Sugar”) pulls lines from her previous pages and delivers them one at a time in this small, gift-sized book. No excerpt exceeds one page in length, and some are only one line long. Strayed doesn’t reference the books she’s drawing from, so the quotes stand without context and are strung together without apparent attention to structure or narrative flow. Thus, we move back and forth from first-person tales from the Pacific Crest Trail to conversational tidbits to meditations on grief. Some are astoundingly simple, such as Strayed’s declaration that “Love is the feeling we have for those we care deeply about and hold in high regard.” Others call on the author’s unique observations—people who regret what they haven’t done, she writes, end up “mingy, addled, shrink-wrapped versions” of themselves—and offer a reward for wading through obvious advice like “Trust your gut.” Other quotes sound familiar—not necessarily because you’ve read Strayed’s other work, but likely due to the influence of other authors on her writing. When she writes about blooming into your own authenticity, for instance, one is immediately reminded of Anaïs Nin: "And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” Strayed’s true blossoming happens in her longer works; while this collection might brighten someone’s day—and is sure to sell plenty of copies during the holidays—it’s no substitute for the real thing.
These platitudes need perspective; better to buy the books they came from.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-101-946909
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2015
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should...
Greene (The 33 Strategies of War, 2007, etc.) believes that genius can be learned if we pay attention and reject social conformity.
The author suggests that our emergence as a species with stereoscopic, frontal vision and sophisticated hand-eye coordination gave us an advantage over earlier humans and primates because it allowed us to contemplate a situation and ponder alternatives for action. This, along with the advantages conferred by mirror neurons, which allow us to intuit what others may be thinking, contributed to our ability to learn, pass on inventions to future generations and improve our problem-solving ability. Throughout most of human history, we were hunter-gatherers, and our brains are engineered accordingly. The author has a jaundiced view of our modern technological society, which, he writes, encourages quick, rash judgments. We fail to spend the time needed to develop thorough mastery of a subject. Greene writes that every human is “born unique,” with specific potential that we can develop if we listen to our inner voice. He offers many interesting but tendentious examples to illustrate his theory, including Einstein, Darwin, Mozart and Temple Grandin. In the case of Darwin, Greene ignores the formative intellectual influences that shaped his thought, including the discovery of geological evolution with which he was familiar before his famous voyage. The author uses Grandin's struggle to overcome autistic social handicaps as a model for the necessity for everyone to create a deceptive social mask.
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should beware of the author's quirky, sometimes misleading brush-stroke characterizations.Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-670-02496-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2012
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