Advice for succeeding in life, packaged in an easily digestible format.
It seems the most compelling stories of personal success are told by those who rise above major challenges in their lives and succeed against all odds. In this respect, Washington’s book follows a proven formula; the author overcame childhood demons that suggested that he wouldn’t amount to anything after he learned early on to have faith in God and himself. Washington went on to earn a PhD and become an award-winning college professor. It is this background that drives Washington’s philosophy of life, and he expertly lays it out in a little book that is both highly inspirational and inclusive of specific “lessons” from a man whose passion is teaching. Washington covers familiar ground, addressing such topics as fear, procrastination, passion, attitude, hard work and planning. But he goes beyond the typical “here’s how to succeed” manual by offering memorable, meaningful adages, including “Use Your Past, Not Abuse Your Past,” “If You Stay Ready, You Don’t Have to Get Ready” and “Trouble is Easy to Get Into, But Hard to Get Out Of” (the last one was taught to him by his mother). The author organizes the book into short, focused, simply written chapters, each of which is followed by a relevant lesson. Chapter 11, for example, concerns “You and Your Associations.” Here Washington makes the perceptive point, “If you spend your time with people who are not going anywhere, how long will it be before you assume their perspectives and thoughts as your own?...When you associate with people who are positive and trying to achieve something in life, your stock goes up.” He follows this with “Developing Relationships,” a lesson that includes six specific tips to help develop and manage relationships. Washington hits all the high points and, in so doing, packs a remarkable amount of solid guidance, seasoned with personal experience, into less than 160 pages. A well-written, inspirational, uplifting book with spiritual overtones that should spur readers to achieve better things in life.
Pub Date: Dec. 6, 2011
ISBN: 978-0615552200
Page Count: 158
Publisher: Washington & Company
Review Posted Online: Jan. 13, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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