A solid guide to storytelling with a purpose.
A debut manual focuses on crafting personal stories for professional success and valuable connections.
In this business book, Rebelo introduces readers to his “PeakStory” model for constructing personal narratives that convey important information about the writers while helping them to land a job, build a network, or attract a client. The guide explains the author’s trademarked “storypathing,” a framework for linking tales to the identity the teller wants to project. Rebelo writes that “by making sense of where you’ve been and where you’re headed, you can show that you have more engagement and more value wherever you land because your story aligns with who you are.” Subsequent chapters take readers through the steps of developing their own tales following the PeakStory model. Each chapter includes a conceptual explanation—much of the model is drawn from psychology research, and a substantial bibliography is included—examples of the technique in action, often drawn from Rebelo’s students, and a guided exercise to help readers implement each step of the process. One of the volume’s strengths is its emphasis on the different contexts in which PeakStory can be applied, particularly the author’s anecdotes about teaching formerly incarcerated people to use the technique to control the tales they tell about their imprisonment and their plans for the future. Rebelo also does a good job of walking readers through the process of fashioning their stories and showing how each element of the model relates to the others. Although the book is full of the author’s specialized jargon (self-event, blue-dot moments), the terms are fairly easy for uninitiated readers to pick up on. Still, Rebelo’s rhetorical style is not for everyone. His enthusiasm is evident in the text, which often feels like a pep talk from a hard-charging coach or a dynamic motivational speaker, but readers who prefer a more straightforward narrative may find the frequent statements of encouragement and assurances of success distracting. Nonetheless, the manual presents a persuasive case for the validity of the PeakStory model and makes it easy for readers to learn.
A solid guide to storytelling with a purpose.Pub Date: Feb. 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5445-1964-7
Page Count: 234
Publisher: Lioncrest Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Top Chef fans might savor this detailed account, but others will find it bland.
The Top Chef host describes her journey to new heights.
For those who don’t know, Kish is a “gay Korean adopted woman, born in Seoul, raised in Michigan” and “a chef, a character, a host, and a cultural communicator—as well as a human being with a beating heart.” Though this book covers every step of her journey, every restaurant job and television role, and also discusses her experience as an adoptee (very positive) and a queer woman (late bloomer), the storytelling is so straightforward, lacking in suspense, character development, or dialogue, that it is basically a long version of its (longish) “About the Author.” Seemingly dramatic situations are not dramatized—when she was eliminated on her first Top Chef run, she assures us that she did the best she could, and drops it. “I can spare you the gory details (bouillabaisse and big personalities were involved).” Later, she cites a belief in protecting the privacy of others to omit the story of her first relationship with a woman. With no character development, neither does the reader get to know those who fall outside the privacy zone, like her best friend, Steph, and her wife, Bianca. When she gets mad, she says things like, “It’s a gross understatement to say I was crushed, beyond frustrated, and furious with the situation.” The fact that “I’ve never been a big reader” does not come as a surprise. It is more surprising when she confesses that “I believe the universe is selective about the moments in which it introduces life-changing prospects.”
Top Chef fans might savor this detailed account, but others will find it bland.Pub Date: April 22, 2025
ISBN: 9780316580915
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.
A charming bird journey with the bestselling author.
In his introduction to Tan’s “nature journal,” David Allen Sibley, the acclaimed ornithologist, nails the spirit of this book: a “collection of delightfully quirky, thoughtful, and personal observations of birds in sketches and words.” For years, Tan has looked out on her California backyard “paradise”—oaks, periwinkle vines, birch, Japanese maple, fuchsia shrubs—observing more than 60 species of birds, and she fashions her findings into delightful and approachable journal excerpts, accompanied by her gorgeous color sketches. As the entries—“a record of my life”—move along, the author becomes more adept at identifying and capturing them with words and pencils. Her first entry is September 16, 2017: Shortly after putting up hummingbird feeders, one of the tiny, delicate creatures landed on her hand and fed. “We have a relationship,” she writes. “I am in love.” By August 2018, her backyard “has become a menagerie of fledglings…all learning to fly.” Day by day, she has continued to learn more about the birds, their activities, and how she should relate to them; she also admits mistakes when they occur. In December 2018, she was excited to observe a Townsend’s Warbler—“Omigod! It’s looking at me. Displeased expression.” Battling pesky squirrels, Tan deployed Hot Pepper Suet to keep them away, and she deterred crows by hanging a fake one upside down. The author also declared war on outdoor cats when she learned they kill more than 1 billion birds per year. In May 2019, she notes that she spends $250 per month on beetle larvae. In June 2019, she confesses “spending more hours a day staring at birds than writing. How can I not?” Her last entry, on December 15, 2022, celebrates when an eating bird pauses, “looks and acknowledges I am there.”
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.Pub Date: April 23, 2024
ISBN: 9780593536131
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
