A tightly organized, well-presented case for a fresh way of doing business.
An executive coach offers a five-step process to unlock personal productivity in this guide.
According to Khouri, who leads the largest executive coaching firm for dentists in the United States, most supervisors are “constantly busy rather than purposely productive.” One reason: Managers find it difficult to say no. The author’s approach is to “triage requests” using a methodical practice he developed to protect his own time. Khouri admits the five steps he recommends may at first seem complex, but his lucid explanations of each are reassuring. The business book begins with a look at the shortcomings of the to-do list and multitasking. Both have their limitations, writes the author, and neither helps one know “when to say yes.” Khouri addresses other intriguing psychological barriers to decision-making before turning his attention to the five specific steps: 1. Create your Roadmap. 2. Define your relationship hierarchy. 3. Assess the quality of the request. 4. Prioritize and reprioritize. 5. Master delegation. In Part 2, the author covers each of these steps in considerable detail, using numerous pertinent examples from his own experiences and coaching practice. There are some excellent productivity boosters embedded in this section, such as “Khouri’s Seven Cs,” seven criteria that apply to developing solid goals, and the “Five Components of a Quality Request.” Part 3 is highly instructive; it demonstrates how to apply the five steps in a five-week period. The author also offers examples of how he used the process for three specific requests. A particularly useful chapter illustrates how the five steps can be applied to the bane of existence for many managers—email. Khouri concludes by explaining how his process can be integrated with a meetings and appointments calendar. Each chapter includes a “Productivity Corner,” an exercise that relates directly to the section’s content. In an engaging, creative touch, the author repeatedly references segments of the classic movie It’s a Wonderful Life to playfully reinforce his methodology. This is a book that ingeniously applies psychology and time management techniques to address the challenge of being productive.
A tightly organized, well-presented case for a fresh way of doing business. (Appendix)Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-77-458139-1
Page Count: 220
Publisher: Page Two Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
A top-flight nonfiction debut from a unique artist.
The acclaimed director displays his talents as a film critic.
Tarantino’s collection of essays about the important movies of his formative years is packed with everything needed for a powerful review: facts about the work, context about the creative decisions, and whether or not it was successful. The Oscar-winning director of classic films like Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs offers plenty of attitude with his thoughts on movies ranging from Animal House to Bullitt to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre to The Big Chill. Whether you agree with his assessments or not, he provides the original reporting and insights only a veteran director would notice, and his engaging style makes it impossible to leave an essay without learning something. The concepts he smashes together in two sentences about Taxi Driver would take a semester of film theory class to unpack. Taxi Driver isn’t a “paraphrased remake” of The Searchers like Bogdanovich’s What’s Up, Doc? is a paraphrased remake of Hawks’ Bringing Up Baby or De Palma’s Dressed To Kill is a paraphrased remake of Hitchcock’s Psycho. But it’s about as close as you can get to a paraphrased remake without actually being one. Robert De Niro’s taxi driving protagonist Travis Bickle is John Wayne’s Ethan Edwards. Like any good critic, Tarantino reveals bits of himself as he discusses the films that are important to him, recalling where he was when he first saw them and what the crowd was like. Perhaps not surprisingly, the author was raised by movie-loving parents who took him along to watch whatever they were watching, even if it included violent or sexual imagery. At the age of 8, he had seen the very adult MASH three times. Suddenly the dark humor of Kill Bill makes much more sense. With this collection, Tarantino offers well-researched love letters to his favorite movies of one of Hollywood’s most ambitious eras.
A top-flight nonfiction debut from a unique artist.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-311258-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 31, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
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