A clear and refreshingly tough-minded disability-benefit plan.
A guide to getting the most out of Social Security’s disability benefits.
At the start of this guide, Sloan emphasizes that, unlike the authors of many other books on Social Security benefits, he isn’t just reading and simplifying written regulations—he’s offering advice from his own experience of applying for and receiving disability benefits, so that his readers can “outlast the unforeseen waits and frustrating turndowns…and come out whole and alive on the other side.” In these attractively designed pages, Sloan walks readers through every step of what can be a strange, Byzantine process, beginning with determining what qualifies as a disability in the eyes of the Social Security Administration. The book asserts that regulations are nowhere more impenetrable than when money is moving from the government to the individual, and this includes Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income. Sloan clearly states what he posits as an uncomfortable fact: that the SSA often seems grudging in paying out benefits, despite the fact that taxpayers have often long paid into it: “As long as you can struggle into work and collect a day’s wage,” he writes, “the SSA will assume that you must be okay and not really qualified to draw down on the disability pot of money to which you have contributed all these years.” Sloan straightforwardly threads his readers through the labyrinth of SSA regulations, offering simple, affably phrased practical advice for every step, from defining and extensively documenting their disability to gauging the necessity of legal representation and the nitty-gritty of how to handle oneself during disability interviews. The e-book of Sloan’s book includes links to a vast amount of helpful information, but his work’s best feature is its hard-won fighting spirit—especially considering the fact that the bureaucracy that Sloan describes is likely to provoke anger. Readers facing this daunting process will be grateful for such a knowing guide.
A clear and refreshingly tough-minded disability-benefit plan.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Bunker Hill Press
Review Posted Online: July 26, 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 short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.
Words that made a nation.
Isaacson is known for expansive biographies of great thinkers (and Elon Musk), but here he pens a succinct, stimulating commentary on the Founding Fathers’ ode to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” His close reading of the Declaration of Independence’s second sentence, published to mark the 250th anniversary of the document’s adoption, doesn’t downplay its “moral contradiction.” Thomas Jefferson enslaved hundreds of people yet called slavery “a cruel war against human nature” in his first draft of the Declaration. All but 15 of the document’s 56 signers owned enslaved people. While the sentence in question asserted “all men are created equal” and possess “unalienable rights,” the Founders “consciously and intentionally” excluded women, Native Americans, and enslaved people. And yet the sentence is powerful, Isaacson writes, because it names a young nation’s “aspirations.” He mounts a solid defense of what ought to be shared goals, among them economic fairness, “moral compassion,” and a willingness to compromise. “Democracy depends on this,” he writes. Isaacson is excellent when explaining how Enlightenment intellectuals abroad influenced the founders. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Declaration’s “five-person drafting committee,” stayed in David Hume’s home for a month in the early 1770s, “discussing ideas of natural rights” with the Scottish philosopher. Also strong is Isaacson’s discussion of the “edits and tweaks” made to Jefferson’s draft. As recommended by Franklin and others, the changes were substantial, leaving Jefferson “distraught.” Franklin, who emerges as the book’s hero, helped establish municipal services, founded a library, and encouraged religious diversity—the kind of civic-mindedness that we could use more of today, Isaacson reminds us.
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781982181314
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
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