A well-designed, if somewhat overcrowded, reorganization plan.
Life coach Suttajit offers “a root-cause approach to tidying,” involving a mix of decluttering and mental health advice.
This self-help book focuses mainly on the reasons why clutter exists, and the author breaks up the quest to eliminate it into three major sections. In the first, Suttajit asks readers to examine their “identity clutter,” made up of “belongings that no longer reflect [their] current values, goals, or direction,” and to ask themselves questions to help define their true identity, such as “What would it look like to build a space based on who you are today?” The middle section looks at the various obstacles that might prevent readers from making meaningful changes. Suttajit recommends delineating the reasons why they want to change their home; he specifically suggests that readers seek out “personal reasons that can withstand the mind’s resistance.” The final section gets into the nuts and bolts of decluttering, as well as creating (and then maintaining) a fresh space that reflects one’s new self. Each chapter ends with key takeaways, reflective questions, an exercise to try, and a page to take notes. Although the author is not a therapist (he writes that he has a “background in brand strategy and visual communication”), his book relies heavily on modern, tested psychological theories—most notably, the tenets of cognitive behavioral therapy—and as such, it should help readers to successfully examine their internalized beliefs and struggles regarding clutter. Suttajit’s advice is generally good, but it sometimes gets drowned out by copious references to other books, blogs, TED talks, and YouTube videos, which can make the text feel a bit overstuffed. Overall, though, readers will find this to be a good resource for getting to the heart of why clutter happens.
A well-designed, if somewhat overcrowded, reorganization plan.Pub Date: Jan. 20, 2026
ISBN: 9798993236827
Page Count: 290
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The Stoics did much better with the much shorter Enchiridion.
A follow-on to the author’s garbled but popular 48 Laws of Power, promising that readers will learn how to win friends and influence people, to say nothing of outfoxing all those “toxic types” out in the world.
Greene (Mastery, 2012, etc.) begins with a big sell, averring that his book “is designed to immerse you in all aspects of human behavior and illuminate its root causes.” To gauge by this fat compendium, human behavior is mostly rotten, a presumption that fits with the author’s neo-Machiavellian program of self-validation and eventual strategic supremacy. The author works to formula: First, state a “law,” such as “confront your dark side” or “know your limits,” the latter of which seems pale compared to the Delphic oracle’s “nothing in excess.” Next, elaborate on that law with what might seem to be as plain as day: “Losing contact with reality, we make irrational decisions. That is why our success often does not last.” One imagines there might be other reasons for the evanescence of glory, but there you go. Finally, spin out a long tutelary yarn, seemingly the longer the better, to shore up the truism—in this case, the cometary rise and fall of one-time Disney CEO Michael Eisner, with the warning, “his fate could easily be yours, albeit most likely on a smaller scale,” which ranks right up there with the fortuneteller’s “I sense that someone you know has died" in orders of probability. It’s enough to inspire a new law: Beware of those who spend too much time telling you what you already know, even when it’s dressed up in fresh-sounding terms. “Continually mix the visceral with the analytic” is the language of a consultant’s report, more important-sounding than “go with your gut but use your head, too.”
The Stoics did much better with the much shorter Enchiridion.Pub Date: Oct. 23, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-42814-5
Page Count: 580
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet final word from an actor who leaves a legacy of compassion and kindness.
The late actor offers a gentle guide for living with more purpose, love, and joy.
Mixing poetry, prescriptive challenges, and elements of memoir, Heche (1969-2022) delivers a narrative that is more encouraging workbook than life story. The author wants to share what she has discovered over the course of a life filled with abuse, advocacy, and uncanny turning points. Her greatest discovery? Love. “Open yourself up to love and transform kindness from a feeling you extend to those around you to actions that you perform for them,” she writes. “Only by caring can we open ourselves up to the universe, and only by opening up to the universe can we fully experience all the wonders that it holds, the greatest of which is love.” Throughout the occasionally overwrought text, Heche is heavy on the concept of care. She wants us to experience joy as she does, and she provides a road map for how to get there. Instead of slinking away from Hollywood and the ridicule that she endured there, Heche found the good and hung on, with Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford starring as particularly shining knights in her story. Some readers may dismiss this material as vapid Hollywood stuff, but Heche’s perspective is an empathetic blend of Buddhism (minimize suffering), dialectical behavioral therapy (tolerating distress), Christianity (do unto others), and pre-Socratic philosophy (sufficient reason). “You’re not out to change the whole world, but to increase the levels of love and kindness in the world, drop by drop,” she writes. “Over time, these actions wear away the coldness, hate, and indifference around us as surely as water slowly wearing away stone.” Readers grieving her loss will take solace knowing that she lived her love-filled life on her own terms. Heche’s business and podcast partner, Heather Duffy, writes the epilogue, closing the book on a life well lived.
A sweet final word from an actor who leaves a legacy of compassion and kindness.Pub Date: Jan. 24, 2023
ISBN: 9781627783316
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Viva Editions
Review Posted Online: Feb. 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2023
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