Readers may have difficulty drawing real-world advice from the book’s sermonizing and positive quotes.
This self-help guide offers management and communication advice centered around Bible verses and inspirational quotes.
In order to be more productive and happy at work, at home and in the community, people need to sharpen their emotional quotient or emotional intelligence (also known as EQ), states Ogunyemi in his debut work. He writes, “EQ has been linked to performance; studies have demonstrated associations among team building, leadership success, employee morale, job satisfaction, conflict resolution, and client satisfaction.” In 12 chapters that cover judgment, obstacles, foolishness, temptation, forgiveness, leadership and more, Ogunyemi explores how to be a more emotionally attuned, compassionate boss and person. In each chapter, he employs several Bible verses to support his arguments, as well as inspirational quotes from famous writers, scientists and leaders. Ogunyemi writes with the warmth of an older relative dispensing sage advice. The number of Bible quotations (a handful are found in each chapter) might be off-putting for non-Christian readers, but it’s hard to argue with most of the basic principles the author endorses—forgiveness, compassion and self-awareness. At times though, his writing style becomes more lecturing than inspiring, dictating how the reader should and should not behave. Many of the book’s anecdotes feature oversimplified examples of conflicts and consequences, reading more like parables than realistic case studies: People’s shortcomings render them miserable and destitute, while others take the righteous path and become ridiculously successful. The parable-as-case-study approach may work for some readers, but a few of the tales uncomfortably cross the line into victim blaming. For example, an actress is preyed on by a producer not because of his maliciousness, but because of her desire for the role; while a manager’s wife gets hit on by a CEO ostensibly because the manager—not the CEO—made bad decisions that night. Some readers looking for Christian-themed inspiration will enjoy the book’s nuggets of wisdom, but others may find the text too preachy to parse and the examples too simplistic to be useful.
Readers may have difficulty drawing real-world advice from the book’s sermonizing and positive quotes.Pub Date: Dec. 2, 2013
ISBN: 978-1484856543
Page Count: 158
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: July 3, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A conversational, pleasurable look into McConaughey’s life and thought.
All right, all right, all right: The affable, laconic actor delivers a combination of memoir and self-help book.
“This is an approach book,” writes McConaughey, adding that it contains “philosophies that can be objectively understood, and if you choose, subjectively adopted, by either changing your reality, or changing how you see it. This is a playbook, based on adventures in my life.” Some of those philosophies come in the form of apothegms: “When you can design your own weather, blow in the breeze”; “Simplify, focus, conserve to liberate.” Others come in the form of sometimes rambling stories that never take the shortest route from point A to point B, as when he recounts a dream-spurred, challenging visit to the Malian musician Ali Farka Touré, who offered a significant lesson in how disagreement can be expressed politely and without rancor. Fans of McConaughey will enjoy his memories—which line up squarely with other accounts in Melissa Maerz’s recent oral history, Alright, Alright, Alright—of his debut in Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused, to which he contributed not just that signature phrase, but also a kind of too-cool-for-school hipness that dissolves a bit upon realizing that he’s an older guy on the prowl for teenage girls. McConaughey’s prep to settle into the role of Wooderson involved inhabiting the mind of a dude who digs cars, rock ’n’ roll, and “chicks,” and he ran with it, reminding readers that the film originally had only three scripted scenes for his character. The lesson: “Do one thing well, then another. Once, then once more.” It’s clear that the author is a thoughtful man, even an intellectual of sorts, though without the earnestness of Ethan Hawke or James Franco. Though some of the sentiments are greeting card–ish, this book is entertaining and full of good lessons.
A conversational, pleasurable look into McConaughey’s life and thought.Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-13913-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
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
© Copyright 2024 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.
bookshelf
