A wide-ranging and clear-eyed look at how higher-ed leaders can bring about meaningful change.
Felix offers a guide to the best ways to approach the many challenges facing higher education today, aimed at college and university administrators.
In these pages, the author draws on his work in design and education consulting to advise higher-ed decision-makers. Each chapter is aimed at a different audience—college presidents, admissions officials, institutional researchers, library staff, athletic department heads, or facilities managers. Anecdotes from Northern Kentucky University, Alverno College, and Boise State University serve as proofs of concepts, and advice from leaders at Colorado State University, Macalester College, and George Washington University provide direction and context. Felix recommends that campus leaders establish “skunkworks” teams that can take a more unfettered approach to problem-solving than traditional committees, and he also encourages cross-functional partnerships to accomplish goals, ending each chapter with a list of departments that one should include in one’s plans. A key thread running throughout the book is the “student-centered mindset”: the idea that colleges should adapt to the needs and abilities of the current student population instead of longing for students as they once were, a decade or a generation ago. According to the author, this means “redesigning your institution to be ready to help today’s students thrive rather than lamenting that students aren’t college ready.” Overall, the book is both encouraging and challenging, assuring its readership that change is possible while also demonstrating that effort and creativity are required to develop and implement successful programs and get commitment from stakeholders. The writing is solid and straightforward, and the book’s structure allows it to work as well when read straight through or selectively by section. Felix’s detailed citations provide readers with plenty of additional information about various initiatives and strategies. The author’s enthusiasm for his subject is evident throughout, making it easy for readers to believe it’s possible to overcome institutional inertia for the benefit of everyone—especially the students.
A wide-ranging and clear-eyed look at how higher-ed leaders can bring about meaningful change.Pub Date: July 22, 2025
ISBN: 9798992077445
Page Count: 340
Publisher: Wise Ink Creative Publishing
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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