In this debut guide, former insurance agent Brown teaches readers to rely on feel and instinct to improve their golf games.
Every golfer could do with a few pointers, and in this book, the author provides a fairly simple one: Get out of your own way. Many golfers employ methods that run counter to their intuition, he says, leading to blown shots and missed putts. “The only instruction in this book,” he writes in his preface, “involves establishing the foundations of an effective grip and posture,” because poor ones “work in opposition to the golfer’s natural instincts.” Brown underwent brain surgery and radiation treatment at age 12, which resulted in him having to overcome physical limitations, such as decreased energy and compromised vision and hearing. His advice here is rooted in this experience, and he advocates for turning off one’s conscious mind and allowing the subconscious to take control while golfing. By tapping into this “kinesthetic intelligence,” he says, a golfer can “feel” his way through every aspect of the game, from driving to putting. Mixing discussions of mindfulness and visualization with practical instructions on how to hold and swing a club (complete with detailed illustrations by Hillman), Brown walks readers through the required steps to gain a more intimate connection with the sport. The book is a quick read at just over 100 pages, which include 40 exercises meant to help awaken a golfer’s instincts. Brown has a simple, direct prose style that makes it easy for the reader to follow: “Placement of the hands on the golf grip is the nerve center of the swing. The hands transmit sensations and information to and from the body/mind.” Although the author’s take may seem a little radical for the fairly conservative culture of golf, he presents it in a way that will make sense to readers. Brown isn’t saying that golfers should throw out conventional instructions. Rather, he offers an additional element to golf practice—one that ensures the golfer is fully aware of his or her body and motion. His rather Zenlike method should appeal to those who approach the game looking for relaxation.
A thoughtful, holistic approach to improving one’s swing.Pub Date: Aug. 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-9987719-0-8
Page Count: 115
Publisher: Keep It Simple Golf Media
Review Posted Online: July 31, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Categories: SPORTS & RECREATION | SELF-HELP
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Doyle offers another lucid, inspiring chronicle of female empowerment and the rewards of self-awareness and renewal.
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More life reflections from the bestselling author on themes of societal captivity and the catharsis of personal freedom.
In her third book, Doyle (Love Warrior, 2016, etc.) begins with a life-changing event. “Four years ago,” she writes, “married to the father of my three children, I fell in love with a woman.” That woman, Abby Wambach, would become her wife. Emblematically arranged into three sections—“Caged,” “Keys,” “Freedom”—the narrative offers, among other elements, vignettes about the soulful author’s girlhood, when she was bulimic and felt like a zoo animal, a “caged girl made for wide-open skies.” She followed the path that seemed right and appropriate based on her Catholic upbringing and adolescent conditioning. After a downward spiral into “drinking, drugging, and purging,” Doyle found sobriety and the authentic self she’d been suppressing. Still, there was trouble: Straining an already troubled marriage was her husband’s infidelity, which eventually led to life-altering choices and the discovery of a love she’d never experienced before. Throughout the book, Doyle remains open and candid, whether she’s admitting to rigging a high school homecoming court election or denouncing the doting perfectionism of “cream cheese parenting,” which is about “giving your children the best of everything.” The author’s fears and concerns are often mirrored by real-world issues: gender roles and bias, white privilege, racism, and religion-fueled homophobia and hypocrisy. Some stories merely skim the surface of larger issues, but Doyle revisits them in later sections and digs deeper, using friends and familial references to personify their impact on her life, both past and present. Shorter pieces, some only a page in length, manage to effectively translate an emotional gut punch, as when Doyle’s therapist called her blooming extramarital lesbian love a “dangerous distraction.” Ultimately, the narrative is an in-depth look at a courageous woman eager to share the wealth of her experiences by embracing vulnerability and reclaiming her inner strength and resiliency.
Doyle offers another lucid, inspiring chronicle of female empowerment and the rewards of self-awareness and renewal.Pub Date: March 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0125-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
Categories: GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | SELF-HELP
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SEEN & HEARD
The popular blogger and author delivers an entertaining and thought-provoking third book about the importance of being hopeful in terrible times.
“We are a culture and a people in need of hope,” writes Manson (The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life, 2016, etc.). With an appealing combination of gritty humor and straightforward prose, the author floats the idea of drawing strength and hope from a myriad of sources in order to tolerate the “incomprehensibility of your existence.” He broadens and illuminates his concepts through a series of hypothetical scenarios based in contemporary reality. At the dark heart of Manson’s guide is the “Uncomfortable Truth,” which reiterates our cosmic insignificance and the inevitability of death, whether we blindly ignore or blissfully embrace it. The author establishes this harsh sentiment early on, creating a firm foundation for examining the current crisis of hope, how we got here, and what it means on a larger scale. Manson’s referential text probes the heroism of Auschwitz infiltrator Witold Pilecki and the work of Isaac Newton, Nietzsche, Einstein, and Immanuel Kant, as the author explores the mechanics of how hope is created and maintained through self-control and community. Though Manson takes many serpentine intellectual detours, his dark-humored wit and blunt prose are both informative and engaging. He is at his most convincing in his discussions about the fallibility of religious beliefs, the modern world’s numerous shortcomings, deliberations over the “Feeling Brain” versus the “Thinking Brain,” and the importance of striking a happy medium between overindulging in and repressing emotions. Although we live in a “couch-potato-pundit era of tweetstorms and outrage porn,” writes Manson, hope springs eternal through the magic salves of self-awareness, rational thinking, and even pain, which is “at the heart of all emotion.”
Clever and accessibly conversational, Manson reminds us to chill out, not sweat the small stuff, and keep hope for a better world alive.Pub Date: May 14, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-288843-3
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 1, 2019
Categories: SELF-HELP
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