A generally solid self-help work that aims to teach readers to assert themselves.
A women’s guide to empowerment and building self-esteem.
In this self-help book, marketing coach Celeste, the author of That First Client (2016) encourages women to assert themselves in their personal and professional lives, and to set and achieve goals that matter deeply to them. In a series of chapters, organized by theme—addressing such concepts as feminism, boundaries, and trust, among others—the author offers insights derived from her own personal and work experiences, and those of her friends. Along the way, she shows how women can improve their lives by valuing their own desires as much as those of others, and by challenging their own fears and preconceptions. Throughout the book, Celeste frequently addresses the reader directly (“As a Loud Woman, it’s time to value your time and boundaries”). The stories tell of life-changing events, such as leaving an abusive relationship, as well as mundane happenings, such as when an Instagram video of Celeste with messy hair and workout clothes became her most popular post. In an essay about why she didn’t participate in the 2017 Women’s March, she addresses her experience as a liberal feminist in a predominantly conservative region near Tampa, Florida, and how women across the political spectrum can and should embrace feminism. She also looks at how her privilege as a White woman contributed to her philosophy of being “Loud,” and how she’s become aware of how White women can amplify Black women’s voices as well as their own. The book ends with a credo that offers a summary of what it means to be “Loud” in the context of the book.
Celeste is a strong writer with an eye for evocative anecdotes, which makes this an engaging read. The stories about her high-risk pregnancy, her satisfaction at getting a medal after running a race, and her surprisingly supportive boss in an early job are especially compelling. The book also does a good job of providing specific advice, as when she provides a bulleted list of questions for readers to ask themselves in preparation for setting and strengthening boundaries in all aspects of their lives. Readers looking for inspiration to start their own businesses, end toxic friendships, or claim an hour each day for themselves will find plenty of examples and encouragement in these pages. The book is weaker in some of its assertions of fact, as when the author claims that “personal branding” was an uncommon term in 2013, when it was actually widespread by then, and when she repeatedly suggests that certain traits are “innate” to women without citing any evidence. The book’s capitalization of terms such as “Loud” and “Divine Gifts” can be grating, although this is a minor annoyance. Overall, the book effectively blends career advice, motivational speeches, personal development plans, a touch of spirituality, and solid storytelling, resulting in a book that will appeal to readers looking for a combination of Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In (2013) and Oprah Winfrey’s What I Know for Sure (2014).
A generally solid self-help work that aims to teach readers to assert themselves.Pub Date: Sept. 21, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-73-593333-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Highlander Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 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
Sedaris at his darkest—and his best.
In which the veteran humorist enters middle age with fine snark but some trepidation as well.
Mortality is weighing on Sedaris (Theft by Finding: Diaries 1977-2002, 2017, etc.), much of it his own, professional narcissist that he is. Watching an elderly man have a bowel accident on a plane, he dreaded the day when he would be the target of teenagers’ jokes “as they raise their phones to take my picture from behind.” A skin tumor troubled him, but so did the doctor who told him he couldn’t keep it once it was removed. “But it’s my tumor,” he insisted. “I made it.” (Eventually, he found a semitrained doctor to remove and give him the lipoma, which he proceeded to feed to a turtle.) The deaths of others are much on the author’s mind as well: He contemplates the suicide of his sister Tiffany, his alcoholic mother’s death, and his cantankerous father’s erratic behavior. His contemplation of his mother’s drinking—and his family’s denial of it—makes for some of the most poignant writing in the book: The sound of her putting ice in a rocks glass increasingly sounded “like a trigger being cocked.” Despite the gloom, however, frivolity still abides in the Sedaris clan. His summer home on the Carolina coast, which he dubbed the Sea Section, overspills with irreverent bantering between him and his siblings as his long-suffering partner, Hugh, looks on. Sedaris hasn’t lost his capacity for bemused observations of the people he encounters. For example, cashiers who say “have a blessed day” make him feel “like you’ve been sprayed against your will with God cologne.” But bad news has sharpened the author’s humor, and this book is defined by a persistent, engaging bafflement over how seriously or unseriously to take life when it’s increasingly filled with Trump and funerals.
Sedaris at his darkest—and his best.Pub Date: May 29, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-39238-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
PROFILES
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