A plainspoken, handy volume for anyone looking for love but daunted by dating.
A self-help guide explores how to find the right partner for a long-term relationship, regardless of age, persuasion, or circumstance.
This debut book by McCoy, a Massachusetts life coach, aims to assist those in search of a loving relationship who find the prospect of dating intimidating or discouraging. The book is divided into five chapters, each of which focuses on a simple premise, such as “Find Your Motivation” and “Screw The Date: Just Relate.” Deliberately avoiding an emphasis on seduction and game playing, the volume places a greater weight on self-knowledge and self-confidence. The opening sections strongly stress putting oneself in the right frame of mind to be open to and excited about dating, often a hurdle in itself. Throughout, the author highlights the importance of approaching relationships with an open mind, encouraging readers to dispense with preconceived notions of their ideal mates and instead shift their focus to character and rapport. For the introverted or gun-shy, the book is also peppered with clever alternatives to traditional dinner dates and online matchmaking services. Later sections encourage reflection on past or unsuccessful affairs as learning experiences, tools to bring one closer to a more suitable pairing. The ideas put forth in each chapter are supported by anecdotal accounts of real-life couples who successfully put these concepts into action in their own relationships. The candid work concludes with a concise summary of the ideas and advice outlined previously. The guide benefits from McCoy’s approachable, nonjudgmental writing style and in its ability to break down an unnerving process into small, manageable steps. While male/female pairings are the primary emphasis, the inclusion of LGBT and open relationships is notable and worthwhile. Throughout, the book takes a low-pressure approach, encouraging readers to take things at their own pace and enjoy the ride. Refreshingly, it makes getting back into the dating world seem like an exhilarating opportunity rather than a scary obligation.
A plainspoken, handy volume for anyone looking for love but daunted by dating.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9972294-0-0
Page Count: 206
Publisher: Merlin Coaching
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
From the national correspondent for PBS's MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour: a moving memoir of her youth in the Deep South and her role in desegregating the Univ. of Georgia. The eldest daughter of an army chaplain, Hunter-Gault was born in what she calls the ``first of many places that I would call `my place' ''—the small village of Due West, tucked away in a remote little corner of South Carolina. While her father served in Korea, Hunter-Gault and her mother moved first to Covington, Georgia, and then to Atlanta. In ``L.A.'' (lovely Atlanta), surrounded by her loving family and a close-knit black community, the author enjoyed a happy childhood participating in activities at church and at school, where her intellectual and leadership abilities soon were noticed by both faculty and peers. In high school, Hunter-Gault found herself studying the ``comic-strip character Brenda Starr as I might have studied a journalism textbook, had there been one.'' Determined to be a journalist, she applied to several colleges—all outside of Georgia, for ``to discourage the possibility that a black student would even think of applying to one of those white schools, the state provided money for black students'' to study out of state. Accepted at Michigan's Wayne State, the author was encouraged by local civil-rights leaders to apply, along with another classmate, to the Univ. of Georgia as well. Her application became a test of changing racial attitudes, as well as of the growing strength of the civil-rights movement in the South, and Gault became a national figure as she braved an onslaught of hostilities and harassment to become the first black woman to attend the university. A remarkably generous, fair-minded account of overcoming some of the biggest, and most intractable, obstacles ever deployed by southern racists. (Photographs—not seen.)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-374-17563-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1992
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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