An assertive book on self-preservation that rebrands familiar psychological concepts.
A stand-up comedian describes a pragmatic approach to upholding emotional boundaries in this self-help guide.
Sloane presents the book’s central concept of the “Room Reader,” which is something a professional comic and public speaker like the author is, surprisingly, not an expert on—this is someone who revels in micromanaging others’ emotions. Room Readers must learn the art of “Holding the Field,” which she defines as “staying intact in a shared space.” The book encourages a shift from “I sense it; therefore, I must manage it” to “I sense it. I’m present to it. I choose what’s mine.” Room Reader archetypes include the Stabilizer, who acts as a shock absorber for others; the Anticipator, who solves problems preemptively; and the Translator, who acts as an intermediary to stave off conflict. Counter-archetypes for each type include the Anchor, the Navigator, and the Integrator, respectively. The book provides a five-step APART framework, which includes Awareness (noticing), Permission (allowing without fixing), Attunement (staying connected to yourself while being aware of your surroundings), Restraint (choosing not to act), and Trust (believing you can handle what comes next). For the author, holding the field means “allowing tension to exist without immediately rescuing the group from it.” The book concludes with an authorial anecdote about speaking to female veterans and feeling “the Field was already held,” a sensation she hopes others will experience as well. In this supportive guide, Sloane empowers people to detach from emotional caretaking. She reassures Room Readers that their patterns are not flaws; rather, they are survival skills “learned in rooms where awareness [is] necessary, and agency [is] limited.” The author draws on her stand-up comedy experience to demonstrate the difference between “Commanding the Room” and “Holding the Field”: While the former involves insulting the audience, the latter involves using self-deprecating humor to build trust. She also acknowledges that one occasionally won’t be able to hold the field, and that’s OK, because “you’re human and humans have limits.” However, while the concept of “holding the field” is unique, the book essentially repackages codependency literature into less intuitive language.
An assertive book on self-preservation that rebrands familiar psychological concepts.Pub Date: July 16, 2026
ISBN: 9798995967309
Page Count: 155
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Aug. 5, 2026
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
© Copyright 2026 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.
