A patient, cerebral approach for Christians looking to eliminate the stresses that keep them from what they truly want.
A psychological exploration of Christian faith.
For his nonfiction debut, Coles applies his experience as a psychotherapist to the task of addressing some fundamental questions about living in the modern era: specifically, how to separate the stress and distractions of life from what really matters, how to avoid making the same mistakes over and over in one’s personal life, and, especially, how to understand the concept of love—its strengths, its challenges, and its risks. He advocates an interdisciplinary approach that borrows from many disparate fields, seeking a psychology that’s more in tune with the soul while also noting that “religion also needs to embrace and learn from psychology more.” The main focus of this interdisciplinary approach is on the frenetic state of the modern mind and spirit. Year after year, Coles contends, people add a little bit more exhaustion to their lives, leading to a day-to-day existence that’s full of stress, which is compounded by a loss of perspective. These create a feedback situation, he says, in which people become their own worst enemies when it comes to seeing what’s truly important: “People who have to win all the time,” he writes, “don’t know what it’s like to get past arrogance and to experience a situation free of a need that will never be met.” Throughout, he effectively uses hypotheticals and real-world examples to underscore the idea that people always have choices—specifically, that they always have the ability to decide which of their inner angels to heed. As a result, the book offers an engaging and invigorating message throughout. It’s muddled only slightly by a few of the author’s assertions, such as the bewildering, unsupported claim that “the Bible tells us not to be stressed.” For the most part, however, this is a readable and well-sourced look at how Christianity can work in a complicated and unhealthily nervous world.
A patient, cerebral approach for Christians looking to eliminate the stresses that keep them from what they truly want.Pub Date: Nov. 28, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5127-6636-3
Page Count: 146
Publisher: Westbow Press
Review Posted Online: April 3, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
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