A wonderful, honest compilation of personal experiences for those who may need companionship during their fight with...
The author presents a frank collection of daily readings to serve as a companion guide to 12-step recovery programs.
Recovery is a long process, and one that requires careful thought, introspection and self-forgiveness. The book contains a year’s worth of daily readings aimed at easing that process. Entries are divided into three sections: “Wisdom for Today,” “Meditations for the Heart” and “Petitions for a Higher Power.” For example, midway through his chronicle, the author says, “Probably one of the biggest changes I have experienced in recovery has been achieving serenity and peace of mind. When I was drinking,…I lived in a state of fear. I suffered in quiet depression.” S. goes on to explore the same thematic idea as it relates to his so-called Higher Power in the next two sections of the daily reflections. S., a certified alcohol and drug abuse counselor, remains open and exceptionally honest throughout his daily struggles with his twelve-step program, his evolving relationship to a higher power, and his personal relationships. Though the author states that the book may be used as a resource to assist in a better understanding of a twelve-step program, readers won’t find a step-by-step guide here. Rather, S. takes his reader on his own emotional journey and reveals the tenets and effects of the program as they affected him. S. tells his reader upfront that if his words sound spiritual it’s because they are, and that he urges all to “keep an open mind” to find their own “Great Contractor.” Indeed, the focus of his own journey is very much centered in spirituality and a relationship with God. Still, even those not interested in a higher power may find this a worthy guide for battling addiction. The collection may also be useful for those supporting a loved one.
A wonderful, honest compilation of personal experiences for those who may need companionship during their fight with addiction.Pub Date: Feb. 11, 2009
ISBN: 978-1438923857
Page Count: 404
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: Aug. 7, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.
The authors have created a sort of anti-Book of Virtues in this encyclopedic compendium of the ways and means of power.
Everyone wants power and everyone is in a constant duplicitous game to gain more power at the expense of others, according to Greene, a screenwriter and former editor at Esquire (Elffers, a book packager, designed the volume, with its attractive marginalia). We live today as courtiers once did in royal courts: we must appear civil while attempting to crush all those around us. This power game can be played well or poorly, and in these 48 laws culled from the history and wisdom of the world’s greatest power players are the rules that must be followed to win. These laws boil down to being as ruthless, selfish, manipulative, and deceitful as possible. Each law, however, gets its own chapter: “Conceal Your Intentions,” “Always Say Less Than Necessary,” “Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy,” and so on. Each chapter is conveniently broken down into sections on what happened to those who transgressed or observed the particular law, the key elements in this law, and ways to defensively reverse this law when it’s used against you. Quotations in the margins amplify the lesson being taught. While compelling in the way an auto accident might be, the book is simply nonsense. Rules often contradict each other. We are told, for instance, to “be conspicuous at all cost,” then told to “behave like others.” More seriously, Greene never really defines “power,” and he merely asserts, rather than offers evidence for, the Hobbesian world of all against all in which he insists we live. The world may be like this at times, but often it isn’t. To ask why this is so would be a far more useful project.
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-670-88146-5
Page Count: 430
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1998
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.
The chef, rapper, and TV host serves up a blustery memoir with lashings of self-help.
“I’ve always had a sick confidence,” writes Bronson, ne Ariyan Arslani. The confidence, he adds, comes from numerous sources: being a New Yorker, and more specifically a New Yorker from Queens; being “short and fucking husky” and still game for a standoff on the basketball court; having strength, stamina, and seemingly no fear. All these things serve him well in the rough-and-tumble youth he describes, all stickball and steroids. Yet another confidence-builder: In the big city, you’ve got to sink or swim. “No one is just accepted—you have to fucking show that you’re able to roll,” he writes. In a narrative steeped in language that would make Lenny Bruce blush, Bronson recounts his sentimental education, schooled by immigrant Italian and Albanian family members and the mean streets, building habits good and bad. The virtue of those habits will depend on your take on modern mores. Bronson writes, for example, of “getting my dick pierced” down in the West Village, then grabbing a pizza and smoking weed. “I always smoke weed freely, always have and always will,” he writes. “I’ll just light a blunt anywhere.” Though he’s gone through the classic experiences of the latter-day stoner, flunking out and getting arrested numerous times, Bronson is a hard charger who’s not afraid to face nearly any challenge—especially, given his physique and genes, the necessity of losing weight: “If you’re husky, you’re always dieting in your mind,” he writes. Though vulgar and boastful, Bronson serves up a model that has plenty of good points, including his growing interest in nature, creativity, and the desire to “leave a legacy for everybody.”
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4478-5
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
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