A passionate and personal self-help work that aims to help people become the best versions of themselves.
A Christian-oriented guide to living and working with a greater sense of authenticity.
“Success,” clinical psychologist Guerra writes in her slim nonfiction debut, “is being intentional in your actions, honoring your greatness, and being yourself!” The author is the youngest of four children who later became a single mother of two, and she spends the opening part of her book telling her readers about her upbringing and how it shaped her (“challenging the status quo became second nature to me”). She narrates her time in school and her choice of therapy as a career path, working hard and playing hard: “I was at the top of my game,” she writes. “I had figured out the rules of this game called life, and I was doing well.” She also movingly relates the collapse of her marriage and the doubts it engendered. Her chosen life’s work had been about “helping people be honest with themselves and move in the direction of living in their truths,” and yet she says that she’d found herself far removed from her own truth. Guerra returns to this concept repeatedly throughout her book, effectively sharpening it into six “key strategies,” designed to help readers home in on the task: “Always honor your truth and your experiences,” she writes. “But remember that your truth and perceptions can change and evolve as you do.” Over the course of this book, Guerra’s prose is consistently direct and highly personable, and she alludes to her Christian faith as a balancing force in her life and her truth journey. Even so, she seldom addresses how, when speaking one’s “personal truth,” one can avoid it becoming a simple expression of egotism, which readers might have found useful. However, her advocacy of honesty and intentionality will hopefully inspire her readers.
A passionate and personal self-help work that aims to help people become the best versions of themselves.Pub Date: June 15, 2022
ISBN: 9781667829227
Page Count: 96
Publisher: BookBaby
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2022
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
A conversational, pleasurable look into McConaughey’s life and thought.
All right, all right, all right: The affable, laconic actor delivers a combination of memoir and self-help book.
“This is an approach book,” writes McConaughey, adding that it contains “philosophies that can be objectively understood, and if you choose, subjectively adopted, by either changing your reality, or changing how you see it. This is a playbook, based on adventures in my life.” Some of those philosophies come in the form of apothegms: “When you can design your own weather, blow in the breeze”; “Simplify, focus, conserve to liberate.” Others come in the form of sometimes rambling stories that never take the shortest route from point A to point B, as when he recounts a dream-spurred, challenging visit to the Malian musician Ali Farka Touré, who offered a significant lesson in how disagreement can be expressed politely and without rancor. Fans of McConaughey will enjoy his memories—which line up squarely with other accounts in Melissa Maerz’s recent oral history, Alright, Alright, Alright—of his debut in Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused, to which he contributed not just that signature phrase, but also a kind of too-cool-for-school hipness that dissolves a bit upon realizing that he’s an older guy on the prowl for teenage girls. McConaughey’s prep to settle into the role of Wooderson involved inhabiting the mind of a dude who digs cars, rock ’n’ roll, and “chicks,” and he ran with it, reminding readers that the film originally had only three scripted scenes for his character. The lesson: “Do one thing well, then another. Once, then once more.” It’s clear that the author is a thoughtful man, even an intellectual of sorts, though without the earnestness of Ethan Hawke or James Franco. Though some of the sentiments are greeting card–ish, this book is entertaining and full of good lessons.
A conversational, pleasurable look into McConaughey’s life and thought.Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-13913-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
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