Alternately witty and touching; a hope-infused road map for seniors.
Part memoir, part tribute to the sprightly and high-spirited centenarian Lucille Fleming.
When Gaman, a wellness expert based in Texas, was collecting information for her book Age to Perfection: How to Thrive to 100, Happy, Healthy, and Wise (2013), she was introduced to Lucille Fleming, who had just celebrated her 100th birthday. Gaman felt an instant connection: “It didn’t feel like I was meeting her for the first time; instead, it felt like I had known her my whole life.” This initial encounter between two women separated in age by almost six decades led to a deep and profound friendship (“I had never had a best friend or a mentor like her”), lovingly recounted in this uplifting chronicle. Gaman began visiting Lucille on a regular basis, and when Age to Perfection was published, including a section about Lucille, she brought the first copy to her new friend. Next came an opportunity for Lucille to appear in television interviews about the book; she was delighted with her newfound celebrity, charming all who crossed her path. They began dining out for lunch almost every Friday, a ritual they continued for more than three years, sharing their thoughts, feelings, and secrets. The descriptive (sometimes-overdetailed) prose—“She was dressed to the nines in red high heels and a colorful red and white flowing skirt, a red silk blouse, a string of pearls and had perfect hair and red lipstick”— captures Lucille so thoroughly readers can almost hear her infectious giggle. Here is Lucille, exhibiting her typical exuberant humor, explaining why she always keeps one of her wigs on the bedside table at night: “If I need an ambulance, it’s right there. A girl shouldn’t be caught dead without her hair!” While the author’s frequent complaints about her own mother (a compulsive workaholic) wear thin, the voice of Lucille—with her joyful embrace of each day and appreciation for adventure—will grab readers. Introduction by Suzanne Somers.
Alternately witty and touching; a hope-infused road map for seniors.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 381
Publisher: Kurti Publishing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A timely contribution to the discussion of a crucial issue.
A history of the right to vote in America.
Since the nation’s founding, many Americans have been uneasy about democracy. Law and policy expert Waldman (The Second Amendment: A Biography, 2014, etc.), president of New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice, offers a compelling—and disheartening—history of voting in America, from provisions of the Constitution to current debates about voting rights and campaign financing. In the Colonies, only white male property holders could vote and did so in public, by voice. With bribery and intimidation rampant, few made the effort. After the Revolution, many states eliminated property requirements so that men over 21 who had served in the militia could vote. But leaving voting rules to the states disturbed some lawmakers, inciting a clash between those who wanted to restrict voting and those “who sought greater democracy.” That clash fueled future debates about allowing freed slaves, immigrants, and, eventually, women to vote. In 1878, one leading intellectual railed against universal suffrage, fearing rule by “an ignorant proletariat and a half-taught plutocracy.” Voting corruption persisted in the 19th century, when adoption of the secret ballot “made it easier to stuff the ballot box” by adding “as many new votes as proved necessary.” Southern states enacted disenfranchising measures, undermining the 15th Amendment. Waldman traces the campaign for women’s suffrage; the Supreme Court’s dismal record on voting issues (including Citizens United); and the contentious fight to pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which “became a touchstone of consensus between Democrats and Republicans” and was reauthorized four times before the Supreme Court “eviscerated it in 2013.” Despite increased access to voting, over the years, turnout has fallen precipitously, and “entrenched groups, fearing change, have…tried to reduce the opportunity for political participation and power.” Waldman urges citizens to find a way to celebrate democracy and reinvigorate political engagement for all.
A timely contribution to the discussion of a crucial issue.Pub Date: Feb. 23, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5011-1648-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Nov. 28, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015
The Stoics did much better with the much shorter Enchiridion.
A follow-on to the author’s garbled but popular 48 Laws of Power, promising that readers will learn how to win friends and influence people, to say nothing of outfoxing all those “toxic types” out in the world.
Greene (Mastery, 2012, etc.) begins with a big sell, averring that his book “is designed to immerse you in all aspects of human behavior and illuminate its root causes.” To gauge by this fat compendium, human behavior is mostly rotten, a presumption that fits with the author’s neo-Machiavellian program of self-validation and eventual strategic supremacy. The author works to formula: First, state a “law,” such as “confront your dark side” or “know your limits,” the latter of which seems pale compared to the Delphic oracle’s “nothing in excess.” Next, elaborate on that law with what might seem to be as plain as day: “Losing contact with reality, we make irrational decisions. That is why our success often does not last.” One imagines there might be other reasons for the evanescence of glory, but there you go. Finally, spin out a long tutelary yarn, seemingly the longer the better, to shore up the truism—in this case, the cometary rise and fall of one-time Disney CEO Michael Eisner, with the warning, “his fate could easily be yours, albeit most likely on a smaller scale,” which ranks right up there with the fortuneteller’s “I sense that someone you know has died" in orders of probability. It’s enough to inspire a new law: Beware of those who spend too much time telling you what you already know, even when it’s dressed up in fresh-sounding terms. “Continually mix the visceral with the analytic” is the language of a consultant’s report, more important-sounding than “go with your gut but use your head, too.”
The Stoics did much better with the much shorter Enchiridion.Pub Date: Oct. 23, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-42814-5
Page Count: 580
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
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