Expertly crafted parenting advice that advocates gentleness and presence above all else.
Family therapist, health and wellness executive, and writer Dolan-Del Vecchio (The Pet Loss Companion, 2013, etc.) offers common-sense parenting advice.
The author expands upon the traditional adage that children are a gift by averring that parents can also be gifts to their children—that is, if they’re attentive, caring parents. He expounds upon this idea over the course of five chapters, exploring different types of habits (“Habits of Heart and Mind,” “People Habits,” “Spiritual Habits,” and “Healthy Habits”) and concluding with a discussion of “Reflection and Reward.” Each chapter is divided into titled sections, with a list of the most important points at the end of each. Throughout the book, Dolan-Del Vecchio emphasizes another theme: that parents should develop “power with” rather than “power over” their children. The latter, as the name suggests, is about dominance and control, while “power with” emphasizes doing the best for both parent and offspring. The author writes from his own experience as a father and a family therapist, backing up his suggestions with examples and stories, including details from his private life that make him a more relatable adviser: “While I want to consistently show love, I have also caught myself letting my attention drift, impatiently, when Erik needed a listening ear.” In general, he advocates a compassionate, gentle style of parenting, with a strong emphasis on simply being present for one’s kids. He also notes that parents should not beat themselves up over past mistakes but rather learn from them and move forward. Another key point is that one should accept a child’s uniqueness instead of trying to mold him or her into an ideal. Dolan-Del Vecchio writes in a very clear, straightforward style, eschewing unfamiliar jargon. The deliberately short sections, despite their presence in very long chapters, make the book easy to read, and the bullet points and summaries effectively reinforce important ideas. The author also avoids overusing pithy quotations from other experts, but he does use a few very effectively—particularly one from the late Fred Rogers of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.
Expertly crafted parenting advice that advocates gentleness and presence above all else.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: GreenGate Leadership
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorker staff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
This moving, potent testament might have been titled “Black Lives Matter.” Or: “An American Tragedy.”
The powerful story of a father’s past and a son’s future.
Atlantic senior writer Coates (The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood, 2008) offers this eloquent memoir as a letter to his teenage son, bearing witness to his own experiences and conveying passionate hopes for his son’s life. “I am wounded,” he writes. “I am marked by old codes, which shielded me in one world and then chained me in the next.” Coates grew up in the tough neighborhood of West Baltimore, beaten into obedience by his father. “I was a capable boy, intelligent and well-liked,” he remembers, “but powerfully afraid.” His life changed dramatically at Howard University, where his father taught and from which several siblings graduated. Howard, he writes, “had always been one of the most critical gathering posts for black people.” He calls it The Mecca, and its faculty and his fellow students expanded his horizons, helping him to understand “that the black world was its own thing, more than a photo-negative of the people who believe they are white.” Coates refers repeatedly to whites’ insistence on their exclusive racial identity; he realizes now “that nothing so essentialist as race” divides people, but rather “the actual injury done by people intent on naming us, intent on believing that what they have named matters more than anything we could ever actually do.” After he married, the author’s world widened again in New York, and later in Paris, where he finally felt extricated from white America’s exploitative, consumerist dreams. He came to understand that “race” does not fully explain “the breach between the world and me,” yet race exerts a crucial force, and young blacks like his son are vulnerable and endangered by “majoritarian bandits.” Coates desperately wants his son to be able to live “apart from fear—even apart from me.”
This moving, potent testament might have been titled “Black Lives Matter.” Or: “An American Tragedy.”Pub Date: July 8, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-8129-9354-7
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
© Copyright 2024 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.
bookshelf
