An effective self-help memoir that successfully relates the power of gratitude.
A debut memoir in short stories that explores the author’s ongoing journey to a more grateful existence.
In brief pieces, organized by topic, former educator Carroll explores the idea of being thankful for things large and small, and how this stance can enhance a person’s attitude and overall well-being. Along the way, the author delivers small bits of his personal experiences, expressing gratitude for such things as education, parenting, childhood innocence, and the many opportunities that each day presents. Even sadness and grief, the author emphasizes, can be tools for growth if one approaches them with an open mind in search of new experiences. Carroll reflects on specific lessons he’s learned as a parent, discussing how change inevitably occurs in all relationships over time. Coping with that variability, Carroll insists, is one of the most important skills that a human being can develop. The book’s loose structure allows readers to dip in and read any part at any time. Each piece begins with a quote from a famous writer or thinker, followed by a quick but powerful anecdote. In one compelling passage, the author discusses visualizing outcomes, starting with a famous quote from the late self-help author Robert Collier: “See things as you would have them be instead of as they are.” He then illustrates the power of visualization with a story about his son playing baseball; the child had been fearful of stepping up to the plate after being hit by a pitch, but practicing visualization helped him hit a game-winning double, Carroll writes. Overall, this book is a positive, motivational guide to setting one’s intentions each day.
An effective self-help memoir that successfully relates the power of gratitude.Pub Date: Oct. 12, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5043-9009-5
Page Count: 190
Publisher: BalboaPress
Review Posted Online: July 5, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
These platitudes need perspective; better to buy the books they came from.
A lightweight collection of self-help snippets from the bestselling author.
What makes a quote a quote? Does it have to be quoted by someone other than the original author? Apparently not, if we take Strayed’s collection of truisms as an example. The well-known memoirist (Wild), novelist (Torch), and radio-show host (“Dear Sugar”) pulls lines from her previous pages and delivers them one at a time in this small, gift-sized book. No excerpt exceeds one page in length, and some are only one line long. Strayed doesn’t reference the books she’s drawing from, so the quotes stand without context and are strung together without apparent attention to structure or narrative flow. Thus, we move back and forth from first-person tales from the Pacific Crest Trail to conversational tidbits to meditations on grief. Some are astoundingly simple, such as Strayed’s declaration that “Love is the feeling we have for those we care deeply about and hold in high regard.” Others call on the author’s unique observations—people who regret what they haven’t done, she writes, end up “mingy, addled, shrink-wrapped versions” of themselves—and offer a reward for wading through obvious advice like “Trust your gut.” Other quotes sound familiar—not necessarily because you’ve read Strayed’s other work, but likely due to the influence of other authors on her writing. When she writes about blooming into your own authenticity, for instance, one is immediately reminded of Anaïs Nin: "And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” Strayed’s true blossoming happens in her longer works; while this collection might brighten someone’s day—and is sure to sell plenty of copies during the holidays—it’s no substitute for the real thing.
These platitudes need perspective; better to buy the books they came from.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-101-946909
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2015
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should...
Greene (The 33 Strategies of War, 2007, etc.) believes that genius can be learned if we pay attention and reject social conformity.
The author suggests that our emergence as a species with stereoscopic, frontal vision and sophisticated hand-eye coordination gave us an advantage over earlier humans and primates because it allowed us to contemplate a situation and ponder alternatives for action. This, along with the advantages conferred by mirror neurons, which allow us to intuit what others may be thinking, contributed to our ability to learn, pass on inventions to future generations and improve our problem-solving ability. Throughout most of human history, we were hunter-gatherers, and our brains are engineered accordingly. The author has a jaundiced view of our modern technological society, which, he writes, encourages quick, rash judgments. We fail to spend the time needed to develop thorough mastery of a subject. Greene writes that every human is “born unique,” with specific potential that we can develop if we listen to our inner voice. He offers many interesting but tendentious examples to illustrate his theory, including Einstein, Darwin, Mozart and Temple Grandin. In the case of Darwin, Greene ignores the formative intellectual influences that shaped his thought, including the discovery of geological evolution with which he was familiar before his famous voyage. The author uses Grandin's struggle to overcome autistic social handicaps as a model for the necessity for everyone to create a deceptive social mask.
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should beware of the author's quirky, sometimes misleading brush-stroke characterizations.Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-670-02496-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2012
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