An earnest, straightforward compilation of retellings of human-interest stories.
Nouvel retells true incidents of compassion and thoughtfulness in this inspirational collection.
Often, it’s small acts of kindness—or quiet valor, as the author terms them—that reaffirm our faith in our fellow humans. “Quiet valor…is a practice that appears wherever attention meets responsibility,” writes Nouvel. “It does not announce itself. It does not demand belief. It does not promise resolution. It simply responds.” One sees such quiet valor in the story of the airport security guard in India who returns an anonymous white envelope filled with cash to its flustered owner, who needs the money to pay for his brother’s medical procedure overseas. Or in the UPS driver who, noticing that one of his usual customers isn’t there to greet him, calls 911, saving a woman who’s demobilized inside her house. Or in the cellist who plays in the ruins of a bombed structure in Ukraine in an attempt to “bring live music back into public spaces disrupted by war.” Nouvel collects 51 such stories in this compendium, categorizing them by themes of kindness, conscience, courage, grace, and faith. Culled from news organizations around the world and retold as short fables, these pieces illustrate the ways in which small, selfless decisions often have immense consequences for others. One entry, for example, tells of how, during a beach clean-up in Taiwan, a group of student volunteers discover a waterproof camera lost by a pair of Japanese divers 13 years before. The memory card is intact, and the students manage to return it to the owner, who’s treated to the images of her final dive with her father before his death. Another story describes how, in Dallas during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, local organizers set up community refrigerators around the city bearing handwritten signs: “Take what you need. Leave what you can.” Unlocked and unguarded, the fridges are never looted or stolen as people bring and take food throughout the day and night.
Nouvel, “with substantial drafting and editorial assistance from ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence (AI) writing tool used under his direction,” recounts these incidents in even, understated prose that emphasizes the mundanity of these actions. He usually ends the stories by noting how the world continues on its business, evincing little awareness of what’s transpired, as in this anecdote about a woman who brings her therapy dog to help ease the stress of wildfire responders: “Wildfire response continues through the night. The staging area quiets between rotations. Equipment remains stacked in ordered rows. The smell of smoke persists. The dog rests in the vehicle as Carman prepares for the next authorized visit. Fire activity continues through the night.” Each chapter ends with a link to the original news item the short essay is based on. They also include black-and-white illustrations that, while created by AI, have the aesthetic of charcoal drawings. The book is reminiscent of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series and will satisfy readers who thirst for real-world proof of goodness and connection among strangers.
An earnest, straightforward compilation of retellings of human-interest stories.Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2026
ISBN: 9781970853452
Page Count: 229
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: April 18, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
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