An enjoyable, informative self-help book.
Actress and animal activist Rowland explores the nuances of unlocking one’s charisma in order to have a richer, happier, and more fulfilled life.
According to the author, charisma is “an amalgamation of your inherent talents and the passion with which you were born.” In 23 chapters, she covers every aspect of this trait from the spiritual to the sexual to the professional, and also explores the relationship between charisma and karma—separate forces that she says an enlightened being can influence to act in tandem. She warns against the dangers of using charisma for evil, however, citing examples such as Adolf Hitler and Jim Jones, and offers numerous examples of celebrities, such as Oprah Winfrey, who have used the trait for positive effects. The book is structured well, as it presents the overall concept effortlessly and gradually delves into its nuances. When the author presents details of various energy-related healing and releasing practices, such as reiki, toward the end of the book, it feels like a logical part of a natural narrative sequence. Rowland’s story of her own tragic personal history, including the poisoning of her mother by a deranged lover and the collapse of her own romantic relationships with famous actors, is woven into the book, resulting in an unusual, inspirational tapestry. The author’s highs and lows are perhaps more dramatic than the average reader’s, but their inclusion helps propel her overall message. She shows how her life path has been about confronting tragedies, not avoiding them. By refusing to associate with toxic personalities and pursuing the path that gave her the greatest sense of well-being and purpose, she says, she’s managed to avoid the pitfalls of depression and anxiety.
An enjoyable, informative self-help book.Pub Date: March 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-578-15629-3
Page Count: 242
Publisher: Kismet Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 31, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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