While a distressing marriage takes center stage, this account offers refreshing takes on starting over.
A memoir recounts a difficult marriage and a woman’s subsequent empowerment through faith.
In 1972, 27-year-old Kurth was reeling from her first divorce in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She then met a man named Jim. There were early warning signs of their incompatibility, like his irrational and overly harsh reactions to food, but the two forged ahead in marriage. As Jim saw his engineering career expand, the author found work as a substitute teacher, a weaver, an interior designer, and eventually a writer. Despite their mutual joy as parents, Jim and Kurth’s marriage deteriorated slowly into increasingly bitter exchanges and signs of his disrespect. The couple eventually moved to California and then back to the author’s home state of Oregon, where they would build their dream home, dubbed “What-a-View.” But Jim’s pattern of unpredictable moods and lack of interest left Kurth wanting to be with a “real man, not like the grown child to whom” she was married. The author goes into vivid detail about every fight and counseling session before their 25-year marriage came to a slow and painful end, leaving the author to seek strength in her Christian faith as she built a new life for herself. Even though Jim’s individual aggressions are never more threatening than cruel reactions to an empty bag of nuts or offhand comments, Kurth delves deep into the emotional state of her household, creating an admirable portrait of how toxic atmospheres have real mental and physical consequences. Nonetheless, the book’s first section can be tedious—at times, it feels like a laundry list of Jim’s faults. More intriguing is the author’s post-divorce evolution on the Christian dating scene. Surrounded by other “beautiful, intelligent women of God” affected by bad marriages, Kurth embraced a range of conservative and liberal schools of Christian thought that will surely speak to readers also questioning what they really want.
While a distressing marriage takes center stage, this account offers refreshing takes on starting over.Pub Date: March 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-63195-150-3
Page Count: 282
Publisher: Morgan James Faith
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A conversational, pleasurable look into McConaughey’s life and thought.
All right, all right, all right: The affable, laconic actor delivers a combination of memoir and self-help book.
“This is an approach book,” writes McConaughey, adding that it contains “philosophies that can be objectively understood, and if you choose, subjectively adopted, by either changing your reality, or changing how you see it. This is a playbook, based on adventures in my life.” Some of those philosophies come in the form of apothegms: “When you can design your own weather, blow in the breeze”; “Simplify, focus, conserve to liberate.” Others come in the form of sometimes rambling stories that never take the shortest route from point A to point B, as when he recounts a dream-spurred, challenging visit to the Malian musician Ali Farka Touré, who offered a significant lesson in how disagreement can be expressed politely and without rancor. Fans of McConaughey will enjoy his memories—which line up squarely with other accounts in Melissa Maerz’s recent oral history, Alright, Alright, Alright—of his debut in Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused, to which he contributed not just that signature phrase, but also a kind of too-cool-for-school hipness that dissolves a bit upon realizing that he’s an older guy on the prowl for teenage girls. McConaughey’s prep to settle into the role of Wooderson involved inhabiting the mind of a dude who digs cars, rock ’n’ roll, and “chicks,” and he ran with it, reminding readers that the film originally had only three scripted scenes for his character. The lesson: “Do one thing well, then another. Once, then once more.” It’s clear that the author is a thoughtful man, even an intellectual of sorts, though without the earnestness of Ethan Hawke or James Franco. Though some of the sentiments are greeting card–ish, this book is entertaining and full of good lessons.
A conversational, pleasurable look into McConaughey’s life and thought.Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-13913-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
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