A clear, detailed plan to seize joy in life that offers some familiar tips.
A numerology-based guide realigns personal habits in order to increase happiness.
Hadden’s (In the Mind of Revenge, 2017) manual emphasizes that people tend to block their own joy. “I want you to remember that you are Joy,” she writes. “I want you to distinguish between who you are (Joy, whole, divine, eternally loved) and how you feel (depressed, angry, confused, excited, anxious).” “If you can do that,” she continues, “it won’t matter when you have a bad day or hit a bump in the road.” The bulk of her book consists of 21 “Joy Builder” activities, each designed to last 21 days under “the popular idea that it takes a minimum of 21 days to form a habit.” The author explains that although the real window of time is much longer, “21 still feels right” because it’s three weeks, doable, and not overwhelming. These Joy Builder exercises sometimes revolve around deceptively simple changes—swap “should” for “could” in daily talk (in order to emphasize personal effectiveness instead of guilt or obligation), for instance, or remove “but” from the daily vocabulary. Others consist of basic reminders, such as “Be steadfast in your boundaries and flexible with your empathy” and “Being friends on Facebook is not being friends in real life. Being friends in real life does not mean you have to be ‘friends’ on Facebook.” Many people do things they dislike every week, Hadden observes, and her useful exercises are distinctly designed to counteract this and put the emphasis back on positivity. “Every time you feel grateful for the next 21 days,” she advises at one point, “say so, and be specific.” Most of the author’s advice is recognizable and simple to the point of being self-evident—telling readers that staying affirmative is important and that taking time off is a necessary basis for experiencing happiness. Ultimately, the reminder “You are the joy you seek” becomes the book’s vibrant mantra—one that many readers will no doubt find helpful.
A clear, detailed plan to seize joy in life that offers some familiar tips.Pub Date: May 21, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-578-46685-9
Page Count: 142
Publisher: Alodia Offbeat Creative, LLC
Review Posted Online: Dec. 2, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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