A handful of pearls amid a pile of empty oyster shells.
Bestselling author Haig offers a book’s worth of apothegms to serve as guides to issues ranging from disquietude to self-acceptance.
Like many collections of this sort—terse snippets of advice, from the everyday to the cosmic—some parts will hit home with surprising insight, some will feel like old hat, and others will come across as disposable or incomprehensible. Years ago, Haig experienced an extended period of suicidal depression, so he comes at many of these topics—pain, hope, self-worth, contentment—from a hard-won perspective. This makes some of the material worthy of a second look, even when it feels runic or contrary to experience. The author’s words are instigations, hopeful first steps toward illumination. Most chapters are only a few sentences long, the longest running for three pages. Much is left unsaid and left up to readers to dissect. On being lost, Haig recounts an episode with his father when they got turned around in a forest in France. His father said to him, “If we keep going in a straight line we’ll get out of here.” He was correct, a bit of wisdom Haig turned to during his depression when he focused on moving forward: “It is important to remember the bottom of the valley never has the clearest view. And that sometimes all you need to do in order to rise up again is to keep moving forward.” Many aphorisms sound right, if hardly groundbreaking—e.g., a quick route to happiness is making someone else happy; “No is a good word. It keeps you sane. In an age of overload, no is really yes. It is yes to having space you need to live”; “External events are neutral. They only gain positive or negative value the moment they enter our mind.” Haig’s fans may enjoy this one, but others should take a pass.
A handful of pearls amid a pile of empty oyster shells.Pub Date: July 6, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-14-313666-8
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Penguin Life
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.
A teacher and scholar of Buddhism offers a formally varied account of the available rewards of solitude.
“As Mother Ayahuasca takes me in her arms, I realize that last night I vomited up my attachment to Buddhism. In passing out, I died. In coming to, I was, so to speak, reborn. I no longer have to fight these battles, I repeat to myself. I am no longer a combatant in the dharma wars. It feels as if the course of my life has shifted onto another vector, like a train shunted off its familiar track onto a new trajectory.” Readers of Batchelor’s previous books (Secular Buddhism: Imagining the Dharma in an Uncertain World, 2017, etc.) will recognize in this passage the culmination of his decadeslong shift away from the religious commitments of Buddhism toward an ecumenical and homegrown philosophy of life. Writing in a variety of modes—memoir, history, collage, essay, biography, and meditation instruction—the author doesn’t argue for his approach to solitude as much as offer it for contemplation. Essentially, Batchelor implies that if you read what Buddha said here and what Montaigne said there, and if you consider something the author has noticed, and if you reflect on your own experience, you have the possibility to improve the quality of your life. For introspective readers, it’s easy to hear in this approach a direct response to Pascal’s claim that “all of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Batchelor wants to relieve us of this inability by offering his example of how to do just that. “Solitude is an art. Mental training is needed to refine and stabilize it,” he writes. “When you practice solitude, you dedicate yourself to the care of the soul.” Whatever a soul is, the author goes a long way toward soothing it.
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-300-25093-0
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A thoughtful, personal celebration of many meaningful aspects of Japanese life.
A professional organizer shares her personal understanding of Japanese culture.
When it first became popular, Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up was often associated with minimalism, as she instructed de-clutterers to keep only things that “spark joy.” At the same time, her guidance to thank objects for their service was a point of puzzlement: Do material goods and personal surroundings really matter? In Kondo’s new book, she answers with a resounding yes, an affirmation rooted in the foundational values of Japanese culture. Beginning with superficial, highly visible aspects of Japanese popular culture, such as kawaii and otaku fandom, she highlights how attachment to adorable things and cherished objects can help one understand and express their personal identity. She soon moves into more private spheres and practices, reflecting on seeking creative inspiration at hot spring baths, the intentionality of Japanese hospitality, and the consideration poured into preparing food. Ultimately, she arrives at specifically Japanese spiritual matters, exploring carefully constructed Shinto shrine grounds and serenely deliberate gardens to find stillness and harmony with nature. Each reflection includes a historical explication of the concept, complimented by Kondo’s experiences—whether exclaiming over sakura (a flowering cherry tree), making her children’s bentos, or working as a shrine maiden—and how that concept might relate to “tidying up” one’s life. Kondo’s years of living in the U.S. have given her an acute understanding of her identity as a Japanese person, and sharing that cross-cultural perspective is meaningful in itself. For those compelled by Kondo, her book reveals the underpinnings of her organizational philosophy with refreshing thoroughness. Though the book’s intricate entries are not for true newcomers to Japan seeking a surface-level survey, Kondo’s compendium will delight those hoping to appreciate Japanese cultural touchstones that they’ve encountered more deeply.
A thoughtful, personal celebration of many meaningful aspects of Japanese life.Pub Date: Oct. 21, 2025
ISBN: 9798217088089
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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