by Melinda J. Kelly ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 3, 2018
An engaging, if sometimes muddled, guide to finding the right life coach.
A highly personal motivational manual focuses on life coaches.
“What do I want to do?” Kelly asks early on in this debut work of nonfiction. “What would I like to do? What would I like to do that gives life meaning?” The author knows that these and other key fundamental questions beset her readers, and she offers a wide range of thoughts on the kinds of coaches people might consult in order to help them navigate the complicated field of possible answers. “Working with a coach is admitting that the coach has knowledge you don't have,” she writes. While this isn’t exactly true (coaches in everything from sports to executive management are typically used for their clarity and motivation, not for secret knowledge), Kelly’s book seeks to be a guide to discovering the right kind of coach for whatever a person feels is lacking in life. In a fast-paced overview of the assorted sources where people over the centuries have gone in search of direction, the author quickly checks in with such widely varied topics and figures as the Myers-Briggs personality test, Mary Baker Eddy, Dr. Spock, the collective wisdom, war brides, the GI Bill, and Weight Watchers, among many others. In clearly written short chapters, she helps readers assess not only the nature of their problems (Money troubles? Lack of discipline? Introvert living among extrovert expectations?), but also the best ways to test the virtues and shortcomings of the great range of potential coaches available in just a single internet search. Whether it’s one-day seminars, weeklong retreats, or online webinars, she advocates a “trust, but verify” initial wariness. Some of the book’s breakdowns of how to gauge problems are usefully straightforward, but the wide range of subjects works against any feeling of narrative focus. And the author’s penchant for truisms—success is always in your hands; life takes many twists and turns; even “Know Thyself”—likewise blunts the manual’s more original content.
An engaging, if sometimes muddled, guide to finding the right life coach.Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2018
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 145
Publisher: Kurti Publishing
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Chris Gardner with Quincy Troupe ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2006
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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by Daniel Kahneman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 2011
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
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