An engaging volume that offers lovely photos and stirring reflections.
A compilation of photographs and musings shares the story of a man’s struggle to overcome alcoholism.
In May 2010, Blanchard (Fighting for My Life, 2014)—a former marathon runner and the COO of a Maine company—passed out in his car on the side of the road after drinking vodka and taking Xanax. When a state patrolman approached his car, the author woke up and tried to speed away. This was the third time in three months he had been arrested for alcohol-related crimes. With his marriage in deep trouble and the prospect of jail time, he was extremely depressed and decided to end his life. Fortunately, he was sent to a psychiatric hospital, where he received compassionate, professional help and a referral to a rehab program. Blanchard took his last drink on July 26, 2010, and though it wasn’t easy, he used several tools, such as therapeutic writing, to remain on a sober path. One of his greatest pleasures was taking photographs of picturesque places, especially his beloved Martha’s Vineyard. A self-taught photographer, the author replaced vodka with the natural highs he received from studying and shooting lush landscapes, like peaceful seaside sunrises. Hoping to inspire others who struggle with addiction, he offers this captivating collection of more than 50 color photos of mostly outdoor subjects—like a majestic red-tailed hawk appearing at South Beach and the brilliant Gay Head Cliffs glowing in a sunset’s light, both on Martha’s Vineyard—along with his pensive thoughts about recovery and sobriety. Blanchard’s beautiful photos are often calming reflections of his words. For example, when he discusses how drinking kept him in a shell in which he didn’t have to share his true self with others, he includes a compelling photo of a spiral lighthouse stairway, which looks shell-like. Meandering from topic to topic—a thoughtful examination of the pain his bad decisions caused is followed by a list of personal affirmations and a moving anecdote about a Facebook friend’s death—Blanchard’s eloquent prose is easy to browse and ponder.
An engaging volume that offers lovely photos and stirring reflections.Pub Date: Dec. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-578-49159-2
Page Count: 100
Publisher: Genevieve Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.
A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.
“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.
The authors have created a sort of anti-Book of Virtues in this encyclopedic compendium of the ways and means of power.
Everyone wants power and everyone is in a constant duplicitous game to gain more power at the expense of others, according to Greene, a screenwriter and former editor at Esquire (Elffers, a book packager, designed the volume, with its attractive marginalia). We live today as courtiers once did in royal courts: we must appear civil while attempting to crush all those around us. This power game can be played well or poorly, and in these 48 laws culled from the history and wisdom of the world’s greatest power players are the rules that must be followed to win. These laws boil down to being as ruthless, selfish, manipulative, and deceitful as possible. Each law, however, gets its own chapter: “Conceal Your Intentions,” “Always Say Less Than Necessary,” “Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy,” and so on. Each chapter is conveniently broken down into sections on what happened to those who transgressed or observed the particular law, the key elements in this law, and ways to defensively reverse this law when it’s used against you. Quotations in the margins amplify the lesson being taught. While compelling in the way an auto accident might be, the book is simply nonsense. Rules often contradict each other. We are told, for instance, to “be conspicuous at all cost,” then told to “behave like others.” More seriously, Greene never really defines “power,” and he merely asserts, rather than offers evidence for, the Hobbesian world of all against all in which he insists we live. The world may be like this at times, but often it isn’t. To ask why this is so would be a far more useful project.
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-670-88146-5
Page Count: 430
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1998
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