An empowering extended metaphor that yields an array of useful advice.
A pilot, minister, and business consultant outlines how to be “pilot in command” in order to achieve one’s unique purpose in this debut Christian self-help guide.
McFadden begins this book with an account of a time when he, a certified airplane pilot, got lost while flying. He then recommends the 12-step process that he used to complete his trip as a useful tool for “landing your life at the intended destination.” Steps 1 through 4 are focused on “getting on purpose”: embrace the idea that you are a “pilot” in control of your own life, not a passive victim; identify your present location (that is, your current situation); identify your destination (the “destiny” you’d like to achieve); and “Develop Your In-flight Recovery Plan”—a strategy that includes anticipating responses to obstacles. Steps 5 through 8 address the “Ah-Ha” part of the quest, after you’ve settled on what your dreams are: “Get some altitude” by getting a boost from mentors; “Keep Your Wits” about you, because your biggest obstacle is often yourself; “Maintain Proper Heading,” or ignore distractions; and “Tune In Appropriate Frequencies” by listening to the “voice of your original creator trying to reveal your true potential.” Steps 9 through 12 cover the last leg, during which you should manage stress; use all assistance available; shed bad behaviors; and finally achieve success “with grace and dignity for all.” Debut author McFadden, a Maryland-based Christian minister and the founder and president of The Leadership Training Company, offers an inspiring vision and helpful tactics for finding meaning and one’s ultimate purpose in life. His admissions of his own challenges, such as giving up early on “one of [his] callings” to be a lawyer, make him a relatable voice, and never a lofty one. Although the book’s biblical references and mentions of one’s “creator” may not appeal to everyone, he does provide a motivating, forward-looking method that like-minded readers may consider when navigating their own life courses.
An empowering extended metaphor that yields an array of useful advice.Pub Date: Dec. 27, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-595-43489-3
Page Count: 109
Publisher: iUniverse
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
One of the NBA’s 50 greatest players scores another basket—a deeply personal one.
A basketball legend reflects on his life in the game and a life lived in the “nightmare of endlessly repetitive and constant pain, agony, and guilt.”
Walton (Nothing but Net, 1994, etc.) begins this memoir on the floor—literally: “I have been living on the floor for most of the last two and a half years, unable to move.” In 2008, he suffered a catastrophic spinal collapse. “My spine will no longer hold me,” he writes. Thirty-seven orthopedic injuries, stemming from the fact that he had malformed feet, led to an endless string of stress fractures. As he notes, Walton is “the most injured athlete in the history of sports.” Over the years, he had ground his lower extremities “down to dust.” Walton’s memoir is two interwoven stories. The first is about his lifelong love of basketball, the second, his lifelong battle with injuries and pain. He had his first operation when he was 14, for a knee hurt in a basketball game. As he chronicles his distinguished career in the game, from high school to college to the NBA, he punctuates that story with a parallel one that chronicles at each juncture the injuries he suffered and overcame until he could no longer play, eventually turning to a successful broadcasting career (which helped his stuttering problem). Thanks to successful experimental spinal fusion surgery, he’s now pain-free. And then there’s the music he loves, especially the Grateful Dead’s; it accompanies both stories like a soundtrack playing off in the distance. Walton tends to get long-winded at times, but that won’t be news to anyone who watches his broadcasts, and those who have been afflicted with lifelong injuries will find the book uplifting and inspirational. Basketball fans will relish Walton’s acumen and insights into the game as well as his stories about players, coaches (especially John Wooden), and games, all told in Walton’s fervent, witty style.
One of the NBA’s 50 greatest players scores another basket—a deeply personal one.Pub Date: March 8, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4767-1686-2
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
The author’s sincere sermon—at times analytical, at times hortatory—remains a hopeful one.
New York Times columnist Brooks (The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character and Achievement, 2011, etc.) returns with another volume that walks the thin line between self-help and cultural criticism.
Sandwiched between his introduction and conclusion are eight chapters that profile exemplars (Samuel Johnson and Michel de Montaigne are textual roommates) whose lives can, in Brooks’ view, show us the light. Given the author’s conservative bent in his column, readers may be surprised to discover that his cast includes some notable leftists, including Frances Perkins, Dorothy Day, and A. Philip Randolph. (Also included are Gens. Eisenhower and Marshall, Augustine, and George Eliot.) Throughout the book, Brooks’ pattern is fairly consistent: he sketches each individual’s life, highlighting struggles won and weaknesses overcome (or not), and extracts lessons for the rest of us. In general, he celebrates hard work, humility, self-effacement, and devotion to a true vocation. Early in his text, he adapts the “Adam I and Adam II” construction from the work of Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, Adam I being the more external, career-driven human, Adam II the one who “wants to have a serene inner character.” At times, this veers near the Devil Bugs Bunny and Angel Bugs that sit on the cartoon character’s shoulders at critical moments. Brooks liberally seasons the narrative with many allusions to history, philosophy, and literature. Viktor Frankl, Edgar Allan Poe, Paul Tillich, William and Henry James, Matthew Arnold, Virginia Woolf—these are but a few who pop up. Although Brooks goes after the selfie generation, he does so in a fairly nuanced way, noting that it was really the World War II Greatest Generation who started the ball rolling. He is careful to emphasize that no one—even those he profiles—is anywhere near flawless.
The author’s sincere sermon—at times analytical, at times hortatory—remains a hopeful one.Pub Date: April 21, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-8129-9325-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
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