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THE SIMPLE LITTLE RULE

Name: THE SIMPLE LITTLE RULE
Author: Mike Ellerkamp
ISBN: 978-1-5043-8151-2

by Mike Ellerkamp ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

A rambling but heartfelt treatise for sowing and reaping happiness.

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A debut self-improvement book urges readers to practice kindness, regardless of faith.

Ellerkamp gives logical reasons why the golden rule—“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”—is beneficial for everyone. Describing himself as “in love with the Word” of the Bible during the 1970s and early ’80s, the author left organized religion after a pastor made an evil comment in favor of apartheid. In the years since, he studied other faiths and Eastern philosophers and now writes that many religions teach a version of the golden rule. Sprinkling in anecdotes from his days as a Ranger instructor at Florida’s Eglin Air Force Base, Ellerkamp discusses five guiding principles—Wisdom, Justice, Moderation, Courage, and Discipline—for following the golden rule. Knowing it’s not always easy to walk in others’ shoes, the author adds some chapter questions and exercises for practical application, such as asking readers to think of behaviors a wise person has taught them. In concluding chapters, the author discusses how people can benefit by rediscovering the golden rule, or “law of reciprocity,” in today’s world. Though he uses Christianity as a springboard in his earnest guide, Ellerkamp’s biblical allusions are sometimes-flawed. For example, in Christianity, the golden rule is not about receiving reciprocity or gaining something here on Earth by doing good deeds. He also tweaks Scripture and adds New Age ideas. For example, when examining Jesus’ call to “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” Ellerkamp writes: “There is an important observation to be made in that sentence; notice that we must first love the self.” Meandering through broad topics—Creation versus evolution; free will; and fairness—several dictionary definitions are given, and the prose becomes a bit eye-glazing. At one point, the author even seems to be aware of tiring the reader: “For this story, I’ll not go too far into detail. If I note major markers, I will make my point. So hang on—here goes. It’s fascinating, I promise.” But his colorful anecdotes can be memorable, like the time a huge, poisonous snake fell into his boat—and his students jumped into the water.

A rambling but heartfelt treatise for sowing and reaping happiness.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: 978-1-5043-8151-2

Page Count: 162

Publisher: Balboa

Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2017

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

SELF-HELP

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BRAVE ENOUGH

by Cheryl Strayed ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 2015

These platitudes need perspective; better to buy the books they came from.

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A lightweight collection of self-help snippets from the bestselling author.

What makes a quote a quote? Does it have to be quoted by someone other than the original author? Apparently not, if we take Strayed’s collection of truisms as an example. The well-known memoirist (Wild), novelist (Torch), and radio-show host (“Dear Sugar”) pulls lines from her previous pages and delivers them one at a time in this small, gift-sized book. No excerpt exceeds one page in length, and some are only one line long. Strayed doesn’t reference the books she’s drawing from, so the quotes stand without context and are strung together without apparent attention to structure or narrative flow. Thus, we move back and forth from first-person tales from the Pacific Crest Trail to conversational tidbits to meditations on grief. Some are astoundingly simple, such as Strayed’s declaration that “Love is the feeling we have for those we care deeply about and hold in high regard.” Others call on the author’s unique observations—people who regret what they haven’t done, she writes, end up “mingy, addled, shrink-wrapped versions” of themselves—and offer a reward for wading through obvious advice like “Trust your gut.” Other quotes sound familiar—not necessarily because you’ve read Strayed’s other work, but likely due to the influence of other authors on her writing. When she writes about blooming into your own authenticity, for instance, one is immediately reminded of Anaïs Nin: "And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” Strayed’s true blossoming happens in her longer works; while this collection might brighten someone’s day—and is sure to sell plenty of copies during the holidays—it’s no substitute for the real thing.

These platitudes need perspective; better to buy the books they came from.

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2015

ISBN: 978-1-101-946909

Page Count: 160

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2015

Categories:

SELF-HELP

- BOOK REVIEW
THE BEST AMERICAN ESSAYS 2013
edited by Cheryl Strayed

- BOOK REVIEW
TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS
by Cheryl Strayed

- BOOK REVIEW
WILD
by Cheryl Strayed

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MASTERY

by Robert Greene ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 13, 2012

Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should...

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Greene (The 33 Strategies of War, 2007, etc.) believes that genius can be learned if we pay attention and reject social conformity.

The author suggests that our emergence as a species with stereoscopic, frontal vision and sophisticated hand-eye coordination gave us an advantage over earlier humans and primates because it allowed us to contemplate a situation and ponder alternatives for action. This, along with the advantages conferred by mirror neurons, which allow us to intuit what others may be thinking, contributed to our ability to learn, pass on inventions to future generations and improve our problem-solving ability. Throughout most of human history, we were hunter-gatherers, and our brains are engineered accordingly. The author has a jaundiced view of our modern technological society, which, he writes, encourages quick, rash judgments. We fail to spend the time needed to develop thorough mastery of a subject. Greene writes that every human is “born unique,” with specific potential that we can develop if we listen to our inner voice. He offers many interesting but tendentious examples to illustrate his theory, including Einstein, Darwin, Mozart and Temple Grandin. In the case of Darwin, Greene ignores the formative intellectual influences that shaped his thought, including the discovery of geological evolution with which he was familiar before his famous voyage. The author uses Grandin's struggle to overcome autistic social handicaps as a model for the necessity for everyone to create a deceptive social mask.

Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should beware of the author's quirky, sometimes misleading brush-stroke characterizations.