A well-constructed, engaging call to action.
Former tennis pro Sprouse coaches readers on how to achieve their potential.
Sprouse’s self-help book relates the story of his challenges growing up, maturing and forging two successful careers (first as a tennis pro and then as a marketing practitioner), using his experiences as teaching points for the reader. At the end of each short chapter about a particular time in his life, Sprouse includes a Coach’s Challenge that encourages the reader to think expansively about what the author has discovered and how to apply it to his or her life. For example, in a chapter entitled “Realizing That Misguided Passions Are Still Valuable,” Sprouse tells the story of choosing accounting as his major in college because he was good at numbers, but realizing he wasn’t passionate about the subject. He learns this lesson after an interview for a summer internship that didn’t get him excited. Sprouse writes, “I failed myself that day, and it was the best thing to happen to me. It helped me realize the difference between being ‘decent’ at something with a little passion and trudging through every day, and being ‘great’ at something with tons of passion and embracing every day.” In the Coach’s Challenge, Sprouse asks the reader, “What have you been good at, yet were surprised about being good? Or, have there been things you’ve been good (not great) at but NOT passionate about? Now think about those elements that caused you to have some success, but left you devoid of passion. Those very specific items you can list DO mean something. For me, it was the numbers and analytics in accounting—but not accounting as a discipline. What about you?” Every chapter is a little pearl of wisdom like this one, an inspirational moment that should provide self-reflection and help the reader jump the gap to greatness. Sprouse is plainspoken but a pleasure to read. The book includes autobiographical glimpses of the author, replete with self-effacing humor, woven together with sound counsel that could have a measurable impact on the reader’s attitude toward life. And the forward was written by legendary Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz.
A well-constructed, engaging call to action.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1599322667
Page Count: 193
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.
“Quality of life means more than just consumption”: Two MIT economists urge that a smarter, more politically aware economics be brought to bear on social issues.
It’s no secret, write Banerjee and Duflo (co-authors: Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way To Fight Global Poverty, 2011), that “we seem to have fallen on hard times.” Immigration, trade, inequality, and taxation problems present themselves daily, and they seem to be intractable. Economics can be put to use in figuring out these big-issue questions. Data can be adduced, for example, to answer the question of whether immigration tends to suppress wages. The answer: “There is no evidence low-skilled migration to rich countries drives wage and employment down for the natives.” In fact, it opens up opportunities for those natives by freeing them to look for better work. The problem becomes thornier when it comes to the matter of free trade; as the authors observe, “left-behind people live in left-behind places,” which explains why regional poverty descended on Appalachia when so many manufacturing jobs left for China in the age of globalism, leaving behind not just left-behind people but also people ripe for exploitation by nationalist politicians. The authors add, interestingly, that the same thing occurred in parts of Germany, Spain, and Norway that fell victim to the “China shock.” In what they call a “slightly technical aside,” they build a case for addressing trade issues not with trade wars but with consumption taxes: “It makes no sense to ask agricultural workers to lose their jobs just so steelworkers can keep theirs, which is what tariffs accomplish.” Policymakers might want to consider such counsel, especially when it is coupled with the observation that free trade benefits workers in poor countries but punishes workers in rich ones.
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-61039-950-0
Page Count: 432
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
These platitudes need perspective; better to buy the books they came from.
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
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