A thorough and optimistic guide to harnessing one’s anger to move toward healing.
Psychotherapist and executive coach Ratson offers a self-help book that aims to help readers get to the core of where anger comes from and transform it into positive action.
The author has drawn on his experience coaching individuals and couples to develop what he characterizes as a new approach to managing anger and establishing “emotional intelligence.” This book asserts that anger isn’t merely a negative force; it can also help to guide people in the direction of growth, healing, and peace by sparking self-reflection and analysis of anger’s root causes: “Pursuing the darkest side of anger will lead you to the brightest light within you,” he says. “The key is to work with anger instead of against it.” The book is structured in three parts: The first takes a deep dive into emotions and why people get angry when their four “core needs” (“safety, integrity, love, and actualization”) aren’t met; the second aims to teach one how to be a “compassionate warrior” with three foundational principles for working with anger; and the third covers a “three-step process to deal with conflict, enhance your relationships, and grow emotionally and spiritually.” The book includes tips, tricks, and instructions for practicing nonjudgmental mindfulness and taking personal responsibility, among other skills. Some readers will find the book to be useful for building confidence and awareness as they seek a sense of harmony. Ratson’s framework, as laid out in these pages, is forward-thinking, and he makes his ideas easy to understand. His book’s structure is intuitive, proceeding logically in a way that makes for a seamless reader experience. Most notably, the author makes sure that readers understand the origins of their anger before trying to move away from it, and he shows the effects of that choice. Overall, the book is a well-researched and hopeful read from the start: “Embracing your anger takes courage, but it allows you to tap into your shadows and transform what seems unacceptable into something rich and positive.”
A thorough and optimistic guide to harnessing one’s anger to move toward healing.Pub Date: May 15, 2023
ISBN: 9798986424507
Page Count: 223
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
A conversational, pleasurable look into McConaughey’s life and thought.
All right, all right, all right: The affable, laconic actor delivers a combination of memoir and self-help book.
“This is an approach book,” writes McConaughey, adding that it contains “philosophies that can be objectively understood, and if you choose, subjectively adopted, by either changing your reality, or changing how you see it. This is a playbook, based on adventures in my life.” Some of those philosophies come in the form of apothegms: “When you can design your own weather, blow in the breeze”; “Simplify, focus, conserve to liberate.” Others come in the form of sometimes rambling stories that never take the shortest route from point A to point B, as when he recounts a dream-spurred, challenging visit to the Malian musician Ali Farka Touré, who offered a significant lesson in how disagreement can be expressed politely and without rancor. Fans of McConaughey will enjoy his memories—which line up squarely with other accounts in Melissa Maerz’s recent oral history, Alright, Alright, Alright—of his debut in Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused, to which he contributed not just that signature phrase, but also a kind of too-cool-for-school hipness that dissolves a bit upon realizing that he’s an older guy on the prowl for teenage girls. McConaughey’s prep to settle into the role of Wooderson involved inhabiting the mind of a dude who digs cars, rock ’n’ roll, and “chicks,” and he ran with it, reminding readers that the film originally had only three scripted scenes for his character. The lesson: “Do one thing well, then another. Once, then once more.” It’s clear that the author is a thoughtful man, even an intellectual of sorts, though without the earnestness of Ethan Hawke or James Franco. Though some of the sentiments are greeting card–ish, this book is entertaining and full of good lessons.
A conversational, pleasurable look into McConaughey’s life and thought.Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-13913-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
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