A well-researched, thought-provoking reconsideration of society’s sacred cows.
A researcher explores the power of ideas in this debut nonfiction book.
“Ideas,” writes Murphy, “cut the fabric of our being and determine who we are.” With a focus on the ideas that shape our actions, beliefs, and notions of family, the author contends that the question of “Whose Ideas Am I?” is far more important than the more ubiquitous rumination, “Who Am I?” Per the author, some of modern society’s primary assumptions—such as the idea that wearing a collared shirt with a knotted tie somehow transforms a middle-aged man into a professional—would be mocked by societies with other ideas of success. While pointing out some of the absurdities baked into daily life, Murphy is particularly effective at highlighting our propensity to accept bad ideas. From Aztec heart sacrifices and European religious wars to the rampant consumerism that drives today’s society, it’s clear to the author that “practical realities created by our imagination are not always wonderful.” (Murphy writes that consumerism is an “antisocial ideology” undergirded by the flawed assumptions that “new is always better than old” and “want supersedes need.”) While the author, the founder and lead researcher at the think tank Prepolitica, has long focused on the ways in which political ideologies hamper data-driven policy, this book is interdisciplinary in its approach. The cogent narrative, backed by 350 scholarly endnotes, draws on 21st-century neuroscience and evolutionary biology and incorporates lessons from sociology, history, and anthropology. Geared toward practical solutions—a central argument of the book is that “abstracted life is miserable, lonely, and stressful”—the work concludes with a list of pragmatic ways to help readers better examine and potentially move beyond counterproductive ideas. At just under 165 total pages and full of drawings, diagrams, photographs, and other visual aids, this is an accessible book that strikes a fine balance between academic research and engaging prose. Readers driven by political, religious, or other ideologies will be challenged—the book is a good reminder to question the conventions that shape our lives.
A well-researched, thought-provoking reconsideration of society’s sacred cows.Pub Date: May 1, 2024
ISBN: 9781068611001
Page Count: 306
Publisher: Arc_titru
Review Posted Online: May 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Top Chef fans might savor this detailed account, but others will find it bland.
The Top Chef host describes her journey to new heights.
For those who don’t know, Kish is a “gay Korean adopted woman, born in Seoul, raised in Michigan” and “a chef, a character, a host, and a cultural communicator—as well as a human being with a beating heart.” Though this book covers every step of her journey, every restaurant job and television role, and also discusses her experience as an adoptee (very positive) and a queer woman (late bloomer), the storytelling is so straightforward, lacking in suspense, character development, or dialogue, that it is basically a long version of its (longish) “About the Author.” Seemingly dramatic situations are not dramatized—when she was eliminated on her first Top Chef run, she assures us that she did the best she could, and drops it. “I can spare you the gory details (bouillabaisse and big personalities were involved).” Later, she cites a belief in protecting the privacy of others to omit the story of her first relationship with a woman. With no character development, neither does the reader get to know those who fall outside the privacy zone, like her best friend, Steph, and her wife, Bianca. When she gets mad, she says things like, “It’s a gross understatement to say I was crushed, beyond frustrated, and furious with the situation.” The fact that “I’ve never been a big reader” does not come as a surprise. It is more surprising when she confesses that “I believe the universe is selective about the moments in which it introduces life-changing prospects.”
Top Chef fans might savor this detailed account, but others will find it bland.Pub Date: April 22, 2025
ISBN: 9780316580915
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.
A charming bird journey with the bestselling author.
In his introduction to Tan’s “nature journal,” David Allen Sibley, the acclaimed ornithologist, nails the spirit of this book: a “collection of delightfully quirky, thoughtful, and personal observations of birds in sketches and words.” For years, Tan has looked out on her California backyard “paradise”—oaks, periwinkle vines, birch, Japanese maple, fuchsia shrubs—observing more than 60 species of birds, and she fashions her findings into delightful and approachable journal excerpts, accompanied by her gorgeous color sketches. As the entries—“a record of my life”—move along, the author becomes more adept at identifying and capturing them with words and pencils. Her first entry is September 16, 2017: Shortly after putting up hummingbird feeders, one of the tiny, delicate creatures landed on her hand and fed. “We have a relationship,” she writes. “I am in love.” By August 2018, her backyard “has become a menagerie of fledglings…all learning to fly.” Day by day, she has continued to learn more about the birds, their activities, and how she should relate to them; she also admits mistakes when they occur. In December 2018, she was excited to observe a Townsend’s Warbler—“Omigod! It’s looking at me. Displeased expression.” Battling pesky squirrels, Tan deployed Hot Pepper Suet to keep them away, and she deterred crows by hanging a fake one upside down. The author also declared war on outdoor cats when she learned they kill more than 1 billion birds per year. In May 2019, she notes that she spends $250 per month on beetle larvae. In June 2019, she confesses “spending more hours a day staring at birds than writing. How can I not?” Her last entry, on December 15, 2022, celebrates when an eating bird pauses, “looks and acknowledges I am there.”
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.Pub Date: April 23, 2024
ISBN: 9780593536131
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
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