An eclectic, entertaining, and often enlightening examination of the inner workings of the mind.
A work focuses on how to expand consciousness using tools and ideas gleaned from metaphysics, yoga, and philosophy.
Two travelers, stranded by a storm, start up a conversation while waiting at La Guardia Airport. One, the narrator, is a harried vacationer. The other is a mysterious stranger, Chin Li Wei, the titular “wise man.” Over the course of 28 hours, Li Wei presents his perceptions about the universe to his receptive fellow traveler, along with techniques to symbolically escape the force of gravity, which, Li Wei explains, “exerts its influence not just on your body, but also on your mind—and the thoughts contained within.” Li Wei uses space travel metaphors to get his points across, with sections titled “Preparing for Launch,” “Developing Your Astronaut Eye,” and “On Reentry and the Continuation of Practice.” He further amplifies the celestial exploration theme with the mentions of Edward White, the first American to walk in space; Edgar Mitchell, another NASA astronaut, who walked on the moon; and Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, a commander of the International Space Station. (Li Wei also relates some of Mitchell’s and Hadfield’s observations.) As the conversation concludes at the end of the book, the narrator offers exercises to continue the journey Li Wei describes, including ways to mentally create a private wormhole, pursue a race against time, or write a sci-fi scenario. Whitten (The Book of Extremely Common Prayer, 2014, etc.) packs his provocative tale with whimsical illustrations, and each chapter begins with a quote from one of a diverse group of thinkers, including Darwin, Kierkegaard, Churchill, Dr. Seuss, and Talking Heads. The thoughts of philosophers like Plato are integrated with Einstein’s mathematical equations and scientific principles, creating a stimulating intellectual brew. Bursting with ideas, the text also sparks interest in the lives of figures mentioned in passing, like Swedish artist and mystic Hilma af Klint and Charles Fort, an American writer of paranormal phenomena for whom the term “Fortean” was coined. Readers may find themselves thinking about the people and concepts discussed in this short book long after they’ve finished it.
An eclectic, entertaining, and often enlightening examination of the inner workings of the mind.Pub Date: June 13, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-9774807-6-0
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Vitally Important
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
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