A wise, witty and helpful guide for couples wishing to improve and enliven their romantic connections.
A licensed marriage and family therapist offers his advice on improving intimate relationships.
In his debut book, Rosenthal draws on his experience as a licensed marriage and family therapist and a relationship-advice columnist for the Denver Post. As a nationally recognized expert on intimacy, he provides valuable insights about finding harmony, contentment and passion. He addresses dozens of topics, including how to romance a woman, handle criticism and discover one’s own hidden issues. Other subjects include how to let down one’s guard, communicate when one is angry or hurt, and keep things together during a crisis. He also looks at how to add spark to one’s sex life, even addressing the fine art of erotic talk. Each chapter ends with quotations and quips about relationships, adding sage advice and a lighthearted feel. The author’s selection of quotes reveals the wisdom he’s accumulated over 25 years, such as this example, credited to the late Canadian novelist Robertson Davies: “As a general thing, people marry most happily with their own kind. The trouble lies in the fact that people usually marry at an age when they do not really know what their own kind is.” Rosenthal also quotes from comedian Bob Hope (“People who throw kisses are hopelessly lazy”), helpfully reminding couples that they should also keep their senses of humor. There are quizzes to help readers determine whether they are empathetic, good listeners, walled-off, controlling or possibly sabotaging their relationships. There’s also a concluding “Notes” section, with citations of other publications, indexed by chapter and topic. Overall, the guide is informative and entertaining, and the writing, devoid of jargon. Unlike other books in this genre, there’s no attempt here to fit men and women into predetermined categories––just down-to-earth advice. Like a sort of car manual for couples, this is a useful book to consult before (or after) the “check engine” light flickers on a relationship’s dashboard.
A wise, witty and helpful guide for couples wishing to improve and enliven their romantic connections.Pub Date: June 13, 2014
ISBN: 978-1460235423
Page Count: 264
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
IN THE NEWS
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
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