A self-help book that concisely addresses the personal qualities one needs for success.
A tech-related guide to approaching change with an open mind.
In this debut self-help book, Kenyeres, an entrepreneur and “digital lifestyle coach,” doesn’t focus on technology itself but on his readers’ relationships to new devices as they adapt them to their lives. Instead of offering specific advice regarding hardware and software, he guides readers through a series of exercises designed to increase their confidence, self-awareness, and senses of purpose—broad concepts that can also be applied to their use of technology. Early on, he lays out his theory of “mind-sets”: “I believe that each person is born with a programmable global positioning system (GPS). While some people learn to program theirs to take them directly to Successville, others inadvertently choose a more roundabout route, which may or may not get them there at all.” He then details seven specific adjustments that readers can undertake in order to change those attitudes; the first, for example, is “to think of failure as different degrees of success.” Overcoming fear and uncertainty, while maintaining a positive attitude toward different types of change, is at the core of the book’s approach. Each chapter features exercises that lead readers through the process, such as, “Identify the gaps between the ‘what is’ and the ‘what will be’ in your life.” Although the book is short, its brevity is a strength, as Kenyeres largely avoids the types of anecdotes and platitudes that fill other books in the genre. This isn’t a work that will teach readers the tricks of the iPhone 6 or how to install WordPress, but it will provide them with a more holistic approach to ongoing learning and self-improvement. Even without the technical details, Kenyeres makes good use of his years of experience as a corporate trainer, as he presents a framework for advancement on a broad scale. Some readers may want to look elsewhere for more technology-specific advice, but others will find value in this guide to understanding purpose and embracing change.
A self-help book that concisely addresses the personal qualities one needs for success.Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2014
ISBN: 978-1483418889
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Lulu
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2015
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
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
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