An intriguing but uneven series of notions about humanity and the nature of reality.
A nonfiction book focuses on understanding the nature of reality.
In this slim work, Wilson attempts to provide a definition of what he refers to as “the Sandbox,” which he seems to consider the totality of the known universe, in which our galaxy “is floating around an incomprehensible number of galaxies, and this is all happening in a space that, from our calculation, seems to be unending.” The Sandbox, the author explains, forms our language, and our language in turn creates the way we think. The ordering here is important and is referred to throughout the book: Language plays a large part in determining reality—to “create any constructs we choose.” Wilson believes that humans are beings of light, whether they fully realize it or not. They possess enormous power and huge potential, particularly if they remain living and growing in the light, as befits the godly beings he considers the race to be. Incumbent on this realization is the necessity for societal and cultural changes, which the author strongly calls for. He mentions, for instance, that human-made organizations will need to change in order to keep people in the light. Any institution “that requires the feeding of any human being on another must be dissolved” (presumably meant metaphorically since institutional cannibalism is rare in the world). “Mutualism,” he claims, “is ideal”;“commensalism” is acceptable; but “parasitism” must be “restricted.” In this earnest book, Wilson delivers some interesting ideas and thought-provoking assertions about humanity and the universe. But the author doesn’t define any of the terms he presents, doesn’t attempt to shore up his claims about language and cognition, and doesn’t even propose the details of the societal changes that he believes are necessary. Unfortunately, the volume’s short length works against Wilson. He needs much more space to explain his fascinating concepts about the cosmos and society and to supply the many rich details needed to bolster his bold contentions.
An intriguing but uneven series of notions about humanity and the nature of reality.Pub Date: July 29, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-578-95656-5
Page Count: 44
Publisher: Omar Newton Wilson
Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A frank and funny but uneven essay collection about neurodiversity.
An experimental, illustrated essay collection that questions neurotypical definitions of what is normal.
From a young age, writer and comedian Myers has been different. In addition to coping with obsessive compulsive disorder and panic attacks, she struggled to read basic social cues. During a round of seven minutes in heaven—a game in which two players spend seven minutes in a closet and are expected to kiss—Myers misread the romantic advances of her best friend and longtime crush, Marley. In Paris, she accidentally invited a sex worker to join her friends for “board games and beer,” thinking he was simply a random stranger who happened to be hitting on her. In community college, a stranger’s request for a pen spiraled her into a panic attack but resulted in a tentative friendship. When the author moved to Australia, she began taking notes on her colleagues in an effort to know them better. As the author says to her co-worker, Tabitha, “there are unspoken social contracts within a workplace that—by some miracle—everyone else already understands, and I don’t….When things Go Without Saying, they Never Get Said, and sometimes people need you to Say Those Things So They Understand What The Hell Is Going On.” At its best, Myers’ prose is vulnerable and humorous, capturing characterization in small but consequential life moments, and her illustrations beautifully complement the text. Unfortunately, the author’s tendency toward unnecessary capitalization and experimental forms is often unsuccessful, breaking the book’s otherwise steady rhythm.
A frank and funny but uneven essay collection about neurodiversity.Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9780063381308
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2025
A pleasure for fans of old-school historical narratives.
Avuncular observations on matters historical from the late popularizer of the past.
McCullough made a fine career of storytelling his way through past events and the great men (and occasional woman) of long-ago American history. In that regard, to say nothing of his eschewing modern technology in favor of the typewriter (“I love the way the bell rings every time I swing the carriage lever”), he might be thought of as belonging to a past age himself. In this set of occasional pieces, including various speeches and genial essays on what to read and how to write, he strikes a strong tone as an old-fashioned moralist: “Indifference to history isn’t just ignorant, it’s rude,” he thunders. “It’s a form of ingratitude.” There are some charming reminiscences in here. One concerns cajoling his way into a meeting with Arthur Schlesinger in order to pitch a speech to presidential candidate John F. Kennedy: Where Richard Nixon “has no character and no convictions,” he opined, Kennedy “is appealing to our best instincts.” McCullough allows that it wasn’t the strongest of ideas, but Schlesinger told him to write up a speech anyway, and when it got to Kennedy, “he gave a speech in which there was one paragraph that had once sentence written by me.” Some of McCullough’s appreciations here are of writers who are not much read these days, such as Herman Wouk and Paul Horgan; a long piece concerns a president who’s been largely lost in the shuffle too, Harry Truman, whose decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan McCullough defends. At his best here, McCullough uses history as a way to orient thinking about the present, and with luck to good ends: “I am a short-range pessimist and a long-range optimist. I sincerely believe that we may be on the way to a very different and far better time.”
A pleasure for fans of old-school historical narratives.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781668098998
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 26, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
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