A laugh-out-loud parody that assures frustrated drivers that they’re not alone.
This unapologetically biting satire of the self-help genre addresses bad drivers everywhere.
Inspired both by his anger at terrible drivers and by the podcast If Books Could Kill (and its cheerful send-up of wellness psychobabble), Hobbes identifies 14 types of terrible drivers (including the “Peekaboo Pacer” and the “Raging Hypocrite”) and analyzes each through a satirical self-help lens. Each chapter pairs an automotive pet peeve with a real-life inspirational suggestion—from sources like Mel Robbins’ “The Let Them Theory”and Michael A. Singer’s The Untethered Soul (2007)—and breaks them down into humor-filled bon mots. (From “The Last-Second Merger”: “Let’s be clear: this isn’t about space. There’s room for one car. You know it. They know it. This isn’t physics. It’s principle. Because while they were cruising past everyone else with the confidence of a toddler in a Batman cape, you were over here respecting the code.”) A bonus quiz at the end of the book helps readers determine what type of driver they are, and a “Clinical Appendix” diagnoses different types of drivers—complete with a common name, diagnostic criteria, prognosis, and recommended treatment. Hobbes seamlessly blends general life frustrations with car and traffic scenarios (both literal and metaphorical). The snappy narrative voice continuously peppers in pop-culture references to television shows like Friends, movies like Office Space, and bands like Van Halen (which may prove dated to younger audiences). While the author’s sarcastic—and sometimes rather aggressive—humor might not strike a chord with readers who identify as more laid-back drivers, he makes it very clear that the work is not really about driving at all—it’s a book “about people. About humanity…It’s about the tension between order and chaos. Between urgency and apathy.” The result is a darkly humorous and relatable meditation on coexisting with people whom we may or may not relate to, encouraging readers to get through it all with a (sometimes chagrined) smile.
A laugh-out-loud parody that assures frustrated drivers that they’re not alone.Pub Date: July 28, 2026
ISBN: 9798901742839
Page Count: 150
Publisher: Atmosphere Press
Review Posted Online: June 18, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
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These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.
A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.
“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
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