A useful, no-nonsense primer on coping with everything from minor stresses to seismic life changes.
Debut author Stimpson draws on years of his advice columns published in church and local newspapers in this collection of strategies for navigating common challenges.
Though he bases his writing on decades of experience as both a parish priest and a trained therapist, Stimpson states from the outset that he can offer “just the opinion of one man...continuing on the same journey as you are.” The chapters that follow cover a wide range of topics, including effective parenting, healthy relationships, and even the particulars of psychiatric disorders like depression and substance addictions. Each section begins with a set of questions from readers of the author’s columns and ends with a concise recap of key points and a list of recommended further reading. Stimpson also ties each portion of advice back to core principles that focus on individual worth, autonomy, and potential for growth. As the book’s subtitle indicates, its advice is rarely dramatic or complex. Rather, Stimpson returns frequently to simple themes of love and interpersonal connection, relying on a framework that, though explicitly Judeo-Christian, is inclusive enough to remain largely accessible to nonbelievers. Readers seeking in-depth guidance about any one of the subjects touched on here will need to delve into the author’s lists of external resources; two pages on becoming a stepparent, for example, can only begin to touch on such an enormous subject. Stimpson’s advice is often accordingly vague, with instructions such as be “accepting, nonjudgmental, and empathic” without much detail about how to do so. The author readily acknowledges the limitations of his own perspective throughout, however, and that humble, carefully reasoned tone is a refreshing antidote to the grand proclamations and oversimplifications that too often dominate the self-help genre. “We are each an explorer,” Stimpson writes, “peering through the trees at a beautiful valley that will take a lifetime to explore.” Though gentle, such clear-eyed guidance may be a potent inspiration for readers’ further personal growth.
A useful, no-nonsense primer on coping with everything from minor stresses to seismic life changes.Pub Date: March 24, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-595-71659-3
Page Count: 206
Publisher: iUniverse
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The Stoics did much better with the much shorter Enchiridion.
A follow-on to the author’s garbled but popular 48 Laws of Power, promising that readers will learn how to win friends and influence people, to say nothing of outfoxing all those “toxic types” out in the world.
Greene (Mastery, 2012, etc.) begins with a big sell, averring that his book “is designed to immerse you in all aspects of human behavior and illuminate its root causes.” To gauge by this fat compendium, human behavior is mostly rotten, a presumption that fits with the author’s neo-Machiavellian program of self-validation and eventual strategic supremacy. The author works to formula: First, state a “law,” such as “confront your dark side” or “know your limits,” the latter of which seems pale compared to the Delphic oracle’s “nothing in excess.” Next, elaborate on that law with what might seem to be as plain as day: “Losing contact with reality, we make irrational decisions. That is why our success often does not last.” One imagines there might be other reasons for the evanescence of glory, but there you go. Finally, spin out a long tutelary yarn, seemingly the longer the better, to shore up the truism—in this case, the cometary rise and fall of one-time Disney CEO Michael Eisner, with the warning, “his fate could easily be yours, albeit most likely on a smaller scale,” which ranks right up there with the fortuneteller’s “I sense that someone you know has died" in orders of probability. It’s enough to inspire a new law: Beware of those who spend too much time telling you what you already know, even when it’s dressed up in fresh-sounding terms. “Continually mix the visceral with the analytic” is the language of a consultant’s report, more important-sounding than “go with your gut but use your head, too.”
The Stoics did much better with the much shorter Enchiridion.Pub Date: Oct. 23, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-42814-5
Page Count: 580
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should...
Greene (The 33 Strategies of War, 2007, etc.) believes that genius can be learned if we pay attention and reject social conformity.
The author suggests that our emergence as a species with stereoscopic, frontal vision and sophisticated hand-eye coordination gave us an advantage over earlier humans and primates because it allowed us to contemplate a situation and ponder alternatives for action. This, along with the advantages conferred by mirror neurons, which allow us to intuit what others may be thinking, contributed to our ability to learn, pass on inventions to future generations and improve our problem-solving ability. Throughout most of human history, we were hunter-gatherers, and our brains are engineered accordingly. The author has a jaundiced view of our modern technological society, which, he writes, encourages quick, rash judgments. We fail to spend the time needed to develop thorough mastery of a subject. Greene writes that every human is “born unique,” with specific potential that we can develop if we listen to our inner voice. He offers many interesting but tendentious examples to illustrate his theory, including Einstein, Darwin, Mozart and Temple Grandin. In the case of Darwin, Greene ignores the formative intellectual influences that shaped his thought, including the discovery of geological evolution with which he was familiar before his famous voyage. The author uses Grandin's struggle to overcome autistic social handicaps as a model for the necessity for everyone to create a deceptive social mask.
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should beware of the author's quirky, sometimes misleading brush-stroke characterizations.Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-670-02496-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
