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
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
Doyle offers another lucid, inspiring chronicle of female empowerment and the rewards of self-awareness and renewal.
More life reflections from the bestselling author on themes of societal captivity and the catharsis of personal freedom.
In her third book, Doyle (Love Warrior, 2016, etc.) begins with a life-changing event. “Four years ago,” she writes, “married to the father of my three children, I fell in love with a woman.” That woman, Abby Wambach, would become her wife. Emblematically arranged into three sections—“Caged,” “Keys,” “Freedom”—the narrative offers, among other elements, vignettes about the soulful author’s girlhood, when she was bulimic and felt like a zoo animal, a “caged girl made for wide-open skies.” She followed the path that seemed right and appropriate based on her Catholic upbringing and adolescent conditioning. After a downward spiral into “drinking, drugging, and purging,” Doyle found sobriety and the authentic self she’d been suppressing. Still, there was trouble: Straining an already troubled marriage was her husband’s infidelity, which eventually led to life-altering choices and the discovery of a love she’d never experienced before. Throughout the book, Doyle remains open and candid, whether she’s admitting to rigging a high school homecoming court election or denouncing the doting perfectionism of “cream cheese parenting,” which is about “giving your children the best of everything.” The author’s fears and concerns are often mirrored by real-world issues: gender roles and bias, white privilege, racism, and religion-fueled homophobia and hypocrisy. Some stories merely skim the surface of larger issues, but Doyle revisits them in later sections and digs deeper, using friends and familial references to personify their impact on her life, both past and present. Shorter pieces, some only a page in length, manage to effectively translate an emotional gut punch, as when Doyle’s therapist called her blooming extramarital lesbian love a “dangerous distraction.” Ultimately, the narrative is an in-depth look at a courageous woman eager to share the wealth of her experiences by embracing vulnerability and reclaiming her inner strength and resiliency.
Doyle offers another lucid, inspiring chronicle of female empowerment and the rewards of self-awareness and renewal.Pub Date: March 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0125-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
PROFILES
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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