Berry presents his positive plan for life and career transformation.
As a business leader who has worked globally for Fortune 500 companies, Berry now uses his communication skills to head his own business specializing in executive coaching and leadership development. However, this brisk guide is not only for the business-minded, as anyone needing to break out of a job rut can benefit from the author’s reader-friendly advice. Quoting Albert Einstein’s famous “insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result,” Berry doesn’t give simplistic solutions; instead, he prompts readers to overcome negative mental barriers and achieve full life and career potential. The book is clearly divided by chapter into eight principles, beginning with “Why Change?” and culminating in “Creating Opportunities for Success.” Each chapter ends with questions, or “thought stimulators,” to encourage self-evaluation. For example, those who are unsure of a career path can review a list of 377 personal values (consistency, assertiveness, etc.) in the book’s appendix—ultimately the list should be narrowed to four major values as part of an exercise to help determine personal job compatibility. A chapter on networking suggests easily implemented ideas for maintaining professional relationships; e.g., using technology to connect with others or remembering special events like birthdays. The author also discusses the powerful concept of product branding and how to utilize advertising concepts for “personal rebranding.” Berry’s voice is affecting as he encourages readers to have an open mind and embrace new perspectives. He demonstrates an engaging passion for his work; during two-year negotiations on behalf of an American company that wished to purchase a Turkish company, Berry made an effort to learn the Turkish culture, and when he brought prayer beads to a meeting, the Turkish company’s otherwise stern patriarch was pleased and deal was struck. Some of the book’s questions are reminiscent of a college career day, but Berry gives fresh, modern insight for those who desire to make changes for the better. An inspirational tool for personal and professional growth.
Pub Date: Dec. 3, 2010
ISBN: 978-1432756420
Page Count: 206
Publisher: Outskirts
Review Posted Online: Dec. 27, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
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