AS THE ROOSTER CROWS EARTHIAN OKNESS INCREASES

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AS THE ROOSTER CROWS EARTHIAN OKNESS INCREASES

Name: AS THE ROOSTER CROWS EARTHIAN OKNESS INCREASES
Author: Richard John Stapleton
ISBN: 978-0-933594-01-2

by Richard John Stapleton ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 15, 2022

A smart but rambling series of discussions on everything that’s wrong with the world today.

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In this novel, an ordinary man gets invited to a series of conferences about saving the world.

As this “experience and research-based” book opens, a man named Henry keeps getting persistent emails from a mysterious organization fronted by Dr. Rout Logger telling him he’s been randomly selected to participate in an unusual series of meetings. These emails are offering Henry $5,000 per meeting to attend a string of group discussions about the survival and well-being of life on the planet. Henry attends the first of these meetings in Louisville, Kentucky, where he learns the leader of each session will be determined by spinning a copper rooster called “The Truther.” The organization behind these sessions is convinced that if humans don’t make “significant changes” in their “feeling, thinking, deciding, and behavior” patterns, the survival of Earth might be in jeopardy. The purpose of the gatherings is to increase human “Okness” in order to prevent this catastrophe. Stapleton kicks all of this off with a preface in which he mentions that “transactional analysis” movements like “I’m OK—You’re OK” and “Life Positions” will be central to his book. He, amazingly, also advises readers unfamiliar with such movements to look them up online. He then proceeds to lecture for 350+ pages. Only nominally is this work a novel; there are no distinct characters, no plot, and no dramatic arcs. Each “Okness” meeting kicks off with a spin of the rooster and then immediately settles into paragraph after paragraph of Stapleton himself, under the paper-thin veneer of his cast, examining “Spaceship Earth” and all the troubles besetting it, from unemployment and the erosion of the middle class to Trumpian politics and climate change. Many readers will find much of the speechifying sage and intriguing with plenty of rich, thought-provoking details. But those coming to this novel for a story will be disappointed.

A smart but rambling series of discussions on everything that’s wrong with the world today.

Pub Date: March 15, 2022

ISBN: 978-0-933594-01-2

Page Count: 356

Publisher: Effective Learning Publications

Review Posted Online: June 20, 2022

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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by Richard John Stapleton

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BETWEEN SISTERS

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2003

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...

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Sisters in and out of love.

Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.

Pub Date: May 1, 2003

ISBN: 0-345-45073-6

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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THE WOMEN
by Kristin Hannah

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THE FOUR WINDS
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE GREAT ALONE
by Kristin Hannah

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THE CORRESPONDENT

by Virginia Evans ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 6, 2025

An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.

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A lifetime’s worth of letters combine to portray a singular character.

Sybil Van Antwerp, a cantankerous but exceedingly well-mannered septuagenarian, is the titular correspondent in Evans’ debut novel. Sybil has retired from a beloved job as chief clerk to a judge with whom she had previously been in private legal practice. She is the divorced mother of two living adult children and one who died when he was 8. She is a reader of novels, a gardener, and a keen observer of human nature. But the most distinguishing thing about Sybil is her lifelong practice of letter writing. As advancing vision problems threaten Sybil’s carefully constructed way of life—in which letters take the place of personal contact and engagement—she must reckon with unaddressed issues from her past that threaten the house of cards (letters, really) she has built around herself. Sybil’s relationships are gradually revealed in the series of letters sent to and received from, among others, her brother, sister-in-law, children, former work associates, and, intriguingly, literary icons including Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry. Perhaps most affecting is the series of missives Sybil writes but never mails to a shadowy figure from her past. Thoughtful musings on the value and immortal quality of letters and the written word populate one of Sybil’s notes to a young correspondent while other messages are laugh-out-loud funny, tinged with her characteristic blunt tartness. Evans has created a brusque and quirky yet endearing main character with no shortage of opinions and advice for others but who fails to excavate the knotty difficulties of her own life. As Sybil grows into a delayed self-awareness, her letters serve as a chronicle of fitful growth.

An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.