Easy-reading thoughts to ponder in an eye-catching design.
In her energetic self-help debut, Conger offers familiar ideas for personal improvement and success.
Like many others on the shelf, this perkier-than-thou book believes in the power of positive thinking. Splashed with bold color designs and action photographs of people—like a woman with outstretched arms in a field of bright yellow flowers—Conger’s exuberant pep talk feels like a warm and fuzzy motivational poster. Many of the colorful pictures include inspirational quotes, such as these attributed to Estée Lauder: “I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.” Indeed, hard work and grit are the cornerstones of Conger’s message, one often tinged with humor. A photo of a pretty young woman asleep in bed is accompanied by the message, “GET THE F*@% OUT OF BED.” Conger also jokingly compares the Broadway musical Annie to her own “hard knock life.” When Conger was 3, her mother died, and she had a turbulent adolescence. But she didn’t let hardship stop her from reaching her goals. This slim, easy-to-flip volume offers familiar concepts for self-improvement, such as becoming a more loving person (the author suggests smiling at cashiers) and learning gratitude. Conger’s upbeat kaleidoscope of advice isn’t a step-by-step guide, but it does have some usable ideas. For example, to cultivate a grateful heart, Conger suggests sending 10 thank-you cards to people and keeping a “gratitude journal.” Likewise, she recommends Dr. B.J. Fogg’s “Tiny Habits” (and reading for four minutes a day) to foster positive life habits. The author’s voice is friendly, and she sometimes addresses readers directly when making a point: e.g., “Are you ready for it?” She also offers book recommendations, like Smile and Move by Sam Parker, and thought-provoking items, such as the “How Not To Be Thankful” poster by Mark Russell available on her website. Readers looking for in-depth discussion might not be sated, but those without a lot of reading time can find inspiration in Conger’s quick, cheerful words.
Easy-reading thoughts to ponder in an eye-catching design.Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-937498-78-8
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Elevate
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Calling such strategies “logical” may be overstating his case, but Bader's treatise does cast light on the murky and largely...
An insider's look at what goes on behind the scenes of our desires.
Drawing on more than 20 years' experience as a psychoanalyst and therapist, Bader attempts to provide a useful guide for both the layperson and clinician regarding the meaning and purpose of our erotic daydreams and sexual fantasies, the “theatrical” setting for arousal. Noting the high number of Americans who purport to be dissatisfied in the bedroom and citing his patients' case histories, he contends that despite the relative permissiveness and hedonism of our culture, guilt and worry still hold sway. The cornerstone of Bader's theory is his contention that the primary concern of our unconscious minds is our physical and psychological safety. In this context, one's fantasy life becomes a sort of “canary in the mine” indicating either a healthy or oppressive atmosphere. Sexual fantasies, which he equates with sexual preferences, set and maintain these safe conditions, thereby permitting arousal. The real source of problems both in and out of the bedroom, as Bader sees it, are the pathogenic beliefs we hold and act upon. (“Sex begins in the mind and then travels downward,” he declares.) These beliefs comprise our views of reality as seen through the distorting lens of childhood shame, rejection, and helplessness, which lead to sexual inhibitions and a whole array of self-defeating behavior. Approached in this manner, bondage, group sex, voyeurism, fetishism, gang rape, asphyxiation, and the many other consensual “roles” Bader touches on, become the imaginary means to a pleasurable end. Sexual fantasy becomes “a sign of health, a way to solve problems,” so-called “kinky” scenarios simply implying a more convoluted route to safety.
Calling such strategies “logical” may be overstating his case, but Bader's treatise does cast light on the murky and largely unexamined question of why sexual fantasies turn us on.Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-312-26933-1
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Dunne/St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2001
As heartfelt as it is breathless: administer the lithium, but heed the sensible advice, too.
An autobiography cum motivational prairie fire from the woman who helped bring Pacific Gas to its just deserts.
Brockovich has gone on, after Julia Roberts played her in the movie, to become a much-desired motivational speaker. At least she has the story to back up her hard-won realization of some time-honored truisms. Nothing here provides a quick fix, but all her counsel can be applied immediately. Brockovich readily admits she was her own worse enemy: her self-image was shabby, she made willfully stupid choices in boyfriends and husbands, she trampled on her parents’ decency and love. But she also remembered a few of their lessons, and she remembered them at the right time, in time to save her sorry soul. You’ve got to grab control of your destiny, she exhorts; it’s not always going to be fun, you’ll have “to make the hard choice, to bite the bullet.” Virtues like honesty and generosity are espoused, and so are abilities like listening and empathy, which she learned at the feet of the Pacific Gas victims. Keep your ego in check, advises Brockovich, who refers to herself as “some kooky big-busted blonde in cha-cha heels and leather skirt without a law degree.” Understand that it is conviction in doing what you think is right and sticking to it until the end (though she also has a chapter on folding your hand) that will make you not just a success but happy with yourself. Though collaborator Eliot (Love Unlimited, 1999, etc.) was presumably brought in to polish the prose, he left an awful lot of exclamation marks, as well as such oddities as “my postmovie life has been a wild ride, at times enervating, at times nerve-wracking.”
As heartfelt as it is breathless: administer the lithium, but heed the sensible advice, too.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-07-138379-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: McGraw-Hill
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2001
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