by R.W. Burke ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 10, 2017
A compelling discussion of anger, conflict resolution, and self-improvement.
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In this debut self-help book, a certified professional coach illustrates his own realization of the difficulties of dealing with conflict.
Burke’s early life, he says, was riddled with moments of rage and other negative emotions, and he later set out to figure out what caused him to lead such a drama-fueled existence, full of frustration and fighting. He discovered that emotional triggers and traps propelled him into a seemingly endless cycle of defensiveness, anger, and refusal to accept others’ values. Slowly, he learned how to begin to understand others instead of rejecting their differing opinions, wants, and needs. In this thorough, explorative, and highly personal work, Burke gives readers tools and ideas for self-examination, growth, and conflict resolution. He discusses anecdotes from his coaching work, in which he asked people to explore what was truly important to them, in order to get a better sense of what it was that angered them regarding other people. The book flows well, presenting a readable narrative that effectively weaves together memoir and self-help guidance. Burke skillfully uses his life story to illustrate his points and principles, which may help readers to more easily access difficult topics, such as triggers, abandonment, rejection, and letting go of things that keep one from accepting and forgiving. The book’s most powerful moments involve the author’s epiphanies about taking control of his life. Readers will be able to connect to these and understand his difficult but rewarding journey toward self-awareness. Overall, this work successfully tackles a complex subject that’s relatively uncommon in self-help titles. What makes it particularly stand out is Burke’s willingness to show his story in all lights in the service of his project—what his wife, Denise Burke, in a preface, calls “the good, the bad, and the ugly of my husband’s life.”
A compelling discussion of anger, conflict resolution, and self-improvement.Pub Date: Oct. 10, 2017
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 264
Publisher: Spark Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Chris Gardner with Quincy Troupe ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2006
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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by Daniel Kahneman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 2011
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
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