One hundred simple personality tests that may give readers glimpses of self-awareness.
Clinical psychologist Didato (The Big Book of Personality Tests, 2003, etc.) returns with another collection of all-new, easy tests for general self-improvement. The quick quizzes often have a true/false format, with answers provided. Chapters are divided into different categories, such as “Love and Romance” or “Home and Family.” In addition to these magazine-style quizzes, Didato also includes clear summaries of the topics at hand and an explanation of one’s final score. Written in a style that’s refreshingly devoid of scientific jargon, the test topics run the gamut, from “How Happy Are You?” to “Do You Have an Age Bias?” According to the author, all of his tests are backed up by research studies, clinical experience and surveys from professional literature. For example, in a test to determine one’s knowledge of premenstrual syndrome, he cites Johns Hopkins University as the first institution to develop a nondrug PMS self-management plan. Some answers are easy to guess; for example, in a test to determine if one has the traits of a creative person, one of the “true” answers is “I usually daydream more than most of my friends do.” However, other answers can be more illuminating: In the same creativity test, Didato cites a Yale University study that determined that children closer to their mothers tended to be more creative than those closer to their fathers. One test, which helps ascertain whether readers are happy with their jobs, seems a bit unnecessary; wouldn’t readers already know? Fortunately, Didato delves deeper into readers’ psyches with another compelling quiz that determines whether they use their “whole brains” on the job. This collection of hasty tests and statistics probably shouldn’t be taken as seriously as more researched discussions about personality and the power of the mind, but Didato’s questions about deeper topics—such as one’s potential for family violence—can be steppingstones for further learning.
An entertaining coffee-table book for self-analysis.
Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2014
ISBN: 978-1494211202
Page Count: 186
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 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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