Practical, actionable advice on how to become a happier, more fully realized grown-up.
A life coach shares his insights about having healthy relationships and morphing into a truly responsible adult in this debut self-development guide.
In this first installment of an intended series, DeSalvo seeks to help others in achieving strong relationships and realizing that “reaching the age of adulthood as an adult is different from reaching the stage of maturity I term Adult with a capital ‘A.’ ” He begins by emphasizing the importance of self-love, then delves into what he terms the 10 elements of a vigorous relationship—trust, communication, honesty, reciprocity, time, compromise, shared values, shared interests, respect, and support—and dedicates a chapter to each of these qualities. Critical to relationship dynamics is identifying and getting out of “The Drama Triangle,” and refusing to engage with others in the roles of Victim, Persecutor, and/or Rescuer. Instead, readers should set beneficial boundaries and strive to align behavior within the “Healthy Triangle,” aiming to be Decisive (including direct, not passive-aggressive, in one’s communications), Empathetic, and/or Vulnerable. DeSalvo also cautions against exercising judgmentalism and making assumptions, and outlines six keys to effective conflict resolution—to show up (including discussing the issue in person), be willing, take responsibility, listen, clarify the conflict, and find agreement. He ends with a plea that today’s volatile world needs more people to progress in this fashion, so that “we all do our part to make human evolution a conscious affair, one in which each of us takes responsibility for living together in harmony and peace.” DeSalvo, a writer, publisher, speaker, and life coach who has studied classical music and art as well as worked for Microsoft, maps out a clear, no-excuses primer on how to become a more conscious, evolved human being. He offers a wealth of nitty-gritty tips on how to successfully execute his concepts, including respecting others’ privacy and responding graciously to social invitations. Because the author mentions that he is drawing on and distilling his own life experiences in this book, one wishes he had included some personal anecdotes. But overall, he offers an accessible, encouraging self-development playbook.
Practical, actionable advice on how to become a happier, more fully realized grown-up.Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9893465-8-0
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Become An Adult
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
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