Thoughtfully counsels readers to find the complements to their strengths: to be direct and adaptable, passionate and...
Smith and Marcum submit a work in progress that seeks to define genuine confidence.
Catalysts, or the agents that motivate our behaviors, are tricky things, suggest Smith and Marcum in this thoughtful, observant behavioral study. They require the correct measure: too much or too little can undermine the strongest positions or astute ideas. A poised confidence—one such catalyst—helps avoid the minefields of arrogance, which leads to warped egotistical behaviors or insecurity, which spawns cripplingly low self-esteem and exaggerated self-doubt. Awareness is crucial to both gaining confidence and competence, say the authors; each new piece of knowledge builds strength. Smith and Marcum note that the reader isn’t in this alone; partnerships are needed by all: “The interactive, socially-wired world is where confidence and competence connect to produce relevance: where what I can do what you need.” The path of confidence is not a straight and narrow one—freethinking and exploration are part of the project—but the blessing of Smith and Marcum’s work is that it’s immensely practical. In daily interactions, before one gets lost in ego distractions (either one’s own or others’), there are warning signs—sometimes subtle, sometimes not—and Smith and Marcum wave great red flags to avoid such distractions. The authors poke readers away from egocentricity here and toward reciprocity there; they nurture respect—respect as a liberating power—by earning it and giving it. The guide explains that people are sensitive to cues that separate the diplomat from the chameleon, the candid from the tactless, the comrade from the toady; sometimes we just need to recalibrate the gauge of self-awareness to correct course. Smith and Marcum explain how to achieve that recalibration and stay balanced.
Thoughtfully counsels readers to find the complements to their strengths: to be direct and adaptable, passionate and compromising, and decisive and thorough.Pub Date: March 5, 2014
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 110
Publisher: Veracity, LC
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
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