A conversational, upbeat advice book that draws on the author’s life experience.
A successful CEO meditates on how to give life meaning, structure, and purpose in this self-help book.
For Jackson, the head of staffing company Jackson Healthcare, finding one’s purpose in life begins with recalling that we all die, eventually, and will likely be forgotten by society at large. The brevity of one’s time on Earth is what makes the questions such as “what’s the best way to enjoy the gift of your life?” so urgent. He asserts that people must make important choices to answer such questions, and this book is framed as a collection of ideas on how to do so. Divided into sections on “Perspective,” “Understanding,” “Reflection,” “Examination,” “Consideration,” and “Application,” its individual chapters are loosely organized around such topics as seeing life as a journey and recognizing various types of happiness. Jackson mixes personal anecdotes, drawn from his career, athletic accomplishments, and family life, with musings on philosophy, religion, and literature; he also draws on concepts attributed to Aristotle, Jesus, and Viktor Frankl, among others. He mostly steers clear of self-help cliches but supplies comforting narratives about his ancestors, who included bootleggers and struggling farmers; he also notes that his father, who was raised in foster care, informed his views on parenting in an even more direct way. He includes practical advice throughout, noting the benefits of interviewing oneself and creating a rule book for one’s life; he also writes that one can rely on “the Power of Three” to keep one’s goals achievable by focusing on only three priorities at any given time. His thoughts on the loss of meaning that one may experience upon retirement speak to a personal concern that many readers may find relatable. Jackson’s writing is fluid, with a tone that calls to mind a friendly, benevolent boss. Although some readers may find that his recipe for success is not perfectly straightforward, it does contain ingredients for a happy life. Searching readers may benefit from this book and may be inspired to pick up other works that Jackson mentions in its pages.
A conversational, upbeat advice book that draws on the author’s life experience.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9798886452877
Page Count: 264
Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
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 blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.
A former New York City dancer reflects on her zesty heyday in the 1970s.
Discovered on a Manhattan street in 2020 and introduced on Stanton’s Humans of New York Instagram page, Johnson, then 76, shares her dynamic history as a “fiercely independent” Black burlesque dancer who used the stage name Tanqueray and became a celebrated fixture in midtown adult theaters. “I was the only black girl making white girl money,” she boasts, telling a vibrant story about sex and struggle in a bygone era. Frank and unapologetic, Johnson vividly captures aspects of her former life as a stage seductress shimmying to blues tracks during 18-minute sets or sewing lingerie for plus-sized dancers. Though her work was far from the Broadway shows she dreamed about, it eventually became all about the nightly hustle to simply survive. Her anecdotes are humorous, heartfelt, and supremely captivating, recounted with the passion of a true survivor and the acerbic wit of a weathered, street-wise New Yorker. She shares stories of growing up in an abusive household in Albany in the 1940s, a teenage pregnancy, and prison time for robbery as nonchalantly as she recalls selling rhinestone G-strings to prostitutes to make them sparkle in the headlights of passing cars. Complemented by an array of revealing personal photographs, the narrative alternates between heartfelt nostalgia about the seedier side of Manhattan’s go-go scene and funny quips about her unconventional stage performances. Encounters with a variety of hardworking dancers, drag queens, and pimps, plus an account of the complexities of a first love with a drug-addled hustler, fill out the memoir with personality and candor. With a narrative assist from Stanton, the result is a consistently titillating and often moving story of human struggle as well as an insider glimpse into the days when Times Square was considered the Big Apple’s gloriously unpolished underbelly. The book also includes Yee’s lush watercolor illustrations.
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-27827-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2022
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