An advice book that too frequently relies on outdated gender stereotypes.
A debut relationship guide for women looking for men who will treat them like princesses.
This self-help relationship book is divided into 36 short chapters covering such diverse topics as “Do you wear your sexy underwear for you or your man?” and “Divorce—the slow fading of your bond to each other.” Each chapter is divided into two sections titled “Personal” and “Professional” to separate the advice the author has gleaned from life experience (she’s been married to her current husband for 10 years, and was married to her first husband for 16 before she was widowed) and the knowledge she has gained through her career as a psychologist. The sections are so similar, however, that readers may find that this distinction feels needlessly complicated. The overall conceit that the book “contains real stories and allusions to common fairy tales we know from our childhood” also feels a bit threadbare; James frequently refers to women as “princesses” (“Just remember, he married you because you are his princess and you have to be sure to be like a princess”), but the only story she specifically references is “Cinderella.” Most of the advice is grounded in generalizations about men and women that seem old-fashioned: “Equal rights does not mean it’s permissible to ask a man for a date, to call a man, tell off color jokes, get drunk, or use profane language.” The author frequently addresses readers as “Girlfriend,” but she may not come across as particularly relatable, as most of her personal stories are about how wonderful her current relationship is. It might have been helpful to balance these observations with harder lessons she’s learned, but the book instead presents romantic relationships in broad, impersonal terms. Her chapter about divorce, for example, includes the assertion that “it is easy to get out of a marriage”—something that many divorcees might disagree with.
An advice book that too frequently relies on outdated gender stereotypes.Pub Date: Nov. 28, 2013
ISBN: 978-1492926825
Page Count: 182
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Dec. 30, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
IN THE NEWS
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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