A knowledgeable, enthusiastic guide packed with strategies and encouragement.
A wide-ranging guide to enjoying college in the 21st century.
In his nonfiction debut, Felix draws on the extensive work he’s done with dozens of colleges and interviews he’s conducted with all kinds of students in order to present his readers with a vast amount of practical and personal information broken down into three broad categories: what you need to know before you go, general advice, and more pointed advice to meet the special needs of certain students—all with the aim of maximizing the value everyone can get out of “courses, campus, community, and career.” He notes, for example, how students with disabilities can get the necessary accommodations: “Many accessibility offices can be particularly helpful with the transition to college by orienting you to placement exams, housing options, and your school’s policies and processes—it’s really never too early to get in touch.” Each well-organized chapter includes bulleted points, tips, lined blank spaces for responses to discussion questions, and an ample list of references for further reading. Felix both instructs and supports his readers, reminding them to be patient with important social elements like fitting in or finding friends. He details the benefits and challenges of things like clubs, class projects, sports teams, and other group activities, and he lays out the basics of residence halls. He uses a vibrant, friendly prose style keyed to reduce the intimidation factor of college, and he consistently reassures his readers that “colleges and universities are full of people who want to help you….They are there for the mission and they are there for you.” The resulting atmosphere in the book is one of an open, confidential chat with a sympathetic expert on every aspect of university life. Particularly refreshing is Felix’s emphasis on the potential value of college: In addition to a degree, the college experience should also provide a “guided pathway” to a career.
A knowledgeable, enthusiastic guide packed with strategies and encouragement.Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2022
ISBN: 9781735810768
Page Count: 246
Publisher: ThriveU Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An endearing underdog story that will have readers cheering for the author from a troubled beginning to a sweet, happy end.
The comedian and actor wasn’t kidding around when he titled his memoir.
Scheer, best known for his work on The League, Black Monday, and Veep, begins with some harrowing tales of abuse from his stepfather that he balances by recognizing how they helped make him the successful father, husband, and entertainer he is today. “All the chaos and abuse were so normalized that only in the retelling do I realize just how abnormal they were,” he writes, adding that there were moments when he felt victorious, “like the time I outran a pitchfork he threw at my back.” It’s these triumphs, cut with his self-deprecating humor, that makes Scheer’s memoir so charming and uplifting, despite the often difficult subject matter of his childhood on Long Island. Given his storytelling experience as an actor and a podcaster on How Did This Get Made?—which he co-hosts with his wife, June Diane Raphael, and fellow League actor Jason Mantzoukas—the author manages to make it all entertaining. Even his story about learning that he was lactose intolerant after a serious health scare at Disney World becomes hilarious in retrospect. Scheer also writes about his love of improv, especially with the Upright Citizens Brigade; the auditioning process; and his enjoyment of movies and working at Blockbuster Video. However, the author treats his higher-profile jobs, like his regular gig on VH1’s Best Week Ever, as asides to his life with his wife and family. It’s part of the serious point Scheer wants to make, despite the humor. He chronicles his journey through abuse and into the life he dreamed of to show how he did it: through therapy, self-acceptance, and prioritizing his family.
An endearing underdog story that will have readers cheering for the author from a troubled beginning to a sweet, happy end.Pub Date: May 21, 2024
ISBN: 9780063293717
Page Count: 256
Publisher: HarperOne
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2024
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should...
Greene (The 33 Strategies of War, 2007, etc.) believes that genius can be learned if we pay attention and reject social conformity.
The author suggests that our emergence as a species with stereoscopic, frontal vision and sophisticated hand-eye coordination gave us an advantage over earlier humans and primates because it allowed us to contemplate a situation and ponder alternatives for action. This, along with the advantages conferred by mirror neurons, which allow us to intuit what others may be thinking, contributed to our ability to learn, pass on inventions to future generations and improve our problem-solving ability. Throughout most of human history, we were hunter-gatherers, and our brains are engineered accordingly. The author has a jaundiced view of our modern technological society, which, he writes, encourages quick, rash judgments. We fail to spend the time needed to develop thorough mastery of a subject. Greene writes that every human is “born unique,” with specific potential that we can develop if we listen to our inner voice. He offers many interesting but tendentious examples to illustrate his theory, including Einstein, Darwin, Mozart and Temple Grandin. In the case of Darwin, Greene ignores the formative intellectual influences that shaped his thought, including the discovery of geological evolution with which he was familiar before his famous voyage. The author uses Grandin's struggle to overcome autistic social handicaps as a model for the necessity for everyone to create a deceptive social mask.
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should beware of the author's quirky, sometimes misleading brush-stroke characterizations.Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-670-02496-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2012
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