An engrossing, nuanced reflection on what it means to be human.
A psychologist explores the intersection of faith and material life in this nonfiction philosophical rumination.
“To overcome the challenges of past, present, and future,” writes Tapu in this book’s opening lines, “we need new stories, new guides, new ways.” While careful not to judge the spiritual beliefs of readers (“Your beliefs are important”), the volume urges them to consider the author’s version of a “new faith” that embraces diversity of thought beyond mere tolerance, arguing that “the love of the different will make the world reborn.” Central to the book’s framework is striking a middle ground between spiritual- and material-based belief systems, as it takes a moderate position that condemns fanaticism. For religious readers, for instance, the volume cautions that “a lot of faith can mean a lot of evil” while suggesting to skeptics that “little faith can mean little good. Although metaphysical reflections on the nature and meaning of life are the work’s bread and butter, it occasionally includes personal vignettes on topics such as grief, which is explored through the death of the author’s mother. A final chapter on practicing a “lifestyle for eternity” offers practical advice on ways to obtain “mind wholeness” in the chaos of modernity. A physician and professor of psychology at Romania’s University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine in Bucharest, Tapu is the author of multiple peer-reviewed textbooks. Occasional references to contemporary science notwithstanding, this volume eschews a research-based scholarly approach for a more esoteric pondering of the fundamental questions of human life (“How can we improve ourselves as humans?”; “Is it worth it to be human?”; “How does life last when it is so hard to entertain and death so easy to occur?”). At just 80 pages, the book will engage readers with an accessible, jargon-free writing style. It also strikes a fine balance between both respecting and challenging the core beliefs of readers, from atheists to the religiously devout, encouraging the entire spectrum to “believe in doubt” because “the strongest convictions are the most vulnerable.”
An engrossing, nuanced reflection on what it means to be human.Pub Date: Dec. 12, 2013
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 61
Publisher: Lulu Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 19, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Some of Avant’s mantras are overstated, but her book is magnanimous, inspiring, and relentlessly optimistic.
Memories and life lessons inspired by the author’s mother, who was murdered in 2021.
“Neither my mother nor I knew that her last text to me would be the words ‘Think you’ll be happy,’ ” Avant writes, "but it is fitting that she left me with a mantra for resiliency.” The author, a filmmaker and former U.S. Ambassador to the Bahamas, begins her first book on the night she learned her mother, Jacqueline Avant, had been fatally shot during a home invasion. “One of my first thoughts,” she writes, “was, ‘Oh God, please don’t let me hate this man. Give me the strength not to hate him.’ ” Daughter of Clarence Avant, known as the “Black Godfather” due to his work as a pioneering music executive, the author describes growing up “in a house that had a revolving door of famous people,” from Ella Fitzgerald to Muhammad Ali. “I don’t take for granted anything I have achieved in my life as a Black American woman,” writes Avant. “And I recognize my unique upbringing…..I was taught to honor our past and pay forward our fruits.” The book, which is occasionally repetitive, includes tributes to her mother from figures like Oprah Winfrey and Bill Clinton, but the narrative core is the author’s direct, faith-based, unwaveringly positive messages to readers—e.g., “I don’t want to carry the sadness and anger I have toward the man who did this to my mother…so I’m worshiping God amid the worst storm imaginable”; "Success and feeling good are contagious. I’m all about positive contagious vibrations!” Avant frequently quotes Bible verses, and the bulk of the text reflects the spirit of her daily prayer “that everything is in divine order.” Imploring readers to practice proactive behavior, she writes, “We have to always find the blessing, to be the blessing.”
Some of Avant’s mantras are overstated, but her book is magnanimous, inspiring, and relentlessly optimistic.Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2023
ISBN: 9780063304413
Page Count: 288
Publisher: HarperOne
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
