A cheerful collection of paranormal phenomena, correct prophecies, alien encounters, and unlikely historical events.
A collection of wacky beliefs, incidents, and conspiracy theories that will amuse many readers.
Schreiber, co-host of the hit podcast No Such Thing as a Fish, assembles a selection of his more oddball interviews and adds a torrent of historical eccentrics and anecdotes. Skeptics will find good reason to gnash their teeth, and lovers of alternative facts will enjoy an embarrassment of riches. One fascinating story involves the work of neuroscientist John Lilly, who sought “to teach dolphins to speak the English language so perfectly that they would be given a chair at the United Nations to speak on behalf of all marine mammals.” Surprisingly, the chestnut about the faked Apollo landing is absent, but the astronauts themselves were apparently an offbeat bunch, deeply religious before or converted by the experience, when not preoccupied by the paranormal. The book is overpopulated with aliens, whether they were witnessed or were historical figures (Jesus may have been one). Stories of encountering ghosts or talking to the dead are almost too common to attract readers’ attention, but Schreiber collects a crowd of them. Billions of mildly interesting coincidences occur every day, and nearly every prediction of the future turns out to be wrong, but a few hit the mark. Schreiber delivers breathless accounts of many. The author portrays himself as a man of good sense partial to scientific evidence. He also knows that debunkers sell modestly, but outright zany authors and books often make the bestseller lists. He admits doubts about some particularly outlandish stories but otherwise confines his qualms to the occasional skeptical footnote or hint (“according to science”). Ghost hunters and conspiracy theorists will find plenty of red meat to chew on, whether Schreiber is discussing clairvoyance, “pyramid energy,” “the theory of the hollow earth,” or the idea that time travelers sank the Titanic, not an iceberg.
A cheerful collection of paranormal phenomena, correct prophecies, alien encounters, and unlikely historical events.Pub Date: June 27, 2023
ISBN: 9780063259195
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 3, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023
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
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.
A warts-and-all portrait of the famed techno-entrepreneur—and the warts are nearly beyond counting.
To call Elon Musk (b. 1971) “mercurial” is to undervalue the term; to call him a genius is incorrect. Instead, Musk has a gift for leveraging the genius of others in order to make things work. When they don’t, writes eminent biographer Isaacson, it’s because the notoriously headstrong Musk is so sure of himself that he charges ahead against the advice of others: “He does not like to share power.” In this sharp-edged biography, the author likens Musk to an earlier biographical subject, Steve Jobs. Given Musk’s recent political turn, born of the me-first libertarianism of the very rich, however, Henry Ford also comes to mind. What emerges clearly is that Musk, who may or may not have Asperger’s syndrome (“Empathy did not come naturally”), has nurtured several obsessions for years, apart from a passion for the letter X as both a brand and personal name. He firmly believes that “all requirements should be treated as recommendations”; that it is his destiny to make humankind a multi-planetary civilization through innovations in space travel; that government is generally an impediment and that “the thought police are gaining power”; and that “a maniacal sense of urgency” should guide his businesses. That need for speed has led to undeniable successes in beating schedules and competitors, but it has also wrought disaster: One of the most telling anecdotes in the book concerns Musk’s “demon mode” order to relocate thousands of Twitter servers from Sacramento to Portland at breakneck speed, which trashed big parts of the system for months. To judge by Isaacson’s account, that may have been by design, for Musk’s idea of creative destruction seems to mean mostly chaos.
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781982181284
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
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