A wise and easy-to-read manual for thriving in Ivy League admissions and beyond.
Huang presents a how-to guide for college-bound students applying to Ivy League schools.
From the introduction, the author makes it clear that his book is aimed at prospective university students who wish to “present themselves in their best, most brilliant light without coming across as egotistical, entitled, or just unpleasant to be around.” In a separate letter to parents, he notes that the Ivy League schools aren’t a good fit for everyone, and that he won’t be providing the typical recommendations for extracurriculars and AP classes that other guides do. What Huang offers instead is the perspective of an admission reader—the “tired, overworked, bleary-eyed” person speed-reading through the digital records of thousands of students. Given the nature of modern-day admissions, he advises teens to start early by developing their “personal brand,” ensuring that their actions and choices reflect the persona they wish to convey in essays, resumes, and recommendation letters. In the book’s second section, Huang breaks down his advice into easily applicable “tactics, techniques, and procedures.” Throughout, his tone is honest, sometimes hard-nosed, and intended for the student (or parent) who wants to understand how the process really works. Huang offers personal anecdotes about former clients he’s helped, including a student who applied to the top 17 schools in the United States and had to create a spreadsheet to keep track of the 57 supplemental essays that had to be written as a result: “We identified 13 major themes, and then sorted the 57 essays into their respective themes….In several cases we were able to reduce, reuse, and recycle.” This focus on direct, practical advice, taken from experience, effectively extends beyond the college application process. Reflecting on the benefits of having a job as a teenager, he advises, “If you are working at a retail store, pay attention to how it runs so you could be qualified to manage the store, don’t just clock in and clock out.” In the end, the book not only prepares one for acceptance into top colleges, but also provides tools for succeeding in the larger world.
A wise and easy-to-read manual for thriving in Ivy League admissions and beyond.Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2023
ISBN: 9798863606675
Page Count: 152
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A sweet final word from an actor who leaves a legacy of compassion and kindness.
The late actor offers a gentle guide for living with more purpose, love, and joy.
Mixing poetry, prescriptive challenges, and elements of memoir, Heche (1969-2022) delivers a narrative that is more encouraging workbook than life story. The author wants to share what she has discovered over the course of a life filled with abuse, advocacy, and uncanny turning points. Her greatest discovery? Love. “Open yourself up to love and transform kindness from a feeling you extend to those around you to actions that you perform for them,” she writes. “Only by caring can we open ourselves up to the universe, and only by opening up to the universe can we fully experience all the wonders that it holds, the greatest of which is love.” Throughout the occasionally overwrought text, Heche is heavy on the concept of care. She wants us to experience joy as she does, and she provides a road map for how to get there. Instead of slinking away from Hollywood and the ridicule that she endured there, Heche found the good and hung on, with Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford starring as particularly shining knights in her story. Some readers may dismiss this material as vapid Hollywood stuff, but Heche’s perspective is an empathetic blend of Buddhism (minimize suffering), dialectical behavioral therapy (tolerating distress), Christianity (do unto others), and pre-Socratic philosophy (sufficient reason). “You’re not out to change the whole world, but to increase the levels of love and kindness in the world, drop by drop,” she writes. “Over time, these actions wear away the coldness, hate, and indifference around us as surely as water slowly wearing away stone.” Readers grieving her loss will take solace knowing that she lived her love-filled life on her own terms. Heche’s business and podcast partner, Heather Duffy, writes the epilogue, closing the book on a life well lived.
A sweet final word from an actor who leaves a legacy of compassion and kindness.Pub Date: Jan. 24, 2023
ISBN: 9781627783316
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Viva Editions
Review Posted Online: Feb. 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2023
Perhaps not magic but appealing nonetheless.
Want to get ahead in business? Consult a dictionary.
By Wharton School professor Berger’s account, much of the art of persuasion lies in the art of choosing the right word. Want to jump ahead of others waiting in line to use a photocopy machine, even if they’re grizzled New Yorkers? Throw a because into the equation (“Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine, because I’m in a rush?”), and you’re likely to get your way. Want someone to do your copying for you? Then change your verbs to nouns: not “Can you help me?” but “Can you be a helper?” As Berger notes, there’s a subtle psychological shift at play when a person becomes not a mere instrument in helping but instead acquires an identity as a helper. It’s the little things, one supposes, and the author offers some interesting strategies that eager readers will want to try out. Instead of alienating a listener with the omniscient should, as in “You should do this,” try could instead: “Well, you could…” induces all concerned “to recognize that there might be other possibilities.” Berger’s counsel that one should use abstractions contradicts his admonition to use concrete language, and it doesn’t help matters to say that each is appropriate to a particular situation, while grammarians will wince at his suggestion that a nerve-calming exercise to “try talking to yourself in the third person (‘You can do it!’)” in fact invokes the second person. Still, there are plenty of useful insights, particularly for students of advertising and public speaking. It’s intriguing to note that appeals to God are less effective in securing a loan than a simple affirmative such as “I pay all bills…on time”), and it’s helpful to keep in mind that “the right words used at the right time can have immense power.”
Perhaps not magic but appealing nonetheless.Pub Date: March 7, 2023
ISBN: 9780063204935
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Harper Business
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2023
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