A good investment for anyone wondering how to find meaningful, long-lasting love.
Kincross, a third-generation psychic, tackles the murky and often disappointing task of finding love in this self-help guide.
Divided into three sections, Kincross’ debut offers insight into the illusions that can trip up someone searching for a mate. It also recommends inner improvements everyone should make to prepare him or herself for love as well as strategies to find not only a relationship, but the right one. Kincross debunks many of the romantic myths perpetuated by Hollywood, specifically the 2001 movie Serendipity, a film that plays upon the desire for “signs” and cosmic indicators that two people are meant to be. Kincross calls into question the whole idea of two people being made for each other and destined to be together, citing this misconception as one of the main reasons why dating can be so difficult and disappointing. In general, Kincross objects to the overly romanticized concept of a soul mate, or at least the determined pursuit of finding one. Anyone can be a soul mate, Kincross argues, as she offers tips and guidance on making a relationship work with whomever one feels a connection. The onus, she says, is on the reader to make love happen. In addition to presenting a paradigm shift when it comes to finding love, Kincross compels her reader to delve inward and make strides in self-discovery by engaging in regular journal writing. Though material within sections can be scattered, she ends her chapters with provocative, well-targeted questions that will help readers focus and achieve an appropriate level of honesty to aid in determining what kind of spouse he or she truly needs. Written in a friendly, approachable and easy-to-read style, this guide is filled with spiritual thoughts as well as practical guidance from a narrator who comes across as a longtime friend and sage adviser.
A good investment for anyone wondering how to find meaningful, long-lasting love.Pub Date: Feb. 20, 2013
ISBN: 978-1481226899
Page Count: 184
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: April 29, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The Stoics did much better with the much shorter Enchiridion.
A follow-on to the author’s garbled but popular 48 Laws of Power, promising that readers will learn how to win friends and influence people, to say nothing of outfoxing all those “toxic types” out in the world.
Greene (Mastery, 2012, etc.) begins with a big sell, averring that his book “is designed to immerse you in all aspects of human behavior and illuminate its root causes.” To gauge by this fat compendium, human behavior is mostly rotten, a presumption that fits with the author’s neo-Machiavellian program of self-validation and eventual strategic supremacy. The author works to formula: First, state a “law,” such as “confront your dark side” or “know your limits,” the latter of which seems pale compared to the Delphic oracle’s “nothing in excess.” Next, elaborate on that law with what might seem to be as plain as day: “Losing contact with reality, we make irrational decisions. That is why our success often does not last.” One imagines there might be other reasons for the evanescence of glory, but there you go. Finally, spin out a long tutelary yarn, seemingly the longer the better, to shore up the truism—in this case, the cometary rise and fall of one-time Disney CEO Michael Eisner, with the warning, “his fate could easily be yours, albeit most likely on a smaller scale,” which ranks right up there with the fortuneteller’s “I sense that someone you know has died" in orders of probability. It’s enough to inspire a new law: Beware of those who spend too much time telling you what you already know, even when it’s dressed up in fresh-sounding terms. “Continually mix the visceral with the analytic” is the language of a consultant’s report, more important-sounding than “go with your gut but use your head, too.”
The Stoics did much better with the much shorter Enchiridion.Pub Date: Oct. 23, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-42814-5
Page Count: 580
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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