An uplifting and succinct collection of life lessons.
A manual offers an intriguing approach to pursuing purpose by breaking the rules.
On the road to entrepreneurial success, Russo experienced his fair share of business and personal failures, including divorce and struggles with substance abuse. Rising above such challenges made him realize that his first book, The Art of WHY (2016), required reexamination: “I’ve learned our WHY sometimes needs to be broken so that we can grow as we put the pieces back together.” The notion of rule-breaking is not new, but the author’s briskly written guide skillfully details a set of 10 sensible self-improvement steps—five “start-up steps” and five “lifestyle steps.” Step 1, “Break Your Why,” isn’t so much about breaking down as it is about building up, for it starts with the ability to “know our WHY.” Similarly, Step 2, “Make (or Break) a Plan,” can be viewed through two opposing lenses. While this make-or-break language may lead to some confusion, Russo weaves in his own story of regeneration to clarify the text. Steps 3, 4, and 5 seem to refine the concept. Step 4, for example, stresses the importance of building a support team of advisers and mentors to optimize success. The second half of the book concentrates on the five “lifestyle” steps. Here, Russo delivers some valuable counsel about learning patience and persistence, discovering how to accept or adapt, turning “mistakes into opportunities,” celebrating milestones, and recognizing the importance of giving back. In fact, giving back is the author’s overarching message; he poetically proclaims: “I don’t really own anything until I give it away! Think of it as philanthropy of the soul.” Each step constitutes a chapter in the book and is enriched with numerous anecdotes, many from Russo’s own experiences. The most helpful addition to every step is an interactive section at the end of each chapter entitled “Contemplate,” which encourages readers to “formulate” written answers to key questions and “activate” a strategy. The author writes with sincerity and passion, reflecting on his own life with pragmatic maturity while instilling a sense of confidence in readers that success is achievable.
An uplifting and succinct collection of life lessons.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-64543-823-6
Page Count: 168
Publisher: Amplify Publishing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2022
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
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
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