A potent slice of social commentary and strategic advice on reclaiming valuable time and personal joy.
A filmmaker and producer maps out clear-cut methods to uncomplicate life, online and off.
The Covid-19 pandemic took a particularly devastating toll on Gambuto, as he struggled to find breathing room for six months while quarantining in his small Manhattan apartment. Furthermore, he was “tired of being tethered” to emails, auto-subscriptions, unfulfilling personal relationships, and compulsive purchases of unnecessary things. Building on his 2020 viral essay “Prepare for the Ultimate Gaslighting,” Gambuto seeks to help others declutter by investigating what has made levels of happiness and leisure time in America consistently plummet in the last few years. He cites relentless levels of commitments, agendas, voracious consumerism, and social treadmills as the main culprits, and he swiftly but informatively moves through the relentless mechanics of “click-up economics,” strategic branding, compulsive consumption, and the conundrum of corporations gaslighting a pandemic-weary public. As he emphasizes repeatedly, breaking free from these habits and hindrances takes steely determination. He offers a viable prescription of email unsubscribing, browser blocking, app downsizing, and embarking on a “digital detox,” and he also shows us how to renegotiate work or personal relationships. The author dispenses step-by-step instructions on how to effect change and distance oneself from automation and become resistant to the sly allure of advertising. Gambuto’s enthusiastic delivery and practical self-help tactics will remind readers that significant internal work is necessary to clear out the clutter, making room for beneficial relationships in real life and online. Witty and passionately written, the book shows that “there actually is time to process your life” once you eliminate seductive inbox offers, opt-in links, premium memberships, and toxic “people subscriptions.” It all starts with the “deeply gratifying” process of cutting the subscription cord and being wholly present for renewal with oneself and communion with others.
A potent slice of social commentary and strategic advice on reclaiming valuable time and personal joy.Pub Date: Aug. 8, 2023
ISBN: 9781668009543
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Avid Reader Press
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 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
BOOK REVIEW
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BOOK TO SCREEN
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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