by Louis E. Newman ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 7, 2023
A functional, no-frills guide to critical thinking for rising college freshmen.
Newman prepares incoming college students to get more out of their educations with this educational guide.
Many soon-to-be college students view college as a way to prepare themselves for their future jobs or to improve their earning potential. Indeed, with so much emphasis placed on how college qualifies students to pursue various career paths, it’s easy to forget its primary purpose: education. A college education is about more than the rote memorization of facts and formulas; it’s also about more than building a resume or securing an internship. With this book, the author argues that the true value of attending college is the experience of learning new things, which will hopefully make the student a more thoughtful, versatile, and capable human being: “College will require you to learn new things in new ways,” writes Newman in his introduction. “Whatever your specific interests or long-range plans, you certainly wouldn’t choose to devote this time and money to higher education if you weren’t looking to become more educated. Obvious as that sounds, many students begin their college careers without reflecting on just what that means….” Specifically, the author outlines the higher-order critical thinking skills that are essential for success in college and beyond. Newman refreshes skills related to reading, writing, quantitative reasoning, and research that students may have learned in high school but need updating for collegiate learning. He also offers sketches of various academic disciplines, providing samples of the prompts and assignments students might encounter within them. The idea is that, by the end of the book, an incoming college student will have picked up a number of skills it might otherwise take several semesters of trial and error to acquire.
The book is essentially pedagogical—it teaches the reader how to learn better. It’s a worthy endeavor and a valuable one for those industrious enough to make their way through these chapters. Newman’s prose is cheerful and easy to follow, if not always terribly gripping: “Each time you walk into class and take your seat, look around you and take in who is on this journey with you. In most cases, you won’t know them, but given that you are classmates, you have an opportunity to contribute to their learning, and they to yours.” He goes out of his way to demonstrate the thinking behind the concepts he discusses, opening the reader’s eyes (perhaps for the first time) to the reasons underlying the ways they have been and will be taught. The author provides numerous practice exercises to give the reader a taste of what they will encounter as well as sections in which to journal and consider their own interests and goals. The format is fairly standard, with little to distinguish it visually from the numerous other guides and study books aimed at high school students in the run-up to college. Indeed, the question may be not whether the book will help students but whether readers will willingly read and internalize its lessons. Those who do will undoubtedly have a leg up in their first semester.
Pub Date: March 7, 2023
ISBN: 9781635767957
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Radius Book Group
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Share your opinion of this book
by Anne Heche ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 24, 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
Share your opinion of this book
by Jonah Berger ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 7, 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
Share your opinion of this book
More by Jonah Berger
BOOK REVIEW
by Jonah Berger
BOOK REVIEW
by Jonah Berger
BOOK REVIEW
by Jonah Berger
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Trouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Trouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.