A broad but meaningful book of advice on looking beyond the self.
A psychological self-help book that centers on how to best get along with others.
Business consultant and Utah State University entrepreneurship professor Glauser presents six life principles, which he calls “universal truths,” in a work that’s aimed at helping every person, regardless of their background or perspective, live a more peaceful life. Each section breaks down one of the six principles—“Give Up the Ego,” “Refrain From Judging,” “Do Good Deeds Daily,” “Forgive One Another,” “Share Our Good Fortune,” and “Care for Our Needy”—and all are given equal weight in their power to potentially transform one’s life. Although readers may find these ideas simplistic or even overplayed, the book engagingly presents them with a back-to-basics mentality. The author argues that the actual practice of these ideas is relatively rare, especially in American culture, and this lack plays out in politics, in the workforce, with stewardship of the environment, and in simple, day-to-day interactions with others. As a result, he says, life can often feel hopeless and polarized in ways that also seem insurmountable; however, this book presents a more optimistic view. Glauser’s work is refreshingly simple and straightforward compared to many other self-help works in that it specifically centers on kindness and earnest reflection; many other advice books focus solely on the self, but Glauser’s engagingly emphasizes community, collectivism, and charity. Overall, the prose is concise, easily digestible, and warm in tone, which makes the reading experience both informative and enjoyable. The book’s presentation of the author’s personal experience, its references to studies touting the advantages of altruism, and the simplicity of it message make it feel simultaneously effective and hopeful.
A broad but meaningful book of advice on looking beyond the self.Pub Date: June 21, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5445-3169-4
Page Count: 250
Publisher: Lioncrest Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
For Howard Zinn, long-time civil rights and anti-war activist, history and ideology have a lot in common. Since he thinks that everything is in someone's interest, the historian—Zinn posits—has to figure out whose interests he or she is defining/defending/reconstructing (hence one of his previous books, The Politics of History). Zinn has no doubts about where he stands in this "people's history": "it is a history disrespectful of governments and respectful of people's movements of resistance." So what we get here, instead of the usual survey of wars, presidents, and institutions, is a survey of the usual rebellions, strikes, and protest movements. Zinn starts out by depicting the arrival of Columbus in North America from the standpoint of the Indians (which amounts to their standpoint as constructed from the observations of the Europeans); and, after easily establishing the cultural disharmony that ensued, he goes on to the importation of slaves into the colonies. Add the laborers and indentured servants that followed, plus women and later immigrants, and you have Zinn's amorphous constituency. To hear Zinn tell it, all anyone did in America at any time was to oppress or be oppressed; and so he obscures as much as his hated mainstream historical foes do—only in Zinn's case there is that absurd presumption that virtually everything that came to pass was the work of ruling-class planning: this amounts to one great indictment for conspiracy. Despite surface similarities, this is not a social history, since we get no sense of the fabric of life. Instead of negating the one-sided histories he detests, Zinn has merely reversed the image; the distortion remains.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1979
ISBN: 0061965588
Page Count: 772
Publisher: Harper & Row
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1979
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A timely, spirited collection.
A compendium of feminist perspectives.
Essayist, memoirist, and fiction writer Gay represents the history, scope, and challenges of feminism in a judicious selection of 65 pieces, some written by iconic feminist writers (bell hooks, Audre Lorde, Susan B. Anthony), others by collectives, and still others by lesser-known voices. Citing “dynamism” as her guiding principle, Gay has chosen works that are articulate, diverse, and hard-hitting. “I believe there is a feminist canon,” Gay writes, “one that is subjective and always evolving, but also representative of a long, rich tradition of feminist scholarship.” The pieces are grouped into eight thematic sections. Foundational texts include a statement of guiding principles for the 2017 Women’s March; early feminist texts begin with 16th-century scholar Henricus Cornelius Agrippa’s defense of women’s superiority and includes Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Anthony’s argument for women’s right to vote. Other well-known pieces include Judy Brady’s wry “I Want a Wife,” a 1970 essay reprinted in the first issue of Ms. magazine; Rebecca Solnit’s “Men Explain Things to Me”; and Gloria Steinem’s “If Men Could Menstruate.” There are also fresh surprises: “The Woman-Identified Woman,” a manifesto written by six women calling themselves Radicalesbians, argues that lesbianism is central to feminist politics “as an identity of political, cultural, and erotic resistance to patriarchy.” In “Girl,” novelist Alexander Chee reflects on gender fluidity, remembering being mistaken for a girl when he was growing up and revealing the beauty he finds when he puts on drag. With its capacious perspective, the collection speaks to a range of feminist concerns, past, present, and future. As Gay notes, “women’s bodies, movements, and choices are contingent on the whims of men in power. We have made progress but we are not yet free.”
A timely, spirited collection.Pub Date: March 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780143110392
Page Count: 672
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024
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