Carolan reminds readers that we all have the power to be someone’s superhero.
Carolan offers empowering leadership lessons as a Child of Deaf Adults.
The responsibilities of adulthood came quickly to the author, the son of a Deaf mother and father growing up in Saginaw, Michigan, in the 1980s. Some of Carolan’s earliest memories involve serving as an interpreter for his parents, bridging Deaf and hearing communities and learning from both along the way. From facilitating family appointments and important negotiations to smoothing over day-to-day misunderstandings, Carolan discovered strategies for success and communication that are often overlooked in our daily lives. The author has distilled the wisdom he gained into a collection of thirty lessons—one for each day of the month—and grouped them into sections dedicated to Leadership, Life, and Love. Highly relevant to both Deaf and hearing readers, these lessons include advice on managing finances, resisting distractions, betting on yourself, managing criticism, and embracing advocacy. These lessons are supported by fascinating and frequently humorous observations from Carolan’s lived experience (“My father often reminded me that being Deaf doesn’t make you dumb, but it sure can make those around you seem dumb and dumber”) and are listed in summary sections for quick review. Designed to be a practical guide, this easy-to-follow book offers actionable guidance to readers at all stages of their journey. Filled with real-life wisdom, the book derives its title from an encounter with law enforcement that Carolan experienced at only 4 years old; other anecdotes include a well-meaning waitress proudly presenting Carolan’s deaf parents with a braille menu. While such experiences may instill cynicism in some children, Carolan’s tone is always uplifting, emphasizing the good that arises from improved communication and maximizing one’s personal potential. A testament to continued growth, Carolan’s book offers leadership guidance that’s practical, enjoyable, and thoroughly authentic.
Carolan reminds readers that we all have the power to be someone’s superhero.Pub Date: Feb. 13, 2024
ISBN: 9798987992364
Page Count: 212
Publisher: Third Culture Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.
A charming bird journey with the bestselling author.
In his introduction to Tan’s “nature journal,” David Allen Sibley, the acclaimed ornithologist, nails the spirit of this book: a “collection of delightfully quirky, thoughtful, and personal observations of birds in sketches and words.” For years, Tan has looked out on her California backyard “paradise”—oaks, periwinkle vines, birch, Japanese maple, fuchsia shrubs—observing more than 60 species of birds, and she fashions her findings into delightful and approachable journal excerpts, accompanied by her gorgeous color sketches. As the entries—“a record of my life”—move along, the author becomes more adept at identifying and capturing them with words and pencils. Her first entry is September 16, 2017: Shortly after putting up hummingbird feeders, one of the tiny, delicate creatures landed on her hand and fed. “We have a relationship,” she writes. “I am in love.” By August 2018, her backyard “has become a menagerie of fledglings…all learning to fly.” Day by day, she has continued to learn more about the birds, their activities, and how she should relate to them; she also admits mistakes when they occur. In December 2018, she was excited to observe a Townsend’s Warbler—“Omigod! It’s looking at me. Displeased expression.” Battling pesky squirrels, Tan deployed Hot Pepper Suet to keep them away, and she deterred crows by hanging a fake one upside down. The author also declared war on outdoor cats when she learned they kill more than 1 billion birds per year. In May 2019, she notes that she spends $250 per month on beetle larvae. In June 2019, she confesses “spending more hours a day staring at birds than writing. How can I not?” Her last entry, on December 15, 2022, celebrates when an eating bird pauses, “looks and acknowledges I am there.”
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.Pub Date: April 23, 2024
ISBN: 9780593536131
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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
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