Lively, appealing, and instructive; perfectly targeted to the millennial demographic.
A memoir/self-improvement debut offers millennials advice for living a full life.
Early on in this coming-of-age story, millennial Darrow says he faced life-changing events in his mid-20s. His parents divorced, remarried, and dealt with dual cancer diagnoses; his father died; he endured a breakup with a special girlfriend; and he closed his restaurant business after just one year. While devastating, this period also helped shape the author’s life philosophy, delivered with aplomb in a book that catalogs his developing maturity and provides contemporaries with wise tips for thriving. Insightful and rich with details, the guide is cleverly divided into seven sections, each representing an overarching attribute, such as “Wise Millennial,” “Healthy Millennial,” and “Adventurous Millennial.” Every section includes several chapters through which Darrow weaves his personal story in combination with what he learned as he survived each experience. In “Social Millennial,” for example, the author recounts how he loved and lost a girl “TO WHOM I WAS READY TO PROPOSE.” After she breaks up with him, a pensive Darrow reflects, “Don’t take anyone, or anything, for granted. Because they can be gone in an instant.” Later, with a great deal of charm and wit, the author advises men “how to truly win over women,” suggesting, “It boils down to this: treat girls with respect.” The book is wide ranging, touching on many areas, including health, wealth, relationships, college, and business, all written from millennial to millennial. Darrow’s prose is engaging and at times exhilarating. He is an adept storyteller and demonstrates the ability to learn from his challenges, failures, and successes. In addition to the manual’s natural, conversational style, the design is striking: Each section is dramatically set off with its own vivid hue, and numerous uncredited color photographs supplement the text. The author’s astute observations about his own generation are refreshing if not unique: He claims millennials “tend to use technology as a crutch to express their true feelings” but “will fight to the digital death for expressive freedom.”
Lively, appealing, and instructive; perfectly targeted to the millennial demographic.Pub Date: April 29, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-73363-311-6
Page Count: 178
Publisher: Happy Wellness, Inc.
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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