An honest, emotionally gut-wrenching, and ultimately soul-satisfying memoir.
A corporate executive offers an account of her journey to find her true soul.
This debut memoir couldn’t be timelier: As American businesses flounder under the weight of a pandemic and society suffers upheaval, it seems perfectly appropriate to question one’s own trajectory. Approaching age 50, Paxton decided to follow a boldly unconventional path by leaving an executive-level position at a large corporation to take a “soulbbatical”—her cleverly devised term for an extended period of self-discovery. The book is divided into four distinct sections (Fulfillment, Authenticity, Courage, and Purpose), but it is essentially a memoir with a strong connecting thread from chapter to chapter. Peppered with salty language that Paxton admits is “raw, from the soul,” the volume traces the author’s experiences, pre- and post-corporate life, until she became aware that, once she helped herself, her end goal was aiding others. It is compelling to look over Paxton’s shoulder as she agonizes about her awakening, a realization that there is more to life than her career. Plenty of soul-searching ensued, both before and after the author departed her high-powered marketing position at Harley-Davidson (that’s important, because later in the book, riding a motorcycle becomes symbolic). In order to make her own experiences instructional to readers, Paxton ends each section with “Soul Search,” a series of reflection questions that are “not meant to confirm your existing beliefs; rather, they’re designed to stir up what’s deep inside you.” She exhorts readers to employ a “S.O.U.L. Process…Show up.…Own it.…Unleash it.…Live it.” Gimmicky, yes, but apt. Paxton’s introspective journey literally took her across the globe—from the Midwest to New Zealand and back—in search of her next phase. This aspect in particular may stretch the credulity of those without the financial security afforded the author. Still, her fervor is palpable: The courage it took for Paxton to detach from corporate life, the fear and uncertainty she candidly reveals, and the verve and vitality of her prose all serve to make this a most memorable book.
An honest, emotionally gut-wrenching, and ultimately soul-satisfying memoir.Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-982131-33-3
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Tiller Press/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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
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