Carolyn Warner Newmarket Press 2010.
A red paperback volume. Slim, light. 200mm x 140mm x 15mm. Does not readily lay open. In fact it is quite a hassle. It is one of those books you need a flat iron handy to hold open on your desk while you use your hands for something else.
But then again, perhaps the book knows best. It may be better to let it have its own way and remain closed.
Quite a disappointing book. The quotations seem without any particular merit often being mere trite repititions of commonplace wisdoms or observations.
'Stay true to yourself and never let what somebody else says distract you from your goals.' Michelle Obama
A clue to the disappointing lack of merit in this book of quotations lies perhaps in the font chosen for the names of the authors of the quote. They are printed in capitalised italics. In a font I can't name but which has every letter as a capital yet makes the first letter of every word (i.e. each name ) in an even larger capital print than all the others. I can't find a way to reproduce it here.
With that and the italics and the positioning on the right of the page butting up to the right margin the effect is to draw the eye to these names, rather than to the text, the quotations.
And perhaps that's it. The author of this volume is more entranced by the people than the quotes. And well she might be.
Further it seems to be a vehicle for her own attempt to educate us for it is divided into 11 chapters with titles such as 'Art', 'Education', 'Women', 'Family' and she precedes each one with a small dissertation on the subject apparently intended to inform us regarding that topic. A task one would think better left to the quotations.
Example from 'Self-Image' :
'One of the most loaded words in our vocabulary is ego. It is almost a pejorative, which is unfortunate. .... '
See the way it is going. Read on to be enlightened by Ms Warner.
It seems perhaps she intended these quotations to reinforce her own dogma which would have made an entirely different book with a different title.
It is a mess.
I wouldn't bother with it.