| Family & Relationships |
| Self-help |
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| Conflict Resolution |
| Mood Disorders |
Summary
Summary
Overwhelmed helps people make sense out of the transitions they face in every day life. This book is based on years of research--studies of people moving, adults returning to school, people whose jobs were eliminated, retirment, non-events like not having a baby, not getting promoted. These studies resulted in the development of a generic framework for understanding any type of transition. Based on this research, Overwhelmed presents a step-by-step approach to turning overwhelming transitions into challenging experiences. By systemically sizing up transitions and one's resources for dealing with them, people can learn how to build on their strengths, cut their losses, and even grow in the process.
Author Notes
Nancy K. Schlossberg is the author of eight books. She is co-president of TransitionWorks, a consulting firm; Professor Emerita at the College of Education, University of Maryland, College Park; and served as president of the National Career Development Association. She has been honored for her work by the American Psychological Association and the American Counseling Association. A frequent guest on radio and TV, Dr. Schlossberg's work was showcased on page one of USA Today , and quoted in The New York Times , St. Petersburg Times , The Wall Street Journal , and Cleveland's The Plain Dealer . She and her book are the focus of a 90-minute PBS pledge special, "Retire Smart, Retire Happy."
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Author and entertainment reporter Schwarz (The Hillside Strangler) documents the life of Juanita Slusher (1935-2005), from her birth and troubled childhood in Edna, Tex. to her days as a 14-year-old runaway, enslaved in the South Dallas sex trade, before escaping and becoming the popular Las Vegas erotic dancer Candy Barr--celebrated for the beauty and body that lured, all her life, the worst kinds of men. Schwartz's research includes a hundred hours of exclusive interviews with Slusher, who would only allow her story to be told after her death. A local legend, her connections to Jack Ruby and Mickey Cohen have been overstated in the title, but her story is a compelling, brutal tragedy set against a country's loss of innocence; she's even brushed by the investigation into JFK's assassination. Additionally, there's no redemption after a lifetime of abuse; she lived to see 70 and, according to Schwarz, spent the last 30 years of her life bitter and isolated. There was once talk of a Candy Barr biopic starring Farrah Fawcett; this is definitely the stuff of edgier television movies (think HBO, not ABC), and clearly a story she wanted told. 16 pages of b&w photos. (July) Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Review
Veteran true-crime/entertainment scribe Schwarz (Hollywood Confidential: How the Studios Beat the Mob at Their Own Game, 2007, etc.) charts the lurid life and times of a stripper. The burlesque star notorious for her association with Jack Ruby and mob boss Mickey Cohen was born Juanita Slusher to impoverished parents in a small Texas town. A precociously attractive child, she was regularly abused and molested by a string of neighbors and family members. (In a particularly horrific passage, Schwarz describes eight-year-old Juanita being put up as the jackpot in a pedophile poker game.) She ran away from home in her early teens, settling in Dallas. There she immediately fell prey to "the Capture," a tradition in which, Schwarz informs us, young girls were kidnapped, systematically raped and forced into prostitution, catering to the hypocritical Dallas establishment. After suffering in this role for a period, Juanita somehow managed to carve out a career as "Candy Barr," a burlesque dancer whose act was so transporting that she became the toast of Las Vegas and attracted Cohen's attention. Schwarz clearly presents this sensational material, but the book is one-dimensional. The endless litany of kidnappings, murder attempts, conspiracies, drug arrests, prison and rape after rape is hard to stomach and, after a while, hard to completely believe. Readers may raise eyebrows over the author's unquestioning acceptance of Barr's muddled, often half-remembered saga; they surely will wonder about his characterization of her as a brilliant artist. Quoted at length, she comes across as a rough-edged survivor and a self-mythologizer. Schwarz has written a compelling, upsetting screed against society's depraved exploitation of an innocent, but it lacks the rigor necessary for full-scale biography and social history. A punishing read, filled with righteous anger and fuzzy on details. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
