An engrossing reflection on reclaiming identity and finding peace in the aftermath of global notoriety.
Tracing a harrowing journey from criminal exoneration to inner liberation.
Twelve years after publishing her bestselling memoir, Waiting To Be Heard, Knox revisits her transformation from wrongfully accused murderer to exonerated woman. Her first book chronicled her arrest and eventual acquittal in the murder of her roommate, Meredith Kercher, in Perugia, Italy. In this follow-up memoir, Knox delves deeper into the aftermath of her four years of incarceration and her ongoing quest to reclaim both her identity and inner peace in the wake of events that upended her life. Now married and raising two young children, Knox offers a compelling and often inspirational account of her effort to build a normal life while navigating the challenges of persistent public scrutiny and notoriety. “It is a road map of my personal evolution as I directly confront the existential problems I’ve faced ever since I was first arrested and charged for a terrible crime I didn't commit: Could I ever be anything more than ‘the girl accused of murder’? Would I ever be truly ‘free’?” As both a testament to resilience and an unflinching examination of trauma’s lasting impact, Knox's narrative evolves from personal healing to advocacy for criminal justice reform, leading her to form meaningful connections with others shaped by media scrutiny—including Lorena Bobbitt and more notably Monica Lewinsky, in what she calls “The Sisterhood of Ill Repute.” Perhaps more remarkably, her path toward reconciliation leads her back to Perugia in 2019, where she spoke at an Italy Innocence Project conference and initiated correspondence with her former prosecutor, Giuliano Mignini, “whose actions had derailed my life.” Their unexpected connection and eventual understanding become a powerful symbol of Knox’s hard-won spiritual freedom, demonstrating how even the deepest wounds can transform into a means for redemption.
An engrossing reflection on reclaiming identity and finding peace in the aftermath of global notoriety.Pub Date: tomorrow
ISBN: 9781538770719
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
A sweet final word from an actor who leaves a legacy of compassion and kindness.
The late actor offers a gentle guide for living with more purpose, love, and joy.
Mixing poetry, prescriptive challenges, and elements of memoir, Heche (1969-2022) delivers a narrative that is more encouraging workbook than life story. The author wants to share what she has discovered over the course of a life filled with abuse, advocacy, and uncanny turning points. Her greatest discovery? Love. “Open yourself up to love and transform kindness from a feeling you extend to those around you to actions that you perform for them,” she writes. “Only by caring can we open ourselves up to the universe, and only by opening up to the universe can we fully experience all the wonders that it holds, the greatest of which is love.” Throughout the occasionally overwrought text, Heche is heavy on the concept of care. She wants us to experience joy as she does, and she provides a road map for how to get there. Instead of slinking away from Hollywood and the ridicule that she endured there, Heche found the good and hung on, with Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford starring as particularly shining knights in her story. Some readers may dismiss this material as vapid Hollywood stuff, but Heche’s perspective is an empathetic blend of Buddhism (minimize suffering), dialectical behavioral therapy (tolerating distress), Christianity (do unto others), and pre-Socratic philosophy (sufficient reason). “You’re not out to change the whole world, but to increase the levels of love and kindness in the world, drop by drop,” she writes. “Over time, these actions wear away the coldness, hate, and indifference around us as surely as water slowly wearing away stone.” Readers grieving her loss will take solace knowing that she lived her love-filled life on her own terms. Heche’s business and podcast partner, Heather Duffy, writes the epilogue, closing the book on a life well lived.
A sweet final word from an actor who leaves a legacy of compassion and kindness.Pub Date: Jan. 24, 2023
ISBN: 9781627783316
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Viva Editions
Review Posted Online: Feb. 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2023
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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