A useful and motivational guide to achieving goals through conversation.
A self-help manual that offers very simple steps to getting what one wants out of life.
This latest book from professional speaker Hutchens, author of The Secrets Leaders Keep (2015), invites readers to imagine how they could change their lives if they had a magic wand that they could wave over trouble spots in their lives. One could conjure a work environment, for instance, in which “meetings are suddenly productive problem-solving sessions, and that putz in procurement actually helps you close the deal.” Such a wand really exists, Hutchens assures readers, and its most basic component is something that’s fundamental to human existence: talking. The author’s “Four Tenets of Getting What You Want” all revolve around improving one’s conversation skills, and they hinge on the conceit that “life happens one conversation at a time.” If you carefully and forcefully navigate your way through conversations (including those you have with yourself), you can reach your goals, Hutchens asserts. The process involves the five key steps, which each receive their own chapter: “Clarify Your Real Want,” “Seek Connection or Power—Rarely Both,” “Tune In to All the Conversations,” “Own Your Shit and De-stink Theirs,” and “Know Your Lines—Both What to Say and Where to Draw ’Em.” Over the course of this book, Hutchens writes with likable vigor. She consistently displays complete confidence in the effectiveness of her steps, laying them out by using anecdotes, bullet-pointed lists, and ample space for readers to answer self-help prompts. Some steps seem fairly vague and self-evident, such as clarifying one’s goals and being accountable for errors. But Hutchens’ repeated emphasis on getting across your ideas more clearly, “whether you’re conversing with a boss, a neighbor, your spouse, or your kid’s coach,” is refreshing, as are her reminders to use humor to defuse tense situations. The book’s interactive elements will encourage readers to step back and look at the world in proactive terms, and the author’s plainspoken clarity drives home the point that everyone possesses the tools to improve their existence.
A useful and motivational guide to achieving goals through conversation.Pub Date: March 30, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5445-0693-7
Page Count: 230
Publisher: Houndstooth Press
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.
A noted actor turns to verse: “Poems are a Saturday in the middle of the week.”
McConaughey, author of the gracefully written memoir Greenlights, has been writing poems since his teens, closing with one “written in an Australian bathtub” that reads just as a poem by an 18-year-old (Rimbaud excepted) should read: “Ignorant minds of the fortunate man / Blind of the fate shaping every land.” McConaughey is fearless in his commitment to the rhyme, no matter how slight the result (“Oops, took a quick peek at the sky before I got my glasses, / now I can’t see shit, sure hope this passes”). And, sad to say, the slight is what is most on display throughout, punctuated by some odd koanlike aperçus: “Eating all we can / at the all-we-can-eat buffet, / gives us a 3.8 education / and a 4.2 GPA.” “Never give up your right to do the next right thing. This is how we find our way home.” “Memory never forgets. Even though we do.” The prayer portion of the program is deeply felt, but it’s just as sentimental; only when he writes of life-changing events—a court appearance to file a restraining order against a stalker, his decision to quit smoking weed—do we catch a glimpse of the effortlessly fluent, effortlessly charming McConaughey as exemplified by the David Wooderson (“alright, alright, alright”) of Dazed and Confused. The rest is mostly a soufflé in verse. McConaughey’s heart is very clearly in the right place, but on the whole the book suggests an old saw: Don’t give up your day job.
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781984862105
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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
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