A useful reflection on how to disagree, especially important in toxic times.
A shy, conflict-averse student finds his voice in debate.
Seo, who was born in Korea and moved with his family to Australia when he was 8, makes an engaging book debut with a combination memoir and debating guide. A two-time world champion debater, the author has also coached two winning teams: the Australian Schools Debating Team and the Harvard College Debating Union. Drawing on his experiences, he offers his book as a tool kit for having productive arguments. “We should disagree,” he believes, “in such a way that the outcome of having the disagreement is better than not having it at all.” Seo presents his key components of competitive debate: identifying the topic, mounting an argument, fashioning a rebuttal, and using rhetoric and silence to underscore one’s points. In addition, he looks at ways that debate principles apply to real-life situations: relationships with family and friends, bad disagreements, education, and technology. Some topics that Seo debated in classes and competitions have included the moral justification of ecotage, the media’s right to intrude into the private lives of public figures, and the admission of Turkey into the European Union. Analyzing the debates between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump led him to consider the debate styles of bullies: the dodger, the twister, the wrangler, the liar, and the brawler. He realized that a debate, “hijacked” by a bully and difficult to deflect, “could be a harmful force in the world.” As a journalist in Sydney, Seo covered the encounter between a champion debater and Project Debater, an artificial intelligence system with “a superhuman ability to marshal evidence.” Evidence, he saw, was not the only factor in convincing an audience. The author advocates teaching debate principles as part of a well-founded civic education: “Good arguments generate new ideas and strengthen relationships. An education in debate makes people more immune to the slick manipulations of political opportunists.”
A useful reflection on how to disagree, especially important in toxic times.Pub Date: June 7, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-29951-7
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Penguin Press
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
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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