Inspiring guidance for personal transformation, based on real-life work.
A plant is only as healthy as its roots, and this idea provides a central metaphor for Lynn’s personal-growth guide.
The author, a transformation coach, argues that to achieve their “highest self,” a person must align their roots (which she characterizes as “Health, Family, Relationships, Career, and Friends”) with their human needs (“Security, Variety, Self, Intimacy, Growth, and Transcendence”); this, she says, allows them to move out of “survival mode” and into empowerment. An easy-to-follow pattern in each chapter breaks complex ideas into simple steps; by moving from theory to practical advice, the author makes a strong case for why roots and needs matter, as she defines them. To that end, she offers guiding questions, a “Needs Evaluation,” a “Root-to-Rise Map,” and encourages readers to find further resources on her website. Bullet points, text extracts, and graphics will keep readers engaged. For instance, the “Root-to-Rise Infographic” appears at the end of every major section. This illustration of a woman standing in a tree pose, with healthy roots and branches featuring fruit-like hearts, provides an aspirational visual that helps readers stay focused. This infographic also provides additional information as the book progresses, serving as a visual reminder and recap of what readers have already learned. For example, the family part of the life-root system lists not only parents, children, siblings, and partners, but also caregivers and chosen family. Lastly, helpful case studies of clients she’s coached show how her method works in practice (“The Cost of Avoiding the Truth,” for instance, shows the benefits of mapping emotions, and “The Journey to Self-Worth” tells the story of a client who “stopped looking outward for permission to feel valuable. She owned her worth, from the inside out.”
Inspiring guidance for personal transformation, based on real-life work.Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2025
ISBN: 9798998685903
Page Count: 344
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2025
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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