A spiritual guide to life’s milestones.
A Christian author muses on how to stay on the right path.
In her nonfiction debut, Cord tells of a personal routine that she’s found very rewarding: getting up very early in the morning, having some coffee, reading spiritual books and watching videos on spiritual and religious topics, engaging in prayer and meditation, and letting her thoughts unfold at their own pace before the activity of the day really begins. In these moments, she says, she began to feel that a kind voice was “talking back” to her, giving her messages that she hurried to write down. The author calls the essays that resulted from these early morning sessions her “messages from Love.” These generally take the form of reflections on various stages of life, from birth to aimless youth to more directed adulthood, continuing through a multitude of new possibilities that culminate in what the author refers to as “the evening of life,” quoting Wayne Dyer. Cord views all of these life stages through the lens of her own deeply personal Christian faith, which she effectively portrays as a counterpoint to what she describes as the “box of strict religious dogma.” She asserts that everyone’s inner spiritual guidance has been with them “from the day you were born with your memory wiped clean, in order to experience life in the illusion of this earthly realm.” Throughout the book, in warm, encouraging prose, she asserts that the secret to finding one’s way in life lies within the seeker: “Your heart is truly where you will feel the harmony that tells you you're moving in the right direction,” she writes. As is often the case in spiritual guidance books of this genre, some of Cord's insights and declarations tend toward the clichéd (“love is all there is, and love heals everything”). But Cord's inclusion of gentle moments from her own life illuminates her account of her life journey.
A spiritual guide to life’s milestones.Pub Date: May 27, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-982247-01-0
Page Count: 126
Publisher: BalboaPress
Review Posted Online: Oct. 5, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A conversational, pleasurable look into McConaughey’s life and thought.
All right, all right, all right: The affable, laconic actor delivers a combination of memoir and self-help book.
“This is an approach book,” writes McConaughey, adding that it contains “philosophies that can be objectively understood, and if you choose, subjectively adopted, by either changing your reality, or changing how you see it. This is a playbook, based on adventures in my life.” Some of those philosophies come in the form of apothegms: “When you can design your own weather, blow in the breeze”; “Simplify, focus, conserve to liberate.” Others come in the form of sometimes rambling stories that never take the shortest route from point A to point B, as when he recounts a dream-spurred, challenging visit to the Malian musician Ali Farka Touré, who offered a significant lesson in how disagreement can be expressed politely and without rancor. Fans of McConaughey will enjoy his memories—which line up squarely with other accounts in Melissa Maerz’s recent oral history, Alright, Alright, Alright—of his debut in Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused, to which he contributed not just that signature phrase, but also a kind of too-cool-for-school hipness that dissolves a bit upon realizing that he’s an older guy on the prowl for teenage girls. McConaughey’s prep to settle into the role of Wooderson involved inhabiting the mind of a dude who digs cars, rock ’n’ roll, and “chicks,” and he ran with it, reminding readers that the film originally had only three scripted scenes for his character. The lesson: “Do one thing well, then another. Once, then once more.” It’s clear that the author is a thoughtful man, even an intellectual of sorts, though without the earnestness of Ethan Hawke or James Franco. Though some of the sentiments are greeting card–ish, this book is entertaining and full of good lessons.
A conversational, pleasurable look into McConaughey’s life and thought.Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-13913-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
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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