Smart, succinct, and highly engaging.
Solin offers a straightforward method for improving one’s business and personal relationships.
Nothing could be simpler than a three-letter, one-word title—and that fits the theme of this work by the New York Times bestselling author of The Smartest Sales Book You’ll Ever Read (2014) and other books in the same series. In his research into what make meetings effective, he found that the fundamental principle of “talking less while empowering the other person to talk more” was one of the keys to improving business interactions. This notion, along with a few other pearls of wisdom, is at the heart of this entertaining, easy-to-read work. Its first part intriguingly debunks a few commonly held beliefs about happiness and success; the author says, for example, that “there’s little scientific support for the notion that simply visualizing a goal makes it more likely you will achieve it.” This section also presents scientific research about brain chemistry and audience engagement, which lays the foundation for Part 2, which highlights the power of curiosity, explores the differences between an introvert and extrovert, and explains why sincerity is of critical importance. Part 3 delves deeply into the specifics of how to actively listen to others; it also lucidly explains why attempting to persuade others is often futile, as “each of us perceives the world through the prism of our biases.” Part 4 includes a compelling discussion of empathy and emotionality along with specific suggestions for how to be an agile listener, and Part 5 demonstrates useful ways to overcome negativity and turn conflict into collaboration. The final chapter cleverly employs frequently asked questions to identify readers’ potential concerns about applying Solin’s methodology. Overall, this book is well constructed and elegantly written in an informal style; the paragraphs are blissfully brief, and relevant examples abound. Although the material is consistently research-based, as evidenced by the extensive endnotes, it’s anything but dry, and Solin’s deceptively simple premise is solid.
Smart, succinct, and highly engaging.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-9748763-2-0
Page Count: 240
Publisher: BCH Fulfillment & Distribution
Review Posted Online: July 3, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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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