An enthusiastic, often successful outline for forming habits conducive to mindfulness.
An engineer distills the life advice he has absorbed from noted spiritual thinkers.
Drawing heavily on the work of Eckhart Tolle and Wayne Dyer, Rossi condenses the lessons he learned in a time of personal and professional upheaval in this debut self-help book. Rossi’s one complaint about the books that helped him to learn mindfulness, develop acceptance, and change his thought processes is “the lack of a prescribed ‘practice’ or steps to follow to instill into our life the excellent teaching the books espoused.” The foundation of his approach involves developing “the imperative habit,” Rossi’s term for the seven concrete skills—acceptance, not fearing the outcome, happiness as a practice, being present, not judging, responding with compassion, and having faith—the book is intended to teach. Rossi lucidly explains the psychology of conditioning behavior and developing habits, and he encourages readers to apply those techniques—for instance, asking themselves what they hope to achieve when taking a challenging class instead of assuming that they will fail—in order to make the elements of the imperative habit part of everyday life. The subjective nature of these skills, however, means that some readers may find that this book, like other similar titles, ably shows the value of mindfulness without elucidating the concept in a replicable manner. The book has its moments of dissonance (for instance, Chapter 1 opens with an apocryphal anecdote about European contact with the Americas that is weighted with stereotypes). Minor errors, like the frequent misspelling of Tolle’s first name, also detract from the book’s authoritativeness. On the whole, though, the text is highly readable, and as it takes a somewhat more practical and less metaphysical approach to mindfulness than the books Rossi draws from, it’s likely to appeal to readers who understand mindfulness but would like examples of its use and will appreciate the clear enthusiasm and focus of Rossi’s authorial voice.
An enthusiastic, often successful outline for forming habits conducive to mindfulness.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-64633-584-8
Page Count: 220
Publisher: Evolve Global Publishing
Review Posted Online: Nov. 30, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
