An enjoyable volume of thoughtful, motivational pieces from a Seattle columnist.
A collection of columns explores health, love, and happiness.
Mason’s column for the Seattle news site South King Media is dedicated to helping her readers improve their lives in small but meaningful ways. With this book, she gathers some of those pieces under one cover, many of them written during a stressful year characterized by a pandemic, nationwide protests, and a high-stakes election cycle. Some of the columns touch on topics specific to those crises. The first essay, for example, “Good riddance to the handshake,” is an analysis of just how disgusting that act of greeting—verboten in times of Covid-19—really is. Most of the essays, though, deal with more evergreen fare: how to be happily single, how to plan a wedding, how to let go of attachments, how to grieve. There are pieces for women over the age of 50, the sober-curious, and the God-curious as well as meditations on the benefits of “healthy narcissism,” boredom, and Santa Claus. Mason generally isn’t merely opining from the gut but rather rooting her columns in the research of scientists, historians, or psychologists. The essay on Santa, for example, cites the work of developmental psychologists on the positive effects of children believing—and eventually disbelieving—in the jolly elf. She then shifts to a discussion of magical thinking in adults and how nice it is that humans are “wired to perceive our world in a state of wonder.” Mason’s prose is cheerful and engaging, even when discussing serious issues. Here she addresses the lack of love in America’s current political discourse: “By ‘love’ I don’t mean the mushy let’s all hold hands and sing a sappy song kind of love. I’m talking about the selfless, unconditional kind. The kind of love that is other-oriented and sets aside differences to work together for a common good.” The length of the columns—most are three or four pages—prevents the author from delving deeply into any one issue. But as a survey of topics, particularly ones related to contentment and fulfillment, these short bites of condensed knowledge make for a rewarding read.
An enjoyable volume of thoughtful, motivational pieces from a Seattle columnist.Pub Date: July 18, 2021
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2021
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
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.
The chef, rapper, and TV host serves up a blustery memoir with lashings of self-help.
“I’ve always had a sick confidence,” writes Bronson, ne Ariyan Arslani. The confidence, he adds, comes from numerous sources: being a New Yorker, and more specifically a New Yorker from Queens; being “short and fucking husky” and still game for a standoff on the basketball court; having strength, stamina, and seemingly no fear. All these things serve him well in the rough-and-tumble youth he describes, all stickball and steroids. Yet another confidence-builder: In the big city, you’ve got to sink or swim. “No one is just accepted—you have to fucking show that you’re able to roll,” he writes. In a narrative steeped in language that would make Lenny Bruce blush, Bronson recounts his sentimental education, schooled by immigrant Italian and Albanian family members and the mean streets, building habits good and bad. The virtue of those habits will depend on your take on modern mores. Bronson writes, for example, of “getting my dick pierced” down in the West Village, then grabbing a pizza and smoking weed. “I always smoke weed freely, always have and always will,” he writes. “I’ll just light a blunt anywhere.” Though he’s gone through the classic experiences of the latter-day stoner, flunking out and getting arrested numerous times, Bronson is a hard charger who’s not afraid to face nearly any challenge—especially, given his physique and genes, the necessity of losing weight: “If you’re husky, you’re always dieting in your mind,” he writes. Though vulgar and boastful, Bronson serves up a model that has plenty of good points, including his growing interest in nature, creativity, and the desire to “leave a legacy for everybody.”
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4478-5
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
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