An enthusiastic and practical collection of college hacks whose wisdom sometimes leans too much toward the conventional.
Cohan shares 103 lessons for incoming college students to maximize their college experiences in this guidebook.
The author, a sociologist and professor, gives a new definitional slant on college as a “hope structure” that facilitates individuation, growth, and reinvention. According to the author, each year a student spends in college serves a purpose: Freshmen learn to make themselves at home, sophomores focus on socialization, juniors seize opportunities like internships, and seniors prepare to launch into the workforce or graduate school. Using the effective metaphor of a water ride, Cohan instructs readers to “Embrace the water,” “Swim against the current,” and “Find what anchors you.” However, she admits that adjusting to college can be rough: “It will be bumpy. It will be stormy. It may make you nauseous and scared.” Students are encouraged to get out of their rooms, develop a good relationship with their adviser, and strategically design a schedule that includes “mind-blowing experiences.” Along the way, readers learn about the ins and outs of declaring a major—or two—and why it’s OK to wait to declare one. There are practical writing tips, AI cautionary tales, and group project pointers, but just as important is the book’s guidelines for communicating appropriately with professors, creating community, and recognizing abusive relationships. The book concludes with tips for post-graduation success. Cohan’s practical advice encompasses not just academics but also the logistical and social aspects of undergraduate education. She is also refreshingly blunt in advice like “Read the F*cking Syllabus” and “Get Your Ass to Class.” The book’s inclusive narrative also addresses the needs of students with disabilities and LGBTQ+ identities. However, some of Cohan’s claims (e.g., “It’s clear that the students who’ve retreated to their rooms the most are less successful in school, less happy socially and emotionally, and increasingly withdrawn and isolated”) lack scientific rigor. Other tips, like encouraging students to bring their own supplies, seem so commonsensical that they barely merit mentioning.
An enthusiastic and practical collection of college hacks whose wisdom sometimes leans too much toward the conventional.Pub Date: July 8, 2025
ISBN: 9781684818525
Page Count: 296
Publisher: Mango
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2025
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
The heartbreaking story of an emotionally battered child delivered with captivating candor and grace.
The former iCarly star reflects on her difficult childhood.
In her debut memoir, titled after her 2020 one-woman show, singer and actor McCurdy (b. 1992) reveals the raw details of what she describes as years of emotional abuse at the hands of her demanding, emotionally unstable stage mom, Debra. Born in Los Angeles, the author, along with three older brothers, grew up in a home controlled by her mother. When McCurdy was 3, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Though she initially survived, the disease’s recurrence would ultimately take her life when the author was 21. McCurdy candidly reconstructs those in-between years, showing how “my mom emotionally, mentally, and physically abused me in ways that will forever impact me.” Insistent on molding her only daughter into “Mommy’s little actress,” Debra shuffled her to auditions beginning at age 6. As she matured and starting booking acting gigs, McCurdy remained “desperate to impress Mom,” while Debra became increasingly obsessive about her daughter’s physical appearance. She tinted her daughter’s eyelashes, whitened her teeth, enforced a tightly monitored regimen of “calorie restriction,” and performed regular genital exams on her as a teenager. Eventually, the author grew understandably resentful and tried to distance herself from her mother. As a young celebrity, however, McCurdy became vulnerable to eating disorders, alcohol addiction, self-loathing, and unstable relationships. Throughout the book, she honestly portrays Debra’s cruel perfectionist personality and abusive behavior patterns, showing a woman who could get enraged by everything from crooked eyeliner to spilled milk. At the same time, McCurdy exhibits compassion for her deeply flawed mother. Late in the book, she shares a crushing secret her father revealed to her as an adult. While McCurdy didn’t emerge from her childhood unscathed, she’s managed to spin her harrowing experience into a sold-out stage act and achieve a form of catharsis that puts her mind, body, and acting career at peace.
The heartbreaking story of an emotionally battered child delivered with captivating candor and grace.Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-982185-82-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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