A compelling argument for a multipronged approach to personal wellness.
Chapin, a wellness clinic director, discusses habits essential for optimal health in this self-help guide.
“Having worked closely with professionals who have successfully converted their casual awareness of healthy habits into hard-wired, strategic Wellness Rituals, I know what the human body is capable of when healthy choices are stacked together,” writes the author, a chiropractor who is the co-owner of the Toronto-area High Point Wellness Centre, the team chiropractor for the Canadian Football League’s Toronto Argonauts, and the on-site clinician for The Globe and Mail. Chapin categorizes these stackable habits under the headings “Prioritize Sleep, Rest & Recovery”; “Consume Healthy Fuel”; “Fight for Your Waistline”; “Move To Stay Young”; “Protect Your Strength”; “Nurture Mental Fitness”; and “Play With Purpose.” The author provides case-study narratives detailing how 21 professionals, whom he calls “mentors,” practice these rituals in their lives while also highlighting the scientific research that supports these protocols. The book concludes with Chapin describing how he recently conducted “formula tweaks” to his diet and physical and mental fitness routines following a less-than-ideal medical checkup; “I needed to recognize the emotional toll working as a primary care practitioner during the pandemic had on my health,” he writes. The author is a caring and convincing advocate throughout the text, describing his book as a “moonshot, evidence-based call-to-action” and a “wellness performance playbook.” Chapin’s seven rituals function as useful “dials” (as one case study subject describes them) for considering and calibrating one’s overall wellness. He provides helpful distillations of scientific research (including material explaining why the waistline is such an important metric in managing one’s weight and health) and a wealth of “ritual activation” steps to follow. While the book arguably contains too many case studies, they do provide powerful testimony attesting to the value and importance of incorporating these rituals into daily life.
Pub Date: May 1, 2023
ISBN: 9781990700231
Page Count: 402
Publisher: Life to Paper Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
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
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
© 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.
