Encouraging and strategic but not always pragmatic.
A certified master coach and CEO of The Best You Network shares best practices for overcoming adversity and creating positive change.
Hamilton-Guarino has helped thousands of clients live richer, more authentic lives by cultivating a change mindset, and here, she outlines the techniques she has refined throughout her career. “True change happens when you align your heart, your truths, and your energy,” she says. Over the course of 10 chapters with titles like “Assess,” “Implement,” and “Master,” Hamilton-Guarino guides readers through the process of developing new and better habits and includes a series of exercises designed to help readers define and manifest their goals. The book ends with an invitation to the reader to obtain their own master class certification. Hamilton-Guarino notes that trying to adopt new behaviors that aren’t aligned with our values and our true desires is likely to fail, and lasting change requires hard work and conviction. She illustrates the principles she presents with anecdotes told by those who have overcome various challenges, from childhood trauma to life-threatening illness. One woman, for example, tells a story about surviving a potentially deadly incident while surfing by focusing on her strength rather than fixating on the danger. In the critical moment, she trusted her own power. Much of the guidance Hamilton-Guarino offers is useful for developing new habits, but some of it may not be realistic for all. In a chapter on discerning what we truly want, Hamilton-Guarino tells an anecdote about a client trying to decide whether he should stay in his job. When she asks him, “What does your heart say?” he responds by saying that he’s miserable. “Well,” she replies, “There is your answer.” That’s not an answer many can readily choose. And readers should know that there is a lot of talk about weight and weight loss throughout this book. That said, the exercises alone make this a serviceable guide for anyone looking for a road map to a more fulfilling life.
Encouraging and strategic but not always pragmatic.Pub Date: April 5, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-7573-2421-5
Page Count: 224
Publisher: HCI Books
Review Posted Online: May 25, 2022
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
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