A collection of unadorned but thought-provoking advice.
Spiritual teacher Broca presents a set of universal laws to provide self-help and spiritual aid.
The author was born to a Catholic family in Mexico City and, he says, taught not to hope for too much in life. However, as a child, he read constantly and clipped images of the world’s most beautiful places from magazines and calendars. As an adolescent, he became interested in spirituality and encountered different guides on his journey, beginning with a Spanish teacher who taught him about meditation. Broca eventually visited places that he had once only dreamt about, including Vatican City, the Notre-Dame cathedral, and more than 80 other countries. For this book, the author has selected what he characterizes as eight universal laws that “govern the flow, movement, energy, and vibration of everything,” he asserts, and are drawn from a range of disciplines; karma, for example, is a Hindu concept, and the philosophy of wu wei emerged from ancient China. Some other laws will be familiar to readers, such as peace and oneness, but the author asserts that most people don’t fully understand them or how to implement them. Rounding out the list are the principles of dharma, ollin (from shamanism), resonance, and generation. Broca uses simple language and descriptive examples; for instance, he characterizes ollin as an ability to “go with the flow,” and to illustrate a lack of it, he describes a person arriving in snow country wearing summer clothing, such as a T-shirt and flip-flops, and then getting angry at the weather, rather than adapting to it. The author also relatably draws on his own personal experiences, as when he describes an instance of acting childishly during a crisis of faith. He includes self-help practices such as meditations, affirmations, and reflective questions, as well. Broca’s ideas sometimes seem too easy to be very useful, such as advice to wear a ring to remind one to think positively; however, when he notes, in an analogy, how a net in the ocean looks different to a fisherman, a fish, a plankton, and an observant artist, he achieves a lyrical simplicity.
A collection of unadorned but thought-provoking advice.Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9798888502273
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Destiny Books
Review Posted Online: July 22, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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