A tightly focused, helpful, and inspirational look at ways to succeed in life.
A debut guide offers advice on changing your life and realizing your dreams.
Wilson organizes her brief book around the letter “s.” She presents seven words that begin with “s” that form a conceptual battle plan for tackling life’s challenges. The words are “Solitude,” “Sacrifice,” “Service,” “Soul Mates,” “Separation,” “Success,” and finally “Savor.” Contemplating this array, the author hopes to help her readers improve yet another s-word: their selves (with the goal of self-sufficiency). The bulk of the manual consists of her thoughts on each of the seven categories she’s laid out. “Success to me is a landmark to a journey,” she writes in Chapter 6. “It is a point of reference when you complete a goal. Take the time to look back and remember what you had to overcome to get there, how hard you had to work, the sacrifices that you had to make, the people you lost or gained along the way.” She warns in another chapter: “To birth your dreams, you need a team of soul mates to come and support the process; no one can do it alone.” Each of the book’s chapters ends with a series of useful discussion questions or exercises designed to keep readers thinking about what they’ve perused. There is also space for journaling and note taking. In addition, the author’s Christian faith is subtly woven through the background of each lesson. For example, late in the book, readers are congratulated on achieving success using their relationship with themselves and God as their foundation. Wilson’s optimism throughout the guide is infectious and should overcome any reader’s initial skepticism. In the manual’s conclusion, she envisions the victories her readers will attain: “Because you took the time to do the work, you became whole, you succeeded individually, you have a healthy relationship with your creator and yourself, and you are at your best; therefore, you can expect only the best to come to you.” Her conviction is so strong that many readers will find themselves believing it.
A tightly focused, helpful, and inspirational look at ways to succeed in life.Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5320-7957-3
Page Count: 80
Publisher: iUniverse
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2020
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
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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