An engaging and accessible handbook for romantic partnerships.
Thiessen, a couples therapist, presents a collection of essays about successful relationship practices in this nonfiction guide.
The author calls this work a “distillation of insights gleaned while observing couples turn their relationship challenges into meaningful, satisfying connection.” Each essay contemplates a different aspect of the complexity of “relating intimately.” Thiessen recommends reading the book with a partner to optimize its efficacy (the guidance is meant to be applied to monogamous romantic relationships). The essays are grouped into 11 categories by topic, including the foundations of relationships, change, connection, maintenance, and, deemed “most important” by the author, conversation. Each essay concludes with a “CONSIDER THIS” section providing practical advice to couples seeking to put the information into practice. For example, in the section on personal differences among partners, Thiessen challenges readers to “Treat your thoughts as you would treat someone you’ve just met...be curious and be cautious.” One of the book’s most engaging attributes is its practicality—readers can take clearly defined steps to work on themselves and their relationships while making their way through the pages. The author makes the text accessible with casual, easy-to-read language, steering clear of dense therapy jargon. In a lead-in to what could be an intimidating section on self-conception, Thiessen begins by stating, “you have a relationship with yourself in much the same way you have a relationship with someone else”; instead of diving into a complicated clinical discussion, Thiessen introduces the idea with a relatable analogy. This engaging approach is characteristic of his writing style, which only adds to the book’s effectiveness. While the guide proceeds from the premise that its readers are in monogamous relationships, it does not assume heterosexuality—the couples used as examples include several same-sex unions, underscoring the book’s accessibility. One quibble: The font is stylized in the body text and in the “CONSIDER THIS” sections, which may make the text more difficult to read for some. Aside from this minor concern, Thiessen has crafted an excellent guide to successful relationships.
An engaging and accessible handbook for romantic partnerships.Pub Date: Aug. 17, 2025
ISBN: 9798999091703
Page Count: 242
Publisher: Contineo
Review Posted Online: Aug. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 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 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
BOOK REVIEW
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