Changing one’s life is never easy, but this book provides a map to help chart the course.
Lipman was the editor in chief of USA Today, the deputy managing editor at the Wall Street Journal, and founding editor-in-chief of Condé Nast Portfolio, so she is well situated to offer career advice. The book comprises a wealth of stories about people who have made successful, and often radical, transformations in their professional lives. Many Americans are dissatisfied with their jobs, earning a steady income but feeling as if they should be doing something else. The author breaks her process into the steps of searching for alternatives, struggling with the possibility of leaping into the unknown, stopping for a period of consideration, and finally grasping the solution. In some cases, it can mean turning a hobby into a full-time career. Lipman presents the example of bestselling novelist James Patterson, who tinkered with writing for years while working in an advertising agency (his books have sold more than 400 million copies). Then there is the remarkable case of Alan Greenspan, who became a respected economist and head of the Federal Reserve after deciding that an early career as a jazz musician was not satisfying. Other people do not really know what they want to do, and Lipman suggests using an “expert companion” as a sounding board for ideas and not being afraid to pause during the process. “Taking a break—whether when you choose to stop or a break is forced on you—allows ideas to coalesce,” writes the author. “Only then do you come out the other side with the solution, completing the transition.” None of this is simple, but Lipman’s advice is practical and approachable, and the cases she cites are instructive. It adds up to a useful package for anyone thinking about the next step in their life.
Solid insights laid out in a clearheaded way.Pub Date: March 21, 2023
ISBN: 9780063073487
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Mariner Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
Categories: BODY, MIND & SPIRIT | PSYCHOLOGY | BUSINESS | SELF-HELP | MOTIVATIONAL & PERSONAL SUCCESS | GENERAL BUSINESS
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A conversational, pleasurable look into McConaughey’s life and thought.
24
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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
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Doyle offers another lucid, inspiring chronicle of female empowerment and the rewards of self-awareness and renewal.
26
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More life reflections from the bestselling author on themes of societal captivity and the catharsis of personal freedom.
In her third book, Doyle (Love Warrior, 2016, etc.) begins with a life-changing event. “Four years ago,” she writes, “married to the father of my three children, I fell in love with a woman.” That woman, Abby Wambach, would become her wife. Emblematically arranged into three sections—“Caged,” “Keys,” “Freedom”—the narrative offers, among other elements, vignettes about the soulful author’s girlhood, when she was bulimic and felt like a zoo animal, a “caged girl made for wide-open skies.” She followed the path that seemed right and appropriate based on her Catholic upbringing and adolescent conditioning. After a downward spiral into “drinking, drugging, and purging,” Doyle found sobriety and the authentic self she’d been suppressing. Still, there was trouble: Straining an already troubled marriage was her husband’s infidelity, which eventually led to life-altering choices and the discovery of a love she’d never experienced before. Throughout the book, Doyle remains open and candid, whether she’s admitting to rigging a high school homecoming court election or denouncing the doting perfectionism of “cream cheese parenting,” which is about “giving your children the best of everything.” The author’s fears and concerns are often mirrored by real-world issues: gender roles and bias, white privilege, racism, and religion-fueled homophobia and hypocrisy. Some stories merely skim the surface of larger issues, but Doyle revisits them in later sections and digs deeper, using friends and familial references to personify their impact on her life, both past and present. Shorter pieces, some only a page in length, manage to effectively translate an emotional gut punch, as when Doyle’s therapist called her blooming extramarital lesbian love a “dangerous distraction.” Ultimately, the narrative is an in-depth look at a courageous woman eager to share the wealth of her experiences by embracing vulnerability and reclaiming her inner strength and resiliency.
Doyle offers another lucid, inspiring chronicle of female empowerment and the rewards of self-awareness and renewal.Pub Date: March 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0125-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
Categories: GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | SELF-HELP
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