Entry-level psychology with a legal-analysis twist makes for a quick and productive read.
Stephenson-Laws, an attorney, interrogates the evidence behind the common bits of advice that guide people’s lives.
The author presents six “counts,” or sections, to readers in this compact, practical guide to self-improvement as seen from the perspective of a lawyer. Each count centers on a particular theme, from “Love and Loyalty” to “Pain and Meaning” to “Truth, Freedom, and Judgment.” Brief chapters (never longer than four pages) within each count help readers unpack common pieces of advice, such as “Family is everything,” “Failure is not an option,” or “Trust your gut.” The result is a short, accessible volume that offers an excellent entry point into the self-help genre; those who haven’t yet thought about setting personal boundaries, for example, or who yearn to take control of their own lives, may get the most from this book. Extra materials at the end will further encourage readers to put what they’ve read into practice, including a final “verdict,” a “Guide for Reading Groups,” and a few other takeaways. That said, those who have a deeper background in self-help literature might be disappointed by the book’s lack of rigor, as a four-page chapter is hardly enough space to convey a complex idea in any depth. However, Stephenson-Laws does make excellent use of the space she provides herself by showing how common advice shouldn’t be taken at face value. According to the author’s “Feel. Pause. Act” framework, readers must feel emotions about such advice, pause when faced with a thought or decision about it, and then act, if necessary. Many readers will find it hard to deny that they are largely in charge of how they engage with their emotions and act on them, and this book effectively encourages them to embrace that responsibility. In the author’s words, “The ruling is yours. It always was.”
Entry-level psychology with a legal-analysis twist makes for a quick and productive read.Pub Date: Aug. 8, 2026
ISBN: 9798996820207
Page Count: 178
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Aug. 14, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
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