An instructive celebration of close, meaningful friendships.
An upbeat manifesto on the importance of friendship and the fundamental principles that make it thrive.
Horn, a psychology researcher and professor, contends that satisfying friendships are the cornerstone of a happy, healthy life—and yet, contemporary society “faces a pressing loneliness crisis.” In her first book, she shows readers how to “navigate the complex and sometimes murky waters of adult friendships.” The first chapter gives an overview of what the author calls “dynamic friendship”; i.e., close, meaningful relationships that create an exchange of positive energy. In each chapter, Horn explores fundamental friendship tenets: Recognizing (the different types of friendships), Communicating, Accepting, Blending (combining different friend groups), Safeguarding (building trust and loyalty), Reciprocating, Recalibrating (changing or ending friendships), and Self-friending. Each tenet comprises several basic principles. For example, Reciprocating includes “exchange time generously,” “tune in and truly listen,” and “express your gratitude,” among others. The author briefly describes each principle and prompts the reader to envision it and reflect on it. The guide concludes with a final recap and several pages of notes. Horn’s inspirational tone empowers readers to “reverse the trend of declining adult friendships.” Her writing is warm, vivid, and heartfelt: “Friends are the family we choose for ourselves, becoming increasingly precious as we age. They are our pillars of support, our sources of joy, and our lifelines in times of need.” While acknowledging that “the intricacies of adult friendships can be challenging,” Horn’s advice focuses more on the why than the how. She encourages the reader to connect “with an open heart, free from jealously or resentment”—an admirable sentiment that’s unfortunately much easier said than done. And while the need for friendship is universal, and the book advocates cultivating diverse friends, its frame of reference seems exclusively upper-middle-class American, replete with scenarios like spontaneous road trips, winery tours, high-paying jobs, yoga, and brunch. Ultimately, though, its message—“Be your own best friend, and let the magic of true friendship unfold in your life”—is timeless.
An instructive celebration of close, meaningful friendships.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9798891380950
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Amplify Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 22, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024
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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