A sincere and upbeat guide to wholesome living that delivers some familiar advice.
A manual offers a common-sense road map to living a better life.
In this brisk work, Tuitt provides short pieces of advice to his readers on a wide spectrum of important topics, from physical health and mental sharpness to financial responsibility and the worth of exercise. He cautions readers on the dangers of pointless greed. “The mistake many people make is thinking that the thing they desire has the power to make them happy,” he writes. He reminds readers that happiness comes from shaping their days and habits to live life well. He thus presents simple, often two-sentence tips on things like the value of getting enough sleep and the many health benefits of eating well. He reminds his readers that they should try to enjoy their jobs, and they should strive for a good balance between work and the rest of life. Not everything in the book is cheery and unclouded, of course; Tuitt also deftly deals with potential frustrations, including coping with difficult people. In this case, the author’s preferred tactic is to contemplate the problems in your own personality. “Strangely,” he writes, “the first thing you need to think about when dealing with difficult people is whether in fact you are the difficult person.” Although even here, there can be a cutoff point. “When you have tried everything else,” Tuitt writes, “there is a time where the best thing to do is to walk away.”The book supplies a lot of blank space: The author leaves great swaths of page real estate to readers to make their own useful notes. Tuitt presents clear, heartfelt counsel throughout the manual. But sometimes his nuggets of advice are not very substantial. Surely, most of his readers must know already that it’s a good idea to eat their greens and get enough sleep.
A sincere and upbeat guide to wholesome living that delivers some familiar advice.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-5272-9872-9
Page Count: 125
Publisher: Green Turtle Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2021
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 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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