A worthwhile book for readers looking for alternative ways to help those struggling with addiction.
Documentary filmmaker Palmer, with addiction therapist Pond, presents a practical guide for helping loved ones drink less, informed by scientific research and firsthand experience.
Most addicts are familiar with 12-step programs, which offer a set of actions and principles meant to pave the way to recovery. For example, Alcoholics Anonymous encourages members to list people who’ve been negatively affected by their drinking and to seek amends. Meanwhile, the loved ones of addicts, in their own support groups, are often told to “withdraw with love” to counteract what’s often described as “codependent” or “enabling” behavior—two words that Palmer condemns as “blithely tossed about” in the world of addiction and recovery. She outlines what she characterizes as a tender approach, using 20 “practical, science-backed strategies that operationalize kindness, compassion, and empathy to help your loved one drink less.” Palmer wrote the book with her partner, Pond, an addiction therapist whose personal struggle with conventional recovery programs inspired this alternative approach. For instance, instead of working toward a goal of flat-out quitting, Palmer explores the benefits of harm reduction; instead of encouraging withdrawing with love, she makes a case for establishing firm boundaries, which, she says, allows addicts to take responsibility for their recovery. Supported by research from institutions such as Stanford University’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education, this plainspoken self-help guide offers a balance of personal and clinical reflection: “I can’t possibly teach you things that good therapists take years to learn,” Palmer writes, “but I can tell you about simple tools and techniques that can make your interactions with your loved one much less combative and much more effective.” Indeed, although the authors would agree that no one set of guidelines suits everyone, this book’s ethos may inspire readers to seek out more personalized methods of support.
A worthwhile book for readers looking for alternative ways to help those struggling with addiction.Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2024
ISBN: 9781774584668
Page Count: 296
Publisher: Page Two
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 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
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.
The chef, rapper, and TV host serves up a blustery memoir with lashings of self-help.
“I’ve always had a sick confidence,” writes Bronson, ne Ariyan Arslani. The confidence, he adds, comes from numerous sources: being a New Yorker, and more specifically a New Yorker from Queens; being “short and fucking husky” and still game for a standoff on the basketball court; having strength, stamina, and seemingly no fear. All these things serve him well in the rough-and-tumble youth he describes, all stickball and steroids. Yet another confidence-builder: In the big city, you’ve got to sink or swim. “No one is just accepted—you have to fucking show that you’re able to roll,” he writes. In a narrative steeped in language that would make Lenny Bruce blush, Bronson recounts his sentimental education, schooled by immigrant Italian and Albanian family members and the mean streets, building habits good and bad. The virtue of those habits will depend on your take on modern mores. Bronson writes, for example, of “getting my dick pierced” down in the West Village, then grabbing a pizza and smoking weed. “I always smoke weed freely, always have and always will,” he writes. “I’ll just light a blunt anywhere.” Though he’s gone through the classic experiences of the latter-day stoner, flunking out and getting arrested numerous times, Bronson is a hard charger who’s not afraid to face nearly any challenge—especially, given his physique and genes, the necessity of losing weight: “If you’re husky, you’re always dieting in your mind,” he writes. Though vulgar and boastful, Bronson serves up a model that has plenty of good points, including his growing interest in nature, creativity, and the desire to “leave a legacy for everybody.”
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4478-5
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
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