An upbeat but simplistic self-help guide.
A collection provides colorful affirmations designed to inspire self-confidence and optimism.
Nocero offers a playful approach to self-help with this manual, which she wrote as a supplement to her previous book, The Magical Guide to Bliss (2017). Her new work includes over 100 M.A.N.T.R.A.s, or “Magical Affirmations Now Transform our Reality into an Adventure.” In Section One, “Pay Attention,” maxims include “I am worthy of love,” and “I am happy, magical and magnificent me.” The author explores each idea in one or two pages, often with a rhyme and cadence that feel reminiscent of Dr. Seuss: “For when I declare I am enough, it is time for me to see. I am here to manifest in this life the most amazing me.” Nocero also includes etymological anecdotes, noting, for example, that enthusiasm is derived from entheos, which is a Greek root meaning “in God.” There are empowering quotes from feminist icons, such as Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Gloria Steinem, as well as personal notes from the author to readers, entitled “To my Butterflies,” signed “I Love You, Meg.” Nocero shares a variety of helpful suggestions in these pages, such as doing “a physical and spiritual cleaning” every six months and cultivating hope about the future. The prose is colloquial (“We’ve got this!”) and will easily speak to millennial and Gen Z readers. The author’s biggest strength is creating fun acronyms and providing new takes on old sayings, like “K.I.S.S.” or “Keep It Simple Sunshine.” Unfortunately, the bite-size pieces of wisdom can sometimes feel clichéd or even reductive. (One of the mantras is simply “All is well.”) But with a raging pandemic, it seems like a good time to develop optimism and embrace self-care. Nocero delivers some positive ideas on where to begin.
An upbeat but simplistic self-help guide.Pub Date: Oct. 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-578-79002-2
Page Count: 186
Publisher: Butteflies & Bliss, LLC
Review Posted Online: Dec. 16, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
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
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