A broad but meaningful book of advice on looking beyond the self.
A psychological self-help book that centers on how to best get along with others.
Business consultant and Utah State University entrepreneurship professor Glauser presents six life principles, which he calls “universal truths,” in a work that’s aimed at helping every person, regardless of their background or perspective, live a more peaceful life. Each section breaks down one of the six principles—“Give Up the Ego,” “Refrain From Judging,” “Do Good Deeds Daily,” “Forgive One Another,” “Share Our Good Fortune,” and “Care for Our Needy”—and all are given equal weight in their power to potentially transform one’s life. Although readers may find these ideas simplistic or even overplayed, the book engagingly presents them with a back-to-basics mentality. The author argues that the actual practice of these ideas is relatively rare, especially in American culture, and this lack plays out in politics, in the workforce, with stewardship of the environment, and in simple, day-to-day interactions with others. As a result, he says, life can often feel hopeless and polarized in ways that also seem insurmountable; however, this book presents a more optimistic view. Glauser’s work is refreshingly simple and straightforward compared to many other self-help works in that it specifically centers on kindness and earnest reflection; many other advice books focus solely on the self, but Glauser’s engagingly emphasizes community, collectivism, and charity. Overall, the prose is concise, easily digestible, and warm in tone, which makes the reading experience both informative and enjoyable. The book’s presentation of the author’s personal experience, its references to studies touting the advantages of altruism, and the simplicity of it message make it feel simultaneously effective and hopeful.
A broad but meaningful book of advice on looking beyond the self.Pub Date: June 21, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5445-3169-4
Page Count: 250
Publisher: Lioncrest Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2022
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 moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
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