A helpful, well-illustrated plan for dealing with setbacks and blossoming into a better person.
A guide offers readers a collection of helpful hints on how to evolve into the best versions of themselves.
The key to “the treasure hunt of the self,” according to Sievers, is to stay curious and remain mentally flexible so that the discoveries of the future aren’t obscured by the insecurities of the present. Some people seem to know from a very early age who they are and what they want; the author aims her book at the rest of humanity, the people who may not be sure. The manual includes worksheets with prompts like “When I learn, I am challenged by ___.” There are spaces for younger readers to list their favorite things—even a blank page for them to attempt self-portraits. The volume is well designed for maximum interactions, with plenty of exercises and prompts for discussion. Sievers stresses that one of the best ways to gain perspective on one’s sense of self is to be interested in others, to find out how their worlds differ. Readers are cautioned to watch out for negative feelings (the author calls them “ANTs,” for Automatic Negative Thoughts, and many of Cline’s illustrations depict them that way). But readers should also acknowledge these feelings, and Sievers reassures her audience that “balanced, realistic thinking can stop…ANTs in their tracks.” The author uses this and other directly worded affirmations (aided by the volume’s varied pictures) to reinforce her overarching message of positivity, encouraging her readers that they have the potential to do something amazing with their lives by figuring out how to be the best versions of themselves. Along the way, she gives clearly worded explanations of different aspects of the brain’s neurochemistry and touches on such psychological problems as depression and anxiety, which she refers to as two sides of the same coin (sharing an overestimation of risks and an underestimation of the ability to cope with them). Even older readers will find many of these tips useful, and younger ones will find the counsel invaluable.
A helpful, well-illustrated plan for dealing with setbacks and blossoming into a better person.Pub Date: Dec. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-9964013-0-2
Page Count: 218
Publisher: Imaginal Discs Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 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 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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
