A compelling and comprehensible argument for pursuing individual change for collective betterment.
Heydlauff presents a self-help guide that embraces spiritual concepts of self-improvement.
Our world often seems chaotic and divided, with politics and social media keeping people fighting with or disconnected from one another, according to the author. However, Heydlauff aims to offer hope with seven universal principles that she believes will lead humankind into a “Renaissance of Joy” and “Era of Connection.” She asserts, for example, that people are encoded to be spiritual, that they’re all joined with a higher power and with the universe (even if they don’t realize it), and that they share great commonality. Ultimately, she states that if everyone makes positive changes on an individual level, it can alter the entire world’s negative trajectory. Her suggestions for self-improvement include finding one’s own version of joy, engaging in creative activities, meditating, making a plan for each day, recognizing that everyone is special and has a part to play in the world, and living solely in the present. Unlike many self-help authors, Heydlauff includes few personal anecdotes about herself or others. Instead, her text functions more as a call to action, urging readers to realize only they can change an out-of-balance planet. Repetition is one technique she uses to effectively hammer home her theme; variations of “You are a spiritual being having a human experience” and “We are 100% connected to God and the universe 100% of the time” appear regularly. She also encourages reader engagement by, for example, transforming words such as regenerate, respect, flow, and clarity into acrostics with the letter y in clarity standing for “You can do it” and the f in flow for “Freedom from boundaries.” Bullet-pointed lists also simplify complex ideas. The text’s sometimes-businesslike tone may leave some readers cold, but it still efficiently delivers its message.
A compelling and comprehensible argument for pursuing individual change for collective betterment.Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2022
ISBN: 9780998334769
Page Count: 221
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: March 21, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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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