An absorbing alternative-medicine odyssey and guide, full of rich observations about sickness and recovery.
Positive thinking and spiritual growth are the keys to preventing and recovering from cancer, according to this self-help book.
Brodrick’s luminous exploration of the psychic dimensions of disease focuses on his own bout with colon cancer and the soul-searching it provoked. Surgery to remove the tumor went well, but he turned down chemotherapy and embarked on drastic lifestyle changes, including vegetarianism, juicing, exercise, meditation, and quitting a demanding full-time position in favor of part-time jobs. He also concluded that mental disposition was central to disease. In his case, he contends, his cancer was caused by stress and his anxiety about getting cancer. “This fear of ill health,” he writes, “is the instruction” his “cells carried out when life became stressful.” He thus had a classic “cancer personality type” that influenced his body to switch “into ‘give up’ mode and let the cancer take hold.” During his recovery, he cultivated a new mentality that eschewed stress, prioritized his well-being, learned to live in the moment, and visualized himself as healthy and cancer-free. He solidified the vision with affirmations like “Thank you God for bringing me full health.” Brodrick fleshes out his ideas by citing scientific findings from quantum mechanics (thoughts are waves of energy that influence the atoms in human cells, he argues), epigenetics (subconscious thoughts can switch genes on and off), and studies of the placebo effect, and delves into New Age lore about the spiritual teachings of Abraham. The author dispenses much useful advice on healthy living, but readers should consult their doctors before following his more unorthodox suggestions. (He stopped getting regular colonoscopies because he worried that the procedure flushed beneficial microbes from the gut.) Brodrick conveys all this in prose that mixes frank, vivid writing on practicalities—“I must have looked a funny sight trying to hold back the tide with my out-of-practice sphincter and my bent-over shuffle run!” he recalls of his first toilet stop after surgery—with warmhearted lyricism. (“Not long ago, I sought to be rich and famous….I now know that I am already rich, recognized, and loved in many ways.”) Traditional doctors will find much to argue with here, but readers looking for a holistic approach to health and cancer treatment will be inspired.
An absorbing alternative-medicine odyssey and guide, full of rich observations about sickness and recovery.Pub Date: Feb. 16, 2023
ISBN: 978-1982296711
Page Count: 296
Publisher: BalboaPressAU
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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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