An engaging, well-researched guide to volunteering.
A seasoned event organizer offers insights into maximizing the efficacy of volunteer work in this manual.
With an MBA from Columbia University and three decades in the corporate world that culminated in a position as vice president of human resources for a Fortune 500 company, Evans has extensive experience in motivating and distributing responsibility among large groups of people in an organization. Following the death of his wife, he left corporate America, obtained a Ph.D. in psychology, and supported a range of community volunteer projects, from food banks to high school mentoring programs, in addition to service as the president of a local Rotary Club and organizer of an annual festival that celebrates the work of C.S. Lewis. In this volume, he blends his academic knowledge of human behavior with personal experiences and “real-life practices” to offer both volunteers and organizations insights into how “to do more good, more effectively, and have more fun while…doing it.” Divided into three parts, the book focuses first on “The Volunteer Self” and the ways in which individuals can identify work that complements their interests and talents. The section’s broad definition of volunteering includes religious and charity work and social and political advocacy. Perhaps most useful in this part are vignette “spotlights” that provide perspectives of individuals who found volunteer niches that fulfilled their own longings to make the world a better place as well as meeting community needs. These stories, ranging from recent retiree Rene, who helped coordinate a food bank during the height of 2020’s Covid-19 pandemic, to Stacy Smithers, who answered calls on a crisis intervention phone line for LGBTQ+ youth, provide poignant examples of the power that individual volunteers can have in changing people’s lives.
The book’s helpful second and third sections present best practices for volunteer teams and organizations, covering topics that include delegation of responsibilities; integrity and ethics; and the fostering of cooperation, with a particular emphasis on the value of “servant leaders.” Ultimately, Evans concludes, “high-functioning groups” embrace a democratic model that “supports mutual goal setting, problem-solving, decision-making, and critique,” while autocratic or laissez faire (“let everyone do what they want”) organizations are far less effective. Many chapters in all three sections conclude with specific “Action” ideas that volunteers and organizations can embrace to best ensure that their resources and time are not needlessly wasted on extraneous diversions and that encourage evaluation of individual and collective effectiveness. Discussion questions are similarly included for individual reflection or for organizations to discuss as part of a communal book reading. Particularly useful to organization leaders is a chapter on how to provide “mindful” feedback to volunteers that validates their work and motivates them to be team players. Though based on personal experience, the volume contains ample research and strong endnotes to substantiate its tips and strategies. An entire chapter is even dedicated to “implementing plans with participative action research.” An additional emphasis of the manual is on cultural competency. Multiple chapters pay careful attention to the dynamics of race, multiculturalism, gender, and sexuality. Though its sometimes mawkishly positive writing style that is peppered throughout with inspirational quotes and anecdotes may be too corny for some readers, the book balances these maudlin excesses with pragmatic, evidence-based advice.
An engaging, well-researched guide to volunteering.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 345
Publisher: Manuscript
Review Posted Online: Nov. 21, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2022
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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