An approachable and intriguing yoga method for those seeking an alternative route to wellness.
A practitioner’s guide to a yoga alternative focused on the nervous system.
Kaiut, strategic director of the Kaiut Yoga Institute, approaches holistic wellness with the Kaiut yoga method, which works specifically at the “intersection of movement, neuroscience, and longevity” and, most importantly, how the nervous system affects pain and overall health. The author begins, unsurprisingly, with the origins of yoga: The agricultural revolution lowered diversity of movement due to specialized labor. Believing that mobility is the backbone of health, Kaiut explains how “Kaiut Yoga restores the office worker.” Organized into three parts, this guide covers the core principles behind the Kaiut method. Part I discusses the key indicators of physical health: strength, flexibility, and balance. Debunking common notions of these aspects of health, the book preaches diversity in movement, not performance. Most compelling is the author’s view of pain, or “blockages”: Not only is pain systemic, relating to the whole body through the nervous system, but the key to healing pain is training the nervous system to feel safe again across diverse movements. Part II discusses joints, where the center of the body’s adaptability lives. The author claims that students with joint pain or stiffness not only find relief from the Kaiut method, but also experience “improved focus, calmer thinking, deeper sleep, and renewed energy,” which are all signs that the nervous system is well regulated. Part III interrogates traditional yoga practices that reward perfection and performance, whereas in Kaiut yoga, “If you stayed in a pose long enough to feel something new, or found a way to feel the edges of what scares you, this is success.” In addition to the author’s impressive bibliography and helpful poses in the appendices, the text includes “From the Mat” stories, where real Kaiut students candidly share their positive experiences with the method.
An approachable and intriguing yoga method for those seeking an alternative route to wellness.Pub Date: May 1, 2026
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: April 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.
The chef, rapper, and TV host serves up a blustery memoir with lashings of self-help.
“I’ve always had a sick confidence,” writes Bronson, ne Ariyan Arslani. The confidence, he adds, comes from numerous sources: being a New Yorker, and more specifically a New Yorker from Queens; being “short and fucking husky” and still game for a standoff on the basketball court; having strength, stamina, and seemingly no fear. All these things serve him well in the rough-and-tumble youth he describes, all stickball and steroids. Yet another confidence-builder: In the big city, you’ve got to sink or swim. “No one is just accepted—you have to fucking show that you’re able to roll,” he writes. In a narrative steeped in language that would make Lenny Bruce blush, Bronson recounts his sentimental education, schooled by immigrant Italian and Albanian family members and the mean streets, building habits good and bad. The virtue of those habits will depend on your take on modern mores. Bronson writes, for example, of “getting my dick pierced” down in the West Village, then grabbing a pizza and smoking weed. “I always smoke weed freely, always have and always will,” he writes. “I’ll just light a blunt anywhere.” Though he’s gone through the classic experiences of the latter-day stoner, flunking out and getting arrested numerous times, Bronson is a hard charger who’s not afraid to face nearly any challenge—especially, given his physique and genes, the necessity of losing weight: “If you’re husky, you’re always dieting in your mind,” he writes. Though vulgar and boastful, Bronson serves up a model that has plenty of good points, including his growing interest in nature, creativity, and the desire to “leave a legacy for everybody.”
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4478-5
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
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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