An intriguing but familiar glimpse into the mysteries of body clocks and sleep rhythms.
A wide-ranging debut book explores the circadian rhythms of the human body.
Hasyim researched the subject of human sleep cycles for half a decade and compiles his findings in this work aimed at improving readers’ quality of restfulness. For those puzzled by why their bodies’ active and lethargic periods occur throughout the day, the author offers explanations and a practical follow-up plan to adjust readers’ circadian rhythm patterns to promote improved productivity and energy. He credits the Lean Six Sigma project, whose core goal is to streamline processes in business, with sparking an effort to maximize his own productivity by making adjustments in his personal awake and sleep routines. The book provides an illuminating overview of how a circadian clock functions and the detrimental effects it can have on the human body when it becomes disrupted. Personally, the writer recalls how much energy he’d had as a boy on a regular schedule living in Indonesia. But when he ventured to college in Singapore, disruptive late-night study assignments and coffee jags entered the picture. Graphs and charts outline the classic synchronous circadian process, including how levels of cortisol and melatonin regulate stress, darkness perception, and sleep drives and how an irregular rhythm can affect metabolism, disease susceptibility, and inflammation. According to one of the many studies Hasyim cites, these factors contribute to causing the sleep deprivation of 51% of American adults. Other chapters stress the integral importance of aerobic and strength training, the monitoring of caloric intake, and the problematic nature of an unregulated “random eating lifestyle.” The author describes this habitual diet in clear detail and in conjunction with healthier alternatives, such as intermittent fasting regimens and fat-loss programs (with particularly good advice for reducing dietary sugars). Finally, he delivers practical guidance on adopting the optimal routine for seeking homeostasis in everyday life. While compelling and encouraging for readers seeking personal improvement, sections of the volume veer away from the circadian subject matter and are overly repetitive. Other areas present facts that are arguably utilitarian and common-sensical (lack of sleep adversely affects mood and productivity; regular exercise promotes increased energy and output). These particulars affect the book’s overall impact but don’t detract from its core message of reminding readers about the importance of regularly reassessing their sleep, exercise, and dietary needs and schedules.
An intriguing but familiar glimpse into the mysteries of body clocks and sleep rhythms.Pub Date: Nov. 28, 2020
ISBN: 978-981-14-7038-7
Page Count: 142
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Nov. 6, 2020
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
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
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