A guide that offers a delicate balance of hard science and practicality.
Hansen looks at the scientific research behind improving one’s inner well-being in this self-help manual.
The author, a medical doctor and the head of the Resilience Institute in Auckland, New Zealand, has decades of medical research under his belt. In this book, he shares his integrative approach to mental and emotional health by using a combination of preventative and sports medicine, psychology, neurobiology, and ecology. The book aims to show readers how to “Bounce, Grow, Connect, and find Flow” to become happier and healthier. The book’s structure is clear and straightforward, explaining in lay and scientific terms what happens to the brain in certain emotionally charged situations—and, more importantly, how one can control those feelings and impulses to become more well-adjusted and attuned to the outside world. More complex concepts, such as the mind and body’s “Altitude Spiral”—which ascends from “overload,” “disengage,” “avoid,” “defend,” and “collapse” to “secure,” “energise,” “feel,” “think,” and “flow”—are accompanied by illustrations for better understanding. That said, the steps are often extremely technical and complex, which won’t appeal to all readers. Although there are plenty of real-world examples that help contextualize each lesson, the practical drills to practice at home sometimes feel a bit abstract. For example, Drill 18 asks, among other things: “Where do you immobilize in the face of adversity?” Still, this type of high-level engagement forces readers to delve deeply into their emotional and psychological arsenals, which is exactly what a self-help book of this magnitude is designed to do. Overall, Hansen aims to strengthen the “rhythms of connection” within and between people, and he delineates a clear path forward for those seeking personal change.
A guide that offers a delicate balance of hard science and practicality.Pub Date: Aug. 16, 2022
ISBN: 9780473651206
Page Count: 230
Publisher: The National Library of New Zealand
Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
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
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