A fascinating New Age guide to “sleep divorce” that may be too metaphysical for some readers.
A self-help guide that blends neuroscience, mysticism, and psychology to argue that sleeping alone is the key to well-being for women.
A self-described “ceremonialist,” Zak believes that sleep is a “spiritual practice” that fine-tunes intuition, harmonizes corporeal vibrations, and recalibrates women in body, mind, and spirit. In this book, she offers readers 64 sleep rituals, from “nocturnal feng shui” to “memento mori” to facilitate lucid dreaming, physical restoration, emotional clarity, and spiritual awakening. These small, soothing ceremonies combine mantras, breathwork, mindfulness, and visualization. For example, in a ritual the author calls “conquering the bed,” readers are advised to center themselves on their bed and “lie down as if your body were a four-pointed star with a glowing, beating center.” Then, they imagine themselves as a shining diamond and breathe diaphragmatically until they enter a “state of relaxation and creativity.” Throughout the book, Zak challenges societal norms around sleeping and steers women toward intuitive sleep practices. She also incorporates historical and cultural perspectives to illustrate how sleep habits have changed: from ancient times when “everyone slept together in a jumble,” to the Industrial Revolution’s role in shared marital beds, to modern-day arrangements in which over 60% of millennial and Gen-Z couples sleep separately (according to the National Sleep Foundation). Zak makes a persuasive case for sleeping alone as a radical act. She supports her thesis with both science (e.g., with an in-depth discussion of the five stages of sleep) and metaphysical concepts, like the three energy centers of the Chinese energy practice qigong. Zak’s bedtime rituals are simple and actionable, allowing readers to potentially experience more satisfying sleep with minimal effort. Her tone is warm and invitational in lines like, “This is a sacred space, yours alone; it is a haven where you don’t need to explain anything or justify yourself in any way.” However, claims like “Women who sleep alone are more intelligent and more independent” are not evidence-backed.
A fascinating New Age guide to “sleep divorce” that may be too metaphysical for some readers.Pub Date: yesterday
ISBN: 9798888501863
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Destiny Books
Review Posted Online: July 22, 2025
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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