Thoughtful, rigorously researched, and refreshingly practical self-help advice.
Performance scientist and former elite cyclist Hewitt offers a myth-busting guide to thriving without falling victim to hustle culture.
In this self-help book, the author rejects the notions of a relentless grind and passive “quiet quitting,” instead delivering a compassionate, data-driven framework centered on rhythms of exertion and renewal. His insights draw on his own personal and professional trials, whether he’s discussing racing bikes in France or surviving cancer at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Hewitt opens by asking readers to embrace shoshin, the Japanese concept of “beginner’s mind”—an attitude of open curiosity unburdened by expertise or expectation. This mindset, he writes, helped him to rebuild after “hyperoptimization” failed, and it anchors the book’s grounded tone. Each chapter explores a core pillar of sustainable performance, tackling mornings and workdays, downtime, sleep, fitness, and nutrition, and examining one’s mindset and personal growth. Hewitt dismantles trendy wellness advice, such as delaying intake of caffeine or plunging oneself into cold water, with peer-reviewed evidence and calm clarity. Such fads, he argues, often succeed not on merit but due to cognitive distortions, including confirmation bias. He encourages readers to work on understanding themselves, and to that end, he recommends identifying one’s chronotype using a simple two-question Circadian Energy Scale, then building routines aligned with one’s natural rhythms. His “Cognitive Gears” model reimagines mental effort as akin to athletic training, aiming to help readers shift between intensity, focus, and recovery. His use of “expected value” calculations, a concept borrowed from the field of economics, recommends making lifestyle decisions by weighing benefits, risks, and implementation costs. Hewitt’s voice is precise but never preachy, and he offers reflection prompts, infographics, and planning tools that make complex science actionable. He blends aspects of neuroscience, behavioral psychology, and practical coaching into a system that prioritizes adaptability. Although some readers may balk at the book’s many homework assignments, its coherence and credibility make for a deeply rewarding guide.
Thoughtful, rigorously researched, and refreshingly practical self-help advice.Pub Date: Aug. 5, 2025
ISBN: 9798891384866
Page Count: 264
Publisher: Amplify Publishing Group
Review Posted Online: June 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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