An enthusiastic and practical collection of college hacks whose wisdom sometimes leans too much toward the conventional.
Cohan shares 103 lessons for incoming college students to maximize their college experiences in this guidebook.
The author, a sociologist and professor, gives a new definitional slant on college as a “hope structure” that facilitates individuation, growth, and reinvention. According to the author, each year a student spends in college serves a purpose: Freshmen learn to make themselves at home, sophomores focus on socialization, juniors seize opportunities like internships, and seniors prepare to launch into the workforce or graduate school. Using the effective metaphor of a water ride, Cohan instructs readers to “Embrace the water,” “Swim against the current,” and “Find what anchors you.” However, she admits that adjusting to college can be rough: “It will be bumpy. It will be stormy. It may make you nauseous and scared.” Students are encouraged to get out of their rooms, develop a good relationship with their adviser, and strategically design a schedule that includes “mind-blowing experiences.” Along the way, readers learn about the ins and outs of declaring a major—or two—and why it’s OK to wait to declare one. There are practical writing tips, AI cautionary tales, and group project pointers, but just as important is the book’s guidelines for communicating appropriately with professors, creating community, and recognizing abusive relationships. The book concludes with tips for post-graduation success. Cohan’s practical advice encompasses not just academics but also the logistical and social aspects of undergraduate education. She is also refreshingly blunt in advice like “Read the F*cking Syllabus” and “Get Your Ass to Class.” The book’s inclusive narrative also addresses the needs of students with disabilities and LGBTQ+ identities. However, some of Cohan’s claims (e.g., “It’s clear that the students who’ve retreated to their rooms the most are less successful in school, less happy socially and emotionally, and increasingly withdrawn and isolated”) lack scientific rigor. Other tips, like encouraging students to bring their own supplies, seem so commonsensical that they barely merit mentioning.
An enthusiastic and practical collection of college hacks whose wisdom sometimes leans too much toward the conventional.Pub Date: July 8, 2025
ISBN: 9781684818525
Page Count: 296
Publisher: Mango
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The heartbreaking story of an emotionally battered child delivered with captivating candor and grace.
The former iCarly star reflects on her difficult childhood.
In her debut memoir, titled after her 2020 one-woman show, singer and actor McCurdy (b. 1992) reveals the raw details of what she describes as years of emotional abuse at the hands of her demanding, emotionally unstable stage mom, Debra. Born in Los Angeles, the author, along with three older brothers, grew up in a home controlled by her mother. When McCurdy was 3, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Though she initially survived, the disease’s recurrence would ultimately take her life when the author was 21. McCurdy candidly reconstructs those in-between years, showing how “my mom emotionally, mentally, and physically abused me in ways that will forever impact me.” Insistent on molding her only daughter into “Mommy’s little actress,” Debra shuffled her to auditions beginning at age 6. As she matured and starting booking acting gigs, McCurdy remained “desperate to impress Mom,” while Debra became increasingly obsessive about her daughter’s physical appearance. She tinted her daughter’s eyelashes, whitened her teeth, enforced a tightly monitored regimen of “calorie restriction,” and performed regular genital exams on her as a teenager. Eventually, the author grew understandably resentful and tried to distance herself from her mother. As a young celebrity, however, McCurdy became vulnerable to eating disorders, alcohol addiction, self-loathing, and unstable relationships. Throughout the book, she honestly portrays Debra’s cruel perfectionist personality and abusive behavior patterns, showing a woman who could get enraged by everything from crooked eyeliner to spilled milk. At the same time, McCurdy exhibits compassion for her deeply flawed mother. Late in the book, she shares a crushing secret her father revealed to her as an adult. While McCurdy didn’t emerge from her childhood unscathed, she’s managed to spin her harrowing experience into a sold-out stage act and achieve a form of catharsis that puts her mind, body, and acting career at peace.
The heartbreaking story of an emotionally battered child delivered with captivating candor and grace.Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-982185-82-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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