Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey | AUDIOBOOK REVIEW

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I’ve been in this life for fifty years, been trying to work out its riddle for forty-two, and been keeping diaries of clues to that riddle for the last thirty-five. Notes about successes and failures, joys and sorrows, things that made me marvel, and things that made me laugh out loud. How to be fair. How to have less stress. iHow to have fun. How to hurt people less. How to get hurt less. iHow to be a good man. How to have meaning in life. How to be more me.

Recently, I worked up the courage to sit down with those diaries. I found stories I experienced, lessons I learned and forgot, poems, prayers, prescriptions, beliefs about what matters, some great photographs, and a whole bunch of bumper stickers. I found a reliable theme, an approach to living that gave me more satisfaction, at the time, and still: If you know how, and when, to deal with life’s challenges – how to get relative with the inevitable – you can enjoy a state of success I call “catching greenlights.”

So I took a one-way ticket to the desert and wrote this book: an album, a record, a story of my life so far. This is fifty years of my sights and seens, felts and figured-outs, cools and shamefuls. Graces, truths, and beauties of brutality. Getting away withs, getting caughts, and getting wets while trying to dance between the raindrops.

Hopefully, it’s medicine that tastes good, a couple of aspirin instead of the infirmary, a spaceship to Mars without needing your pilot’s license, going to church without having to be born again, and laughing through the tears.

It’s a love letter. To life.

It’s also a guide to catching more greenlights – and to realizing that the yellows and reds eventually turn green too.

Good luck.

Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey | AUDIOBOOK REVIEW

BOOK REVIEW

MY THOUGHTS

If you are a fan of celebrity memoirs, and of Matthew McConaughey himself, you’ll love this book.

Not only is Matthew McConaughey an interesting personality, he also has a way of telling stories. His passion about life, acting and his family is palpable when he speaks. That’s probably why I love listening to memoirs, it gives me an opportunity to listen to the author speak in a very candid way. And allows me to connect with them on another level.

The audiobook is a quick one with just under 7 hours, and the physical book is full of photos, notes, bumperstickers, and journal entries which also makes for a fast read. I actually would recommend both, the audiobook for his voice, and the book to read along, or at least for the photos.

The memoir might not be as powerful as Born a Crime, or as fascinating as Becoming, or surprising as Open Book, but it’s right there on the list of memoirs I would recommend any day.

Because in the end I had a really great time listening to Matthew McConaughey talk. And that’s in my eyes what a memoir is all about, especially if it’s narrated by the author. I want to have the feeling I actually got to know the author more deeply, on a more intimate level. And this was certainly accomplished. From his childhood and family, to his early successes and his personal journey. He is telling his story in a very straight up and sometimes even a bit crazy way. But it’s never not entertaining.

There is no doubt that Matthew McConaughey is a fascinating and talented personality. This book is proof. A record of his life so far. Hard to put down. Engaging and honest in a way Hollywood rarely is. A book I would recommend to anyone. Another great memoir for my shelves.

FOUR STARS

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Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey | AUDIOBOOK REVIEW