Greenlights (Unabridged)
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4.4 • 1.8K Ratings
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
From the Academy Award®–winning actor, an unconventional memoir filled with raucous stories, outlaw wisdom, and lessons learned the hard way about living with greater satisfaction
“Unflinchingly honest and remarkably candid, Matthew McConaughey’s book invites us to grapple with the lessons of his life as he did—and to see that the point was never to win, but to understand.”—Mark Manson, author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck
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. How to have fun. How to hurt people less. How to get hurt less. How 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.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
It makes sense that an iconoclast like Matthew McConaughey would take the basic idea of an autobiography and make it all his own. Part memoir, part self-help manifesto, Greenlights finds the actor sharing some of the most intimate, illuminating, and hilarious moments from his life and career. McConaughey draws inspiring lessons from his blue-collar Texas childhood, his father’s tragic passing while in bed with McConaughey’s mother, and his history of sexy dreams that seem to prophesy big life moments like meeting his wife. We especially loved getting an inside look at how the Hollywood star prepares for his movies—did you know his iconic “Alright, alright, alright” from Dazed and Confused was ad-libbed during a costume fitting? And who can resist listening to that perfect Texan drawl? McConaughey brings his trademark candid and approachable vibe to his narration. He’s every bit the charming rogue he plays on screen, but he’s also a masterful storyteller. This compelling audiobook proves that, at least in McConaughey’s case, real life truly is stranger than fiction.
Customer Reviews
Funny and Thoughtful
Loved this book!! He has some great stories to share, challenging thoughts; not a book I’ll forget.
Insightful, Honest, Humorous
Insightful, Humorous, Honest… his voice and rich intonation make his story come alive.
An Incredible Story that Doesn’t Aim to Inspire but Does in the Process
An Incredible Story that Doesn’t Aim to Inspire but Does in the Process. The audiobook experience cannot be beaten, as McConaughey reads the story as if you were in the room sharing a back and forth. Your contribution being retrospection and understanding.