Greenlights

· Penguin Random House Audio · Narrated by Matthew McConaughey
4.9
1.66K reviews
Audiobook
6 hr 42 min
Unabridged
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About this audiobook

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Discover the life-changing memoir that has inspired millions of readers through the Academy Award®–winning actor’s unflinching honesty, unconventional wisdom, and lessons learned the hard way about living with greater satisfaction.

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE GUARDIAN


“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.

Ratings and reviews

4.9
1.66K reviews
Patricia Plasay
December 3, 2020
Interesting read. McConaughey is man on a quest for self-identity and ways to, perhaps unconsciously, escape the childhood trauma and familial mold he holds so dear. He’s quite raw, resilient, pensive, and narcissistic enough to create his own reality, on his terms. The underlying message: He’s earned his fame and fortune. Unfortunately, many do not, but the journey that separated him from the herd is worthy of consideration.
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Tanner James (TJ)
February 8, 2024
While insightful and at times humorous, I felt this book lacked the depth it needed. His time in Australia was most interesting to me. And his disclosure and discussion about not seeing himself as a victim was most helpful. Important topics are discussed throughout, I just felt it was not as in depth as it should have been. Wonderful book to hear his voice though.
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Milena Kirkova
February 13, 2024
I both loved and hated this book. I loved the message, but for some reason didn't feel connection or trust with the messenger. Still I am glad I listened to it, and there are parts that I would replay in the future to see if my perspective changes.
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About the author

Academy Award–winning actor Matthew McConaughey is a married man, a father of three children, and a loyal son and brother. He considers himself a storyteller by occupation, believes it’s okay to have a beer on the way to the temple, feels better with a day’s sweat on him, and is an aspiring orchestral conductor.
 
In 2009, Matthew and his wife, Camila, founded the just keep livin Foundation, which helps at-risk high school students make healthier mind, body, and spirit choices. In 2019, McConaughey became a professor of practice at the University of Texas at Austin, as well as Minister of Culture/M.O.C. for the University of Texas and the City of Austin. McConaughey is also brand ambassador for Lincoln Motor Company, an owner of the Major League Soccer club Austin FC, and co-creator of his favorite bourbon on the planet, Wild Turkey Longbranch.

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