In his last book, an autobiography titled “Never Have Your Dog Stuffed,” actor/director/writer Alan Alda told of an incident in Chile, where he was working on a PBS show. He became deathly ill in a small town on a mountain top with a severe intestinal blockage that could have led to death.

Alda made it through that, but his close brush with death caused him to reflect on his life. With a new lease on life, a thought kept running through his mind: “What should this new life be like?”

Things were going great for Alda. In the same year he was nominated for a Tony Award (for his role in the Broadway show “Art”), an Oscar (for his role in Martin Scorcese's biopic of Howard Hughes “The Aviator”), an Emmy (for his role as the maverick Republican senator running for President against a little-known Hispanic congressman on the prescient television show “The West Wing”), and his autobiography made the bestseller list.

Alda has frequently been asked to speak at high school and college graduations. Friends have been after him to put these speeches together in book form as a way to share his philosophy of life with more people. He finally relented, and “Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself” is the result.

The book is a compilation of those speeches, interspersed with what was going on in Alda's life at the time he gave those speeches. The first speech he writes about is the commencement address he gave at his daughter Eve's college graduation.

He gives the speech directly to his daughter, although he tells the graduates that much of it applies to them as well. He tells them not to be scared, to love the work that they do, to keep laughing, and he even gives them a new Golden Rule: “Be fair with others, then keep after them until they are fair with you.”

Alda has been around a long time in Hollywood and New York (where he lives), and he has worked with many of the great actors of our time. He shares some of the eulogies he has given, including one for Ossie Davis, who worked with Alda when Alda was just starting out, and who taught him much.

It is a moving eulogy; Alda is a wonderful writer, and he speaks so eloquently from the heart; he captures what made Davis such an important and loved man. He also spoke at Anne Bancroft's funeral, and told the mourners how he based the character played by Rita Moreno in his movie “The Four Seasons” on his friend Anna Maria Louisa Italiano, Bancroft's real name. (If you have not seen that movie, rent it- it is a beautiful, funny story about marriage and friendship).

He also spoke at Peter Jennings funeral. In the few pages he writes of Jennings, he shows a new side to Jennings. He tells of Jennings's love of all kinds of music, and Jennings's tendency to “tell it as he sees it.” After a dinner party at Alda's home, Jennings was in the kitchen drying the dishes when he tells Alda to return to the liquor store the wine served at dinner; it was no good.

Jennings gave Alda a pocket copy of the United States Constitution and told him to keep it with him at all times, and whenever he found himself waiting somewhere, to pull it out and read it. He tells Alda that he will learn a lot from it.

Alda tells a fascinating story about Bert Convy, an actor best known as a convivial game show host. Convy was in Chicago as a delegate during the contentious Democratic convention of 1968. From his room, he saw police attacking demonstrators. Some injured demonstrators ran into the hotel, and Convy allowed them into his room.

The police burst into Convy's room and dragged out the injured demonstrators. Convy was furious that they illegally entered his room. He found out where they took the demonstrators, and went to the police station posing as a New York lawyer. He insisted that the demonstrators be released as their civil rights were violated.

He was convincing enough that they were released, and Alda was impressed by the courage Convy showed, defending people that he did not know, without regard for his own safety.

Alda is a real renaissance man. He writes, acts, directs, fought hard (albeit unsuccessfully) to pass the ERA Amendment, and his lifelong interest in science led him to become the host of the television show “Scientific American Frontiers.” Caltech even asked him to give a commencement address to the class of mostly science majors. He struggled for words when asked to speak about scientist Richard Feynman, whom he portrayed in a play.

After much soul-searching, Alda comes to the conclusion that he has learned three things in life that will help people “make the most of what comes your way, whatever comes your way.”

The first is to make someone happy. Alda says that includes loving someone, taking pleasure in the person he or she is, and surrendering to that person.

The second is to find out how you can be helpful. He states that “if you can really find a way to be helpful, more satisfaction and praise than you know what to do with will come your way.” He also says to get as smart as you can about things, but not to fear complex things; they “may bite,” but he warns to “be wary of simple answers to complex questions.”

The third thing is to “keep score your way. Don't let the world tell you success is a big house if you think success is a happy home.” His final piece of advice is “to think for yourself.” He advises to think things through. “No matter what the ideology, get the facts. Don't just rely on your beliefs. Everything is more complex than it first seems, and being passionate doesn't make you right.”

Alan Alda is a fascinating person; it is no wonder that so many people have asked him to speak at their functions. His curiosity about life is contagious, and his passion and words inspire people to be their best. Reading the book, you can almost hear Alda's voice saying the words he wrote.

If you are a fan of Alan Alda's, you'll enjoy this book. It's a good gift to give a recent college graduate, or anyone looking for thought-provoking ideas. I give it four stars.

Diane La Rue is a member of the National Book Critics Circle. Her lifelong goal is to read one book per week. She can be reached at

laruediane2000@yahoo.com