The premise of the book is great and the author really delivers. Great read. Highly recommended. .

Help Me! retrata a experiência de Marianne Power que decidiu viver 12 meses de acordo com 12 livros de auto-ajuda, numa tentativa de se auto-melhorar e ser feliz.

Das finanças pessoais ao auto-conhecimento, ao espiritualismo, ela fez tudo e de uma forma espetacular, não sem custos para a sua saúde mental. Acima de tudo, fê-lo com uma extraordinária coragem que me impressionou. Eu não a teria tido.

As suas experiências (por vezes hilariantes) são bem articuladas com os princípios básicos de cada livro.

Em suma, é um livro divertidíssimo e de leitura rápida.


#HelpMe #NetGalley

What a great read for all those who wonder if self-help works. I am not going to tell you the answer, you will have to read the book to find out.
I will however tell you that Marianne Power gives the 12 books she tests in 16 months a good shot and does come to a considered conclusion. A year of highs and lows, sometimes reaching their extremes.
All I will say is that I hope she gives the Greek a chance.
I was given this book by Netgalley and the publisher. This is my voluntary review.

Quick question: has anyone actually read a self-help book since the turn of the millennium? No, I don’t mean Marie Kondo. I mean those ones that Bridget Jones devoured, sitting on the sofa knowing that she was going to continue to make the same bad decisions over and over, whilst gorging on too much ice cream.
… Do they still print them?
With this solitary, incredibly 90's image stuck in my head, even attempting to take this book seriously baffled my brain a little bit.
I think that is because, over the past decade or so, people have become far more aware of the concept of privilege. Which roughly translates to: “no I don’t want to read about all the problems a middle-class straight, white women with a good job has, no thank you”. It feels whiny, flat, tone-deaf. Marianne Power chases self-help like the world is falling apart and her life is in tatters, but the main source of her problems?
That she does not have a boyfriend and she watches too much Netflix.
I mean, so do I! But I am not going to write a bloody memoir all about it.
In a world where so much is in actual tatters, it feels very #whitefeminism, very #firstworldproblems (which is, honest to god, the most millennial I have ever sounded). And no, that does not mean that everything has to be serious and doom-and-gloom to be needed, but this just felt unbelievably shallow.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for my unbiased review.

I originally picked up this title thinking it would be another journalists odyssey into the world of "such-and-such" in the vein of I'll Have What She's Having, or It Ended Badly. I was at first disappointed that it was not meant to be one long laugh-fest about the ridiculous things we do in the name of health/beauty/etc. Instead what started out as a hilarious trip into the world of self-help became a poignant memoir about a woman's journey to falling in love with herself just as she is. I laughed, I teared up, I found myself nodding, and I thoroughly enjoyed the ride. I also appreciated that Powers did not stick unwaiveringly to her original plan of doing one book per month. Because she was so invested in every work she was reading she took the time she really needed to and let it do it's work - good and very bad. It was fascinating to see how immersing yourself in a "program" for well being can literally devastate your body and mind. Much of her adventures read like investigative journalism, and I was shocked to learn what really goes on in many of these high-priced retreats.
And the best part? She writes an epilogue that shares what she feels is the meaning of life after her journey ends (on paper at least).

The one downside? I cannot believe how much this woman drinks. And how reckless she is with money. While she faces her money issue in several areas of the book, she didn't seem to learn much from it. And the drinking is never addressed. I'm no tee-totaller, but it was worrisome to read and I hate that so much of it is chalked up (passively) to being of Irish decent. Not all Irish drink and that assumption is getting pretty old.

I really enjoyed this book and I will recommend it to patrons looking for modern memoirs rather than a comedic expose.

Help Me by Marianne Power is a memoir about the year (and a bit) the author spent on a self-help journey; that is, a year-long self-improvement plan guided by twelve popular self-help books. This included The Secret, Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway and even Tony Robbins. The author was funny and engaging and, while I find it hard to believe this project was really as impactful as it was portrayed, it was interesting to hear about what worked and what didn’t.

Not usually a fan of nonfiction, but enjoy a good Sophie Kinsella book? This book might be a perfect fit! Marianne Power brings to mind some of Kinsella's characters, though of course in this case, it's all true. Power decides to finally put to use the advice in the self help books she loves, actually acting on the advice and not just thinking about it. Each month focuses on one book and we get to follow along as she puts the advice to use. Some advice "works" for her while other advice is less successful. The author shares her experiences, both good and bad, in an honest and entertaining way. Well worth giving this one a chance!

Thank you to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this fun book in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed this book much more than I thought I would. I think partly it's because of Marianne's British humour. She was brave to share her story that many people might think she is a fool for trying so many self-help books. I liked that she shared the good and didn't gloss over the bad. Her story certainly opened my eyes to the self-help industry and the lengths people will go through to try and "fix" themselves.

Help Me! is a frank and often funny look at self help, based on author Marianne Power's attempt to spend a year spending every month following a self help book or idea.

I thought Help Me! was going to be a fairly dry account of various self help books because even though the jacket/marketing information says it's funny--well. Big pinch of salt, right?

Turns out Help Me! really is funny--it reminded me, at many points, of Bridget Jones's Diary, with our heroine, Ms. Power, finding herself with all her friends having "proper" homes and lives while she's a paycheck-to-overdraft thirty-something freelance journalist who pays way too much rent for a basement flat where she spends most of her weekends watching reality tv, drinking wine, and vowing to get herself in better shape both physically, financially, and emotionally.

And she has a weakness for self help books.

So, after one such weekend, she decides to actually try using one of those self help books. Better yet, she decides, twelve, one for every month for a year.

So from facing her fears--running from parallel parking to nude modeling--to embracing rejection, to organizing her finances, to trying to date more, and yes, embracing everything from Tony Robbins to The Secret to the F*ck It movement, she's off on a journey to better herself.

The results are genuinely funny in places--her no nonsense mother's reactions to her attempts are especially amusing--and surprisingly thoughtful in others (her realization that all her attempts at self improvement have turned her into more than a bit of a navel gazing ass)

The inevitable moment when she realizes that all the self help she's doing can't stave on, and may in fact be increasing, a bout of depression is eloquent and moving.

The results are pretty much what you'd expect, but it's done with such cheekiness and candor (Ms. Power manages to pock just as much, if not more, fun at herself than some of the more out there self help methods) that it's a real pleasure to read.

Help Me! is an effervescent and surprisingly thoughtful look at self help, why we crave it, and memoir of a year spent improving (or trying to!)

I’d been recommended #HelpMe by my husband as he knows I love a self help book or two, he probably thought it would save us some money haha!

I loved Marianne’s style of writing, she is so funny; but this isn’t just a self deprecating look at whether self help actually helps (though it is that also), it is a touching and sensitive look at the people who turn to self help, Marianne’s personal journey, and how it affected those around her. Some of the challenges she set herself made me cringe! Happily for my husband, each self help book’s main principles were set out in each chapter.

I really hope this book is a best seller, it deserves to be!

Thank you to #NetGalley and the publisher for my free advance copy in return for an unbiased review.

3.75 stars

In an odd way, this memoir reminded me of a Sophie Kinsella novel — in a good way. Marianne Power recounts her year of living according to a different self help book each month. Each book contains a different set of instructions: do one thing that scares you every day, get a handle on your debts and your finances in order, say f*ck it and do what feels good, find your personal angel, seek out rejection from one person each day, etc... The concept seems designed for a lot of humour. But it turns out to be a bit more complicated than a lighthearted poke at self help books. Which gets me back to the Kinsella style heroine. Power approaches her task with humour, but also with a fair bit of sincerity. I laughed but was left with some food for thought. Do self help books make people too self-centered? Is there any way in which advice books can be helpful? It depends on the book and the person is the pretty obvious answer. But Power’s sincerity and self-deprecating humour made it worth the ride. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read an advance copy.

This book is an amusing and sometimes sobering look into the dangerous world of self help. This is why you don't do self-help..you'll only end up harming yourself and those you love.

I hated the writing style so much. Wriiting in the third person like this made it feel as though the book was completely disjointed. A HUGE no for me.

Wow, what a book! I picked up this book on a whim, knowing nothing about the author or the material, other than the short blurb which intrigued me. I thought it would be a great read for my daily commute, something that I could put down and easily come back to. Let me tell you, that was not the case. I devoured this book in less than two days, and could not put it down once I had started. I was immediately drawn into Marianne's life, through her witty, self-deprecating and hilarious dialogue and descriptions of herself and her life as a young, struggling twenty-something woman living in the UK. Reading about her insecurities regarding her body image, her finances, her relationships with friends, family, men, and most of all, herself, were so relatable to me as a young woman struggling with similar issues, and her quest to find herself through multiple self-help books is something I too have done. I related so deeply to her seemingly impossible struggle to chase her bliss and become a person she is proud of, and of the successes and failures she encounters on her journey.

The writing is extremely well-done, the dialogue is sharp and witty, the situations Marianne finds herself in are at times laugh-out-loud hysterical, at times vulnerable and painful, and always brutally honest and incredibly realistic. The way the author tackles complex issues such as the expectations of society and media towards how young women should live, the "business" of self-help, the complexities of relationships with loved ones and how disconnected we all are in this present-day society, is truly astounding. I also very much enjoyed the ending. Most of all, this book is a study of the human experience for young women today, I'm looking forward to reading more from Ms. Powers, who is quickly becoming a new favorite author of mine.

Help Me by Marianne Power was a humorous book that had me laughing out loud at times as the author described her quest to take a book a month and implement the self-help suggestions. Some of those books I've actually read. It was a pretty easy and fast read and the author does a great job of exposing her struggles and celebrating her successes. She did quite a few things on her journey to push herself (many of which I couldn't do). It showed how some people are on a quest to be their perfect self when in reality where they are right now is where they should be.

An overall pleasant book to read.

Marianne Power a journalist a single woman living a seemingly happy life decides to experiment to embark on a year of reading self help books and throwing herself into the experiment follow each boojsvadvive.From Tony Robins rallies to books that advise you not to give a care about anything
Marianne throws herself into each book of advise.Shocking family friends people pull away from her.Marianne doesn’t care she is convinced she through her books know better,I laughed at some of her brave adventures posing as a nude model in an art class trying to pick up men.
Marianne’s book is entertaing lovely she is like everyone searching for happiness.
Thanks #netgalley #groveatlantic