I did not enjoy this book. It came from a very privileged standpoint and the suggestions made were just not possible with my lifestyle.

I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. Not a book that I would purchase for the library because of the writing prompts and journal entries.

Falter has created a very practical, yet hitting the right spot, guide to ensure you can take yourself. Self care is often the first thing to be tossed off the to do list when days are too busy. It can also feel overwhelming, with questions like where to begin and what to do buzzing around. Falter succeeded in creating a guide to help you from your first step onward! With this guide there is no longer an excuse, an unanswered question - just a way to take of yourself. Nicely done!

I don't often read self-help books but I really liked this one! I considered this book very helpful and even paradigm changing. I was often writing sentences of it in my notebooks as quotes to remember.
The chapter on setting your own boundaries alone is already worth reading it, and I'll buy a physical copy of this book to read it again too.

(My rating is pertaining solely to the very helpful text of the book, not its formatting which, in the digital advanced reader copy was quite confusing. I hope the final digital version of this book has it formatting revised.)

Self-Care in Princess Bites

If you are a typical woman, you have 20 million things going on all the time, and probably the last thing you think of is taking a little time for self-care. This book tells you why you should and leads you through a variety of mini essays that get you just thinking and doing something about it. We perhaps learn a little too much about the author, but there is some friendly advice and things to think about here. I appreciate that she doesn't just try to encourage you to manage your time better. So many of these kinds of books seem to want us to do that... as if that solves having too much to do: cram the same amount of stuff into less time. If you're feeling a little in need of self-care, you might want to pick up his book. Perhaps you should pick it up even if you don't!

I can say that this book was written with good intentions but it didn't keep my attention to read it to the end. It has potential but it needed to be more attention-grabbing.

A useful book!

I found this book useful. I know myself that I definitely don’t take enough time out for self-care, when I know I should. I didn’t end up doing all the prompts/exercises but I thought they were a great idea in encouraging busy women to take the time out to do these tasks.

There was a lot of repetition that I found a bit irritating. As a “busy” woman’s guide I felt it was a waste of time to keep repeating certain things. It could’ve been condensed a lot more.

That being said, I found it helpful and I think I’d probably use some of the prompts in future for when I feel I need to take time out!

As a full-time legal assistant/business owner/mother of three, I appreciated the concept of this book. I thought the journal prompts were a fun way to engage with the content, and were also great for people like myself who love actionable tasks. However, it seemed as though the whole message of the book was to just slow down and stop being so busy. A lot of the self-care suggestions were kind of a miss for me as I personally don't have the luxury of slowing down just yet but, I could see how others in different positions and lifestyles would benefit from the messages that come across in the book.

Today's book is The Extremely Busy Women's Guide to Self-Care by Susanne Falter. This book is a non-fiction book. I received this book as an Advanced Reader's Copy from Sourcebooks Publishing through NetGalley. After the death of her daughter Susanne Falter began on her adventure of self-care as away to process her daughter's death. She now shares what she learns and how we can apply it to our own day to day lives.

This book was full of little tidbits of advice about self-care, why it was good for you, how science backed it up and how to incorporate it into your day to day life, no matter how busy you became. It also shared the journey that Susanne has taken since the loss of her daughter. We also learn of her daughter's belief as passages from her journal are shared with us, and we are given quick exercises to do in order to help set ourselves up for success.

The overall plot development was helpful as it gave a good balance of research and real-life experience when it came to this top, so 9 points. The overall layout was good as it broke off into categories and the table of contents and index where laid out nicely that it was easy to search for a topic, so 9 points. The overall score was 90%. Yes, I would recommend this book. Those who enjoy facts and experience, science and short activities. Those who do not enjoy someone else's journey, or including life experience.

Life can be hard sometimes and especially when you are a woman, married with two children, two jobs and a house to take care of.

I am earnest that I take all the help I can get and this book had some pretty good advice for me.

Because you have to start with yourself and how you need to chance how you view things that you may not be able to change.

So thanks for letting me read this great book.

THE EXTREMELY BUSY WOMAN'S GUIDE TO SELF-CARE by Suzanne Falter is subtitled "Do Less, Achieve More, and Live the Life You Want." It also seems like a relevant read if you are looking to develop some resolutions and new habits for the New Year. Falter begins the text with a section titled the Self-care Mindset where she explains the importance of self-care and saves most tips until the second and third sections (titled Self-care Essentials and Working Self-care into Your Life). She freely admits that women reading this like to get results; therefore, the first section could have been shorter (it takes up almost half the book) and less negative (especially hard for perfectionists to read) so as to get to some positive action steps earlier.

Falter pushes readers out of their comfort zone and definitely encourages self-reflection. She says, "if you're reading electronically, bring a notebook or a blank document to make notes as you go along." In fact, many of the pages are purposefully blank or include quizzes and/or worksheets with titles like "Things I'd do if I had Ten Times More Courage" or "Five Things I'd Love to Add to my Life." Some of the "essentials" she lists are certainly not surprises to readers (the first is sleep, followed by comments on relationships, vacations, exercise, nutrition, and physical surroundings), but this text will make readers think and re-evaluate, listen to their bodies, and attempt to slow down. I can readily see it having a place in one of our learning cohorts – applying to both busy men and women.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you NetGalley!

Let's be real... what woman truly focuses ENOUGH time on themselves?! Especially moms?
I know I certainly don't.

This book covers easy ideas and ways to take care of yourself when you're busy..
I enjoyed it. And i'd honestly give it as a gift to my fellow busy mamas.

I believe that this book was written with good intentions, and I was at least engaged enough to read through to the end. Even if I had major disagreements and/or reservations regarding a lot of the advice.

To be quite honest, some fundamental ideas in this book made me uncomfortable. The first is the publication of excerpts from a dead daughter's diary; for all I know she would be happy with this use of her words, but if my mom even <i>read</i> my journal I would feel mortified and betrayed. Either way, several of the quotes didn't seem relevant or totally applicable, so I wasn't sure they were necessary in the first place. The author also unironically refers to "authors as diverse as Mark Twain and Jack Kerouac"; the way relationships are discussed seems to dismiss the existence of not just aromantic individuals, but people who are genuinely happy being single; there's also a distinction drawn between "women" and "girls" (women, it is implied, are better, more Adult) which just seemed unnecessary.

In some sections, the logic just didn't make sense to me. Habits are only effortless after they've been formed, for example: to create new ones, you have to deliberately design them, incorporate them into your life, and practice them until they actually become habits. Also, maybe it's just my interpretation but "Our only job in life is to try, fail, try, succeed, try, tweak, and try again until we either succeed or we get tired of that particular experiment" seems to read as "We either keep trying until we succeed or give up" — and I can't honestly agree with that binary, or the idea that it is our sole purpose in life. Readers are also told to essentially ignore pains (such as when beginning to work out), which is not good blanket advice because it can be a signal that you're doing something wrong and therefore hurting yourself. Potentially seriously.

Finally, I couldn't really tell whether there was rhyme or reason to the organization of the worksheets, since they ping-pong from the positive to the negative — if I were actually filling them out, I would find it jarring even if I was just looking for one in particular. And as someone who enjoys a good personality quiz, the polarized answers made them seem more gimmicky than insightful.

I received a copy of this via Netgalley for an honest review.
This book doesnt contain anything that we dont already know in our heads and constantly push aside. It is an amazing reminder and one that I know I will be picking up multiple times throughout the year and probably far into the future. After reading it I am doing these little acts of self care and feeling much lighter as a result. I would highly recommend for anyone out there feeling burnt out by life and needing to find some joy.

I enjoyed this book as it set very clear and attainable ways to improve your self care, including very detailed instructions on how to ask for help clearly and with power and how to set boundaries. Those are topics often talked about, but never truly explained to others how to achieve them. This reads like a workbook with prompts and actionable steps. This is a great gift for new moms, working moms, career women and any other stressed individual (so...all of us)!

This book loses a star from because it reinforces the prevalent stereotype that the ONLY reason to practice self care is so that you can care better for everyone else. This is false. We need to teach women to practice self care for themselves because they are valuable, worthy, important people and NO OTHER REASON. When we tell women that caring for themselves is only a means to an end to running yourself ragged caring for others we set them up for a lifetime on an empty tank, emotionally and physically.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this title in exchange for honest feedback.

I read The Extremely Busy Woman's Guide to Self-Care with an expectation in mind for what topics and chapters it might cover. However, the book was not what I envisioned, for both good and bad.

Many chapters covered topics like saying no, setting boundaries, making time for what's important, cutting out what's not important, etc. While those are important things to account for in order to organize the way you spend your time, it just wasn't exactly a match to my expectations for this book. Further, the galley was problematic with 50% more blank pages than pages with content.

So despite the fact that it may have been a little bit of a miss for me, after reading this book, I promptly made a change in my schedule the next day to spend quality time with my son, and I joined the Facebook Self Care Group organized by the author...and I am enjoying seeing the interaction and posts from extremely busy women seeking self care! The author is very wise and is right to help this new generation of overloaded women try to find peace and create some space for themselves in their lives!

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher and author for free digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Happy 2020! Have you made some New Year resolutions? What if, instead of punishing yourself to spend more time in the gym, or giving up the foods you love, you instead approached life with a mindset of first of all taking care of yourself? What if doing so wasn’t selfish, or self-indulgent? What if you could prioritise being nice to yourself and not only still achieve what you needed to, but actually get far, far more out of life?

As I started reading this book, I felt like a great big ‘yes’ was settling in. It makes so much sense. Life shouldn’t be a constant struggle – and yup, I can see that if I’d just breath and go with the flow, things would be easier, and I could be happier. That’s not to say I’d spend my life meditating while the dishes piled up – but I’ve already had the ‘revelation’ that housework isn’t so bad, as it gets me something I want: a lovely clean living space. I’m still working on the idea that exercise is also a form of self care 😉

I’d love to say that the book continued to inspire me, but to be honest it fell into fairly well-worn paths. Like so many self-help authors, the changes that led to the writing of the book came after a crisis: the death of her daughter. It’s harsh to say, but tbh I’m fed up of the twinge of discomfort I get every time self-help is accompanied by the author’s grief or self-therapy.

Still, there’s a lot to get out of the book. Each chapter comes with exercises to journal about, and obviously you’ll get the most from the process by spending the time to do these properly.

My favourite chapter was near the beginning, “The big illusion about getting stuff done”. This spoke to me: pointing out the crazy treadmill we get ourselves on, pushing to do more more more. Whereas, contrary as it seems when you’re in that headspace, stopping and resting, and breathing, you can get far more done and with far less internal push-back. Like I said, doing the dishes = clean house = happier me. Odd, but true!

The book goes on to cover many good, if not unexpected topics, from setting boundaries, eschewing perfectionism, asking for help, etc. The second section gives all of the self-care areas, including sleep, vacations, love, nutrition and exercise, fun. I did have a little red flag when she started on about adrenal fatigue – as far as I’m aware that’s still not a recognised ‘thing’, and I wasn’t too impressed with the level of authority with which the topic was presented. It’s a reminder that self-help books are 99.9% personal opinion, and shouldn’t be taken too seriously.

My the last section, about getting more self-care habits into your life, I was slogging a bit as everything became fairly familiar. And again harsh but to be honest: the constant quotes from her dead daughter’s diary felt a bit creepy rather than motivational. Ymmv.

There’s plenty to like in this book, and it’s well enough written, but with just those few bits I wasn’t comfortable with. Still, I absolutely love the message: look after yourself – why wouldn’t you?!

This book shoud be purchased in a physical copy, not a digital.

I struggled getting into the book in the first couple of chapters. I understand the author was trying to tell the reader what her background was, but it really didn't draw me in. I also found it hard to relate to someone whose busy lifestyle was being her own boss running her own website. The book itself is NOT meant to be in an digital, it was really difficult to read on an ereader! Plus with all of the writing prompts it is really meant to be in a physical format.

Once I was able to get past the initial chapters it did get better. I found the quotes from the author's daughter to be delightful and incredibly insightful. The mini quizzes and activities were a fun exercise too but again, they needed to be done in a notebook. While I appreciate that the author was focusing on slowing down I feel that there are more sides to self care than slowing down. It's a good place to begin but really doesn't give you more tips and tricks on how to get self care in. Overall, it would be great as a workbook to get you started on the path of selfcare but there is definitely more that needs to go into it.

This was an interesting book. I thought the information presented was well laid out and flowed well. I really enjoyed reading it and want to try and start implementing some of what I read.

An approachable workbook for busy women. The author's personal story of losing her young adult daughter and transforming her life as a result is a powerful way to start the book. I will probably not buy this for our library, simply because I didn't realize it had so many exercises and quizzes to fill out, and people tend to write in books like this. But for an individual, this would make a great gift for someone else or yourself!