5.0 out of 5 stars The Book You Will Wish You Had Read....Before
Reviewed in the United States on September 22, 2022
There have been a handful of books that I have finished reading and thought, "I wish I had read this before I __________________" Things like; before I got married, before I had kids, before I took that job, etc. But this book is one you might just wish you had read before, well...anything.

As a follow-up to Jon Acuff's best-selling book, Soundtracks, he and his two daughters have written a version of that book specifically for teenagers and young adults. Acuff's two daughters mainly author the book; he edits and provides an introduction and the wrap-up at the end. The girls, one a college freshman and the other a high-school junior, write an excellent handbook for changing the thought patterns that constantly run through our minds to be positive and empowering rather than negative and debilitating. And they do it with engaging stories and humor that made me want to lean in and learn more.

I was so impressed by the writing and content of this book that I had my 17-year-old son and my 21-year-old daughter listen to the audiobook with me in the car. Both had moments where they laughed out loud, and my son asked to listen to the rest of the book because, as he says, "That's one book I can actually learn something from."

So yes, I highly recommend that everyone read this book. But I especially want to encourage parents to read it themselves before giving it to their kids so they can have some really good conversations about the concepts and principles shared in the book. And if I were still leading my group of preteens and middle-schoolers, I would 100 percent be using this book as a group study!

Empower and Engage your T(w)eenager(s) to Think More Positively!

I thoroughly savoured Jon's (Dad's) book 'Soundtracks' during a book club at the beginning of this year, but wanted to know for myself that this title would be as relatable, practical, and enjoyable and reading experience for my three teenage sons (and one's girlfriend) and it definitely did not disappoint! Jon's daughters make the content of this book engaging, relatable, & realistically approachable, plus encouraging & energizing for readers to take intentional & impactful action(s) to make the seemingly small --but assuredly successful-- steps to change mindset towards the positive in order to retain/sustain a happier/more fulfilling life. I also loved the candid Q&A session at the end of the audiobook: a humorously delightful bonus that may inspire readers to become writers themselves!

I read "Soundtracks" and couldn't believe there was ACTUALLY going to be a younger person version! This book packed a punch from truth tellers and real young women who've thought it all... I especially loved the "this is my first time as a teenager" soundtrack - such grace it gives to the speaker and the hearer! I asked my daughter to read "just 3 chapters" - but she couldn't stop. She loved reading out to us her favorite parts.
Thank you, L.E. and McRae. You are personable, real, thoughtful writers!
Go and get this book to be inspired and encouraged. There is real hope for all of us.

Jon Acuff, a best-selling author and public speaker, has written several books full of tips and insights on setting goals, achieving goals, rewiring negative thoughts and developing a more fulfilling life. In "Your New Playlist", Jon teams up with his two teenage daughters to write a follow-up to his previous book, "Soundtracks: The Surprising Solution to Overthinking". Written in the words of his daughters, it's packed with real-life examples that young adults will understand. They will learn how to combat negative thinking and repetitive thoughts that hinder confidence in themselves and impact the direction of their future. This powerful tool helps teenagers and young adults learn to identify the repetitive, negative thoughts that keep them from following their dreams, achieving their goals, and being happy. It gives them simple and effective ways to reframe those thoughts and replace them with positive ones. The chapters are short and sweet, which many teenagers will appreciate. The writers are open, honest and funny. As a parent of two college-age daughters, this book is saying to my girls what I have
said and want them to know: "They are capable. Fear doesn't have to win. It's okay to fail. You're not the only one." But in addition to me, they're hearing from someone who is their age. Hopefully, with these tools, they don't have to wait to learn to learn these truths.

Book: Your New Playlist: The Student's Guide to Tapping Into the Superpower of Mindset
Author: Jon Acuff with L.E. Acuff & McRae Acuff
Publisher: Baker Books
Publishing Date: 9/13/2022
ISBN
9781540902481
Number of pages
192

My interest in this book: I really enjoyed Jon Acuff’s book Soundtracks (review here) and I tried to get my kids to read some of it—or at least when I’d corner them and say, “Listen to this! …”. I will forever be grateful to Baker Books and the Acuff’s for pursuing this endeavor of writing Your New Playlist. This book will change lives and I pray it gets into the school systems. I know I will be giving copies to my connections in our local school district as well as our youth leaders.

Type of book:
Teen & Young Adult Social Science Books
Success Self-Help
Marketed as grade level 10-12, I would say 8th and up. None of the vocabulary is complicated and relatability wise, if your child has a phone and social media, they will find relatable content. This is a fine read for any Jr. or Sr. High student.

Why it works: This book is filled with wit and humor woven within wisdom and insight. The simple format of each chapter makes this an easy read. You go from example to explanation to here’s what to do to fix/change it.
“Sometimes if feels like my thoughts are crashing a party I don’t remember inviting any of them to.”
“Overthinking steals your dreams, cripples your confidence, and tangles you up when you least expect it.”
“I’ll teach you exactly how to do it in the next chapter.”
“Listen to your reaction, because every reaction is an education. Your reaction is trying to teach you about the way you think.”
And these are just quotes from the first 20% of the book. There are SO many more highlightable moments. My Kindle says I have 81 notes/highlights. For a book that’s only 192 pages, I have notes in over 40% of this book.

When I finished this book I felt: excited. So very excited to share this book with friends, family, and leaders (teachers, pastors, coaches).

Overall: Just take a look at the Contents pages.
You get engaging topics, and…did you see it?—how short these chapters are? They take between 3-10 minutes to read. That’s it! So your teen (uh hem…you) can bust through a chapter and process it & plan how to apply it before leaving for school—maybe even on the way to school. The L.E. and McRae give you such bitesize nuggets to think about along with questions that help you put into action what you’ve just read. The team at Baker did such an incredible job coaching this book into perfection.

Bookshelf worthy? Without a doubt.

Teenability: THE most teen-worthy book I have yet to review. Buy a case of books (discounted for the quantity when purchased through Baker Books!) and have them on hand for graduations, birthdays, Christmas…).


Your New Playlist Excerpt:
Download PDF

Where to Purchase:
Baker Book House
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Christianbook.com
LifeWay
Books-A-Million
Parable

If you work with teens, know a teen, or have ever been a teen, GET THIS BOOK! I originally purchased after hearing Jon Acuff speak about it at a conference I attended. I am a former high school educator and currently work with teens every week, so I wanted to check it out to see if it would be helpful. As an almost 40 year old woman, I never expected to take so many notes for myself. I wish I had someone speaking such an empowering message to me as a student, and this book would have been front and center in my classroom library as a teacher. I was shocked by the number of broken soundtracks I have acquired over the years AND that they are so similar to the soundtracks this generation of teens are listening to today. L.E. and McRae give practical tools to navigate our thoughts through an insightful and enjoyable read. Highly recommend this as the graduation gift of choice for anyone who wants to see the next generation accomplish great things

I read Jon Acuff’s “Soundtracks: The Surprising Solution to Overthinking,” but now I’m reading the version he and his two teenage daughters who for students.

Honestly, I’m loving it — and I knew the core message already. I’m excited to share it with my own teenager!

This is a noisy world, but we can all do better. Let’s retire the broken soundtracks we play for ourselves; replace them with what is true, helpful, and kind; and repeat the new ones they become our default.

“Your New Playlist: The Student’s Guide to Tapping into the Superpower of Mindset” officially releases next week.

I read this book to see if it would be something my pre-teens should read, and I was blown away by the number of takeaways I, as an adult, took from it! I love a book that gives you easy-to-do adjustments, that will change your life, and this book falls into that category! Even just a few pages in, I already was making changes to the way I think and practicing what they taught. I will be rereading it, with my girls, and have already recommended it to several family members, friends, and co-workers. You will not be disappointed!

This was a fun read, and a great book for any teen who has a lot of noise in their life. I have been looking forward to this book release since Jon Acuff‘s “Soundtracks” and this complementary teen version was so much more amazing than I could have hoped for.

McRae and L.E. did such a good job painting a clear picture with relatable examples of how to turn down the dial so truth can be heard. I’m looking forward to giving copies to the teens in my life that could use the positive messaging with the actionable challenges built right in.

It is a light and quick read and the audiobook is a great mix of all three authors reading and so fun to listen to with some built in bonuses, don’t miss it!

I truly loved this book. I loved hearing about the power of mindset from fresh young voices, and I loved the reminders for parents, teachers, and mentors sprinkled throughout. Life for teens and young adults today is NOT the same as when my generation lived through our teens and twenties. Social media complicates things. The level of connectedness that technology makes possible has its positives and negatives. And overthinking is not a unique problem, but the main takeaway of this book is that we can use overthinking to our advantage if we change the direction of our thoughts. We can use our mental playlist to our advantage by speaking kind, encouraging words to ourselves. We can become more self-aware and also take a step back when negative thoughts come to mind to ask if those thoughts are true, helpful, and kind. If we wouldn't talk to a friend the way we talk to ourselves, then we need to rethink how we talk to ourselves. I'm already catching myself pulling information from this book into class discussions with college students as well as my ladies' Bible study group. I fully expect to make this book a staple for upcoming high school graduation gifts.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Your New Playlist. L.E. and McRae did an amazing job presenting Jon's ideas to the target audience of teenagers and young adults. The stories shared took me back to my teenage years and gave me hope that, while I am much older, I don't have to overthink all of the day to day experiences I am having. My favorite soundtrack from the book is "I'm just getting started!" and this is something I'm going to be telling myself daily!

If you want to instill the ideas of a growth mindset as well as tools to help your teenager or young adult cope with many of the struggles today (including appropriately dealing with social media and technology) this book is a must share.

I loved the book!!! I really enjoyed the voice of the girls. It gave me a good place to start conversations with my boys.

I especially enjoyed Jon’s list of 6things parent never tell you. It made me laugh out loud. It made me think about my expectations of my kids a bit differently.

Overall a great addition to my bookshelf of recommended titles. This is on “my Mount Rushmore list” and I have already recommended it to several friends. I plan to gift it to a few others.

Great Book!!

The "adult" version Soundtracks was a game-changer for me personally and I immediately began sharing the concepts with my 12 year old son who battles negative thoughts at school, in sports, and socially. I was ecstatic when Jon said his girls would be writing a version for kids. The example L.E. and McRae share are relatable to so many teenagers. The strategies have been "simplified" into language that kids will easily understand and...most importantly...remember in the moment. I'm so thankful for this book and can't wait for my son to share his thoughts. Great job Jon, L.E., and McRae

About a year ago I thoroughly enjoyed and benefited from reading Jon Acuff's Soundtracks: The Surprising Solution to Overthinking. When I heard that Acuff was co-authoring a new book with his teenage daughters repackaging the general concepts in Soundtracks for a teenage audience I perked up, as I know my own teen daughter could really benefit from this - and it's more likely that I could get her to read this book specifically targeting teens (and co-authored by 2 teens) than the original Soundtracks.

I was surprised to find that this book was mainly written by 19 year old L.E. Acuff & 16 year old McRae Acuff (Jon assisted with the editing & contributed the foreword & afterword), and I think they did a fine job of adapting the ideas of their father's 2021 book for a teen reader. Since it's been a year since I read Soundtracks some of the ideas had faded from memory, and I felt like reading Your New Playlist was a refreshing reminder of the helpful concepts I'd learned previously.

To say that this is a book about the power of positive thinking would be an oversimplified & hackneyed take. It's easy to tritely tell someone to be more positive, or to "think happy thoughts", but it's harder to teach someone to identify and take captive the harmful thoughts - thoughts which, on the surface, you might not even realize are harmful - and to disregard them in favor of thoughts that are simultaneously true, helpful, and kind. L.E. & McRae Acuff speak to the hearts of teens (and their parents who read the book) & help them learn how to do this, giving real-life examples of how this works. The apple has not fallen far from the tree - the girls' writing is conversational and it's as entertaining as it is enlightening - much like their father's writing.

Overthinking & obsessing over negative thoughts is a fairly common problem for teens and adults alike, and as such I think that Your New Playlist is a great book for teens to read - and for parents to read along with their teens. If you're not a parent, or if your kids are grown, you'd likely benefit more from reading Soundtracks.

This book is a fantastic gift to students who overthink…so, all of them! L.E. and McRae breakdown the power of mindset and positive thinking in a way that’s quick and easy to understand, but also immediately applicable. I’m a family pastor that works with students and parents and this book will be on the top of my resource recommendations, pick it up for the student in your life!

I have read all of Jon Acuff's books and I am a huge fan. When I read "Soundtracks" I thought it would be great for my (at the time) pre-teen son. So, when I finished, I gave my son the book for him to read. He did read it, but he didn't think it was awesome (like I did). Looking back, it's likely because the stories and examples in "Soundtracks" were written for a 40-something parent, and not a pre-teen. Fast forward to a couple weeks ago, and we both read "Your New Playlist" (written by Jon and his two daughters). This father-daughters collab resonated with my now teenage son, just like I was hoping. From my family to yours: Thank you Jon, L.E., and McRae!

Jon Acuff has a gift of encouraging us to not stay stuck in old habits or old playlists that run through our heads. I believe this book takes the principles and makes them accessible for teens. My son is 18 years old and we were able to discuss ways to rewrite the stories in our heads with the help of this book and information. I believe this is an important message especially in this day and age of overconsumption of toxic information on the internet. Having these tools will help our teens grow, mature and learn to make a playlist that empowers them to live life to the fullest.

So good! This is the book I needed as a 15, 17, 19 (etc) year old. I remember a lot of “everyone is staring at me” and “I’m not enough” and it’s too late soundtracks that were always swirling around my brain and I would have loved to have some solid advice on how to stop that. Now kids can have that opportunity.

I loved Jon’s book, Soundtracks and when he decided to team up with his kids and write a version for teens, he nailed it. So many great insights, and lots of quality informational nuggets. I love that it wasn’t super long so that will be much easier to hold a teens attention. It was fun and funny and the girls referenced enough pop culture and real life situations to connect with kids their age. Great job and a great gift for the teen in your life.

Loved this book from a teen's point of view! It was a joy to read as an adult. The only thing I would add is mention that playlists are made of soundtracks and keep reiterating that throughout the book. What's an example of a bad playlist (collection of bad soundtracks), what's an example of a good one? Well done L.E. And McRae!

This was an excellent read! I’m a mom of 4, 2 of them are teenagers and I can’t wait to get this book in their hands. Practical ways for teens to change the soundtracks that play in their head. I wish I had this as a teenager/young adult. It is written very well, and is geared toward teens/young adults, but I definitely enjoyed the book too. I think McRae sharing a personal story of not making a team is so powerful for other teens to hear. Seeing that they are not the only ones feeling and thinking broken soundtracks is comforting. I highly recommend this for anyone that is a teenager, has a teenager or knows a teenager.