My RSS Feeds
Helping Me Help Myself by Beth Lisick
****
Beth Lisick spends a year trying to improve herself in Helping Me Help Myself. In order to achieve this goal of self-improvement, she turns to the path many people discover every day. The self-improvement section in the bookstore! While legitimately trying to follow the advice found within, she reads, dissimilates, and regurgitates in humorous and pointed fashion the following popular self-help books:
- The Success Principles by Jack Canfield
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
- Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus by John Gray
- Organizing from the Inside Out by Julie Morgenstern
- 1 2 3 Magic Effective Discipline by Thomas Phelan
- The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron
- The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom by Suze Orman
- Life After Death: The Burden of Proof by Deepak Chopra
- If You Could See What I See by Sylvia Browne
She also goes on Richard Simmons' Cruise to Lose and attends several conventions where she meets the writers of some of these books. She records her observations of her fellow cohorts in search of enlightenment with a keen and vivid precision that caused me to laugh audibly throughout the book. Lisick is extremely talented at describing the ridiculous and making even the most seemingly mundane interesting. It has just the right balance of insightfulness and humor, allowing her to acheive guru status herself. If she can make me laugh and also make me think, then I'll probably buy her book (and I did!).
Her goal is to do the hard work for you by sifting out the common sense and sheddding light on the parts that have been added in to increase the book's size and selling potential (read: filler). Her writing style is quick and snappy with moments of clarity where she'll reveal how she feels about certain experiences she undergoes while attempting to do exactly as she's told to achieve maximum results. It is a book that I would recommend to anyone because no one has everything together, and it's refreshing to be able to look at our flaws and laugh.
