Most Helpful Customer Reviews
42 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
I'm not alone, August 8, 2005
This review is from: Conquering Your Quarterlife Crisis: Advice from Twentysomethings Who Have Been There and Survived (Perigee Book) (Paperback)
I read Alexandra Robbins's "Conquering Your Quarterlife Crisis." Every now and then, I need a kick in the bum to make me realize other people out there have the same fears, set-backs, and failures as I have. It's not easy being in your 20s. When you leave school, especially college, you have this ideal that your life is going to just work itself out. You'll land a great job, meet the person of your dreams, and buy the home you've always wanted. Needless to say, it gets you down when you're still single, can't afford living on your own, and your job isn't what you thought it would be.
Many of the chapter titles had the same questions and statements that I've pondered. These are the chapters that meant the most to me:
- What if I don't know what I want?
- When do I let go of my dream?
- Why am I having trouble meeting people?
- How important are sparks?
- How do I weight doing something I love versus making money?
- What if I feel like I'm "stuck"?
- How do I stop comparing myself to other people?
- How do I stop feeling so overwhelmed?
However, I didn't find this book very helpful beyond the "I'm not alone" factor. Sure these are questions I've asked and it's nice to read that other people are going through the same thing. But there's very little in the way of advice for dealing with these concerns. The best advice came from the contributors (make lists, imagine this scenario, ask yourself these questions, etc.). Robbins seemed to summarize the contributors' advice in the chapter conclusions in a hopes to claim credit for the idea.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Insightful, Well Written, Worth a Read!, October 7, 2004
This review is from: Conquering Your Quarterlife Crisis: Advice from Twentysomethings Who Have Been There and Survived (Perigee Book) (Paperback)
What a fantastic book! Ms. Robbins writes to today's youth from a point of view of someone who has been there and, unlike many, provides actual, useful, well thought out, and practiced advice. I would highly recommend this book to all college aged "kids" out there -- or for parents to ship off to them!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
An A for effort and fuzzy feelings, a C- for actual usefulness, January 16, 2008
This review is from: Conquering Your Quarterlife Crisis: Advice from Twentysomethings Who Have Been There and Survived (Perigee Book) (Paperback)
The ambition of the book is great. I think the questions posed in the book are pertinent and worth answering for a generation that is facing an entirely new landscape without pre-built tools for dealing with it. She starts out strong with her statement of purpose, but with each new chapter you feel a little bit more disappointed as they continually fall short of being useful.
The book has a lot of feelings in it. There are stories from many "mentors" who have endured tragic or hectic circumstances and much of what they have to say revolves around how they *felt* at the time and how they *feel* now. Some of it is, of course, practical, like "I went to see a therapist" which could actually be practical advice for many people in similar situations, but most of it is really very abstract and touchy-feely.
The attempt by the author and the mentors to deliver difficult solutions for difficult problems is surely a Herculean task and I am appreciative for that much, but I don't feel that I would derive any real value from the book were I having a quarterlife crisis. I suppose that's a large bias that I should flag: I don't feel plagued by any of the questions posed in the book, so it may simply be a case of not falling in the target audience.
I don't think that's exactly it though, but rather more due to my ruthlessly logical nature. I appreciate the emotion involved with traumatic events, but, first, most of the events described in the book don't strike me as traumatic per se, but rather just frustrating. Second, I am loath to accept advice such as "just believe in yourself and eventually your dreams will come true". That advice was dispensed more than once in the book and seemed to be compatible with the book's overarching theme. I like concrete advice.
The truth is that there is absolutely no guarantee that you'll accomplish any of your dreams. The phrase "get rich or die trying" has more truth in it than this entire book when it comes to accomplishing real success.
That said, anyone who feels emotionally overwhelmed by something like a quarterlife crisis might find solace (comforting though possibly useless) in this book.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
