Helping Me Help Myself: One Skeptic, Ten Self-Help Gurus, and a Year on the Brink of the Comfort Zone (Hardcover)

by Beth Lisick (Author)
Key Phrases: banana job, Richard Simmons, John Gray, San Francisco (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Her accounts of everything...are not only hilarious but enlightening. Finding useful tips amidst the bunk, she distills the best from thousands of pages of self-help books. Readers will be inspired: If a woman in a banana suit can clean her closet and pay off her credit card debt, surely you can, too." -- -- People

"Small moments of improvisation, coincidence and dumb luck make "Helping Me Help Myself" funny from the belly button instead of the mouth corners...Lisick has created a hilarious, knowing tale of a year of willing ridiculousness." -- --San Francisco Chronicle

"A delightful, Plimptonesque exercise in immersive journalism...sharp, irreverent and endearingly screwed-up." -- Kirkus Reviews

"A witty, disarmingly earnest account of the year [Lisick] spent test-driving renowned self-help franchises." -- Entertainment Weekly

"Lisick has created a hilarious, knowing tale of a year of willing ridiculousness." -- San Francisco Chronicle

"sweetly neurotic, funny and occasionally insightful." -- Los Angeles Times

"wildly funny" and "a cross between David Sedaris and Susan Orlean." -- Seattle Times

not only hilarious but enlightening... Readers will be inspired: If a woman in a banana suit can clean her closet and pay off her credit card debt, surely you can, too." -- People

Review
"Lisick has created a hilarious, knowing tale of a year of willing ridiculousness." (San Francisco Chronicle )

not only hilarious but enlightening... Readers will be inspired: If a woman in a banana suit can clean her closet and pay off her credit card debt, surely you can, too." (People )

"sweetly neurotic, funny and occasionally insightful." (Los Angeles Times )

"Beth Lisick's latest book is a wildly fun read that falls somewhere in between memoir and a Cliffs Notes guide to the self-help genre." (Bust Magazine )

"A delightful, Plimptonesque exercise in immersive journalism...sharp, irreverent and endearingly screwed-up." (Kirkus Reviews )

"A witty, disarmingly earnest account of the year [Lisick] spent test-driving renowned self-help franchises." (Entertainment Weekly )

"wildly funny" and "a cross between David Sedaris and Susan Orlean." (Seattle Times )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow (January 2, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061143960
• ISBN-13: 978-0061143960
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (80 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #364,542 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Book lacks f ocus, much like the author's life? , December 13, 2007

By	camille (Chicago) - See all my reviews

(What's this?)

I wanted to like this book. I did. Being a skeptic of the self-help guru movement myself, I was eagerly anticipating the results -- hopefully acerbic! -- of a skeptic's indepth examination of ten different gurus from Richard Simmons to Suze Orman. The author promises to spend a year investigating ten different self-help programs to see if she can really change her life. The question is, does she really want to change her life? Or would she rather stay in her financially-painful, undisciplined comfort zone of a life?

The author was both less skeptical (drat! Not enough cynicism for me!) and not committed enough to actually trying to implement and test the gurus' advice. Her life is a mess both in terms of finance and focus, facts she cheerfully -- even defensively -- admits and also as she admits, ripe for some overhauling. Yet, she never fully commits to any of the (expensive) programs some of which not only might have helped her personally, but have made the book a better read. Her commitment to testing their theories was as vague as her focus in life. Her occasional forays into TMI territory (did we really need to know about her brief relationship with a pothead, every boring conversation and kiss included, while on a Richard Simmons cruise without her husband? How did that add to anything in the story? And worst of all, the incident wasn't even funny!) merely serve to distract us from the testing of the theories just as she uses these events in her life to distract her from actually accomplishing anything.

Some months the author's program report consists of a paragraph, but by the end of the year the author seems to lose interest in her investigation and in writing the story. She takes refuge in a nicely-circular summation of how her life fits together and ends the year apparently unchanged.

As a reader, I learned little I didn't know before about these self-help programs with the possible exception of her largely-positive review of Richard Simmons. I did learn far more than I wanted to know about the author's messy life, which suffers from the ultimate failure of being... boring.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Self Improvement or Self-Absorbtion? , December 30, 2007

By	Kevin Quinley "GeezerJock" (Fairfax, VA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

(What's this?)

My first reaction to seeing this book was that it was a rip-off - been there, read that, got the T-shirt. "Helping Me Help Myself" seemed to be a blatant copycat of Jennifer Niesslein's "Practically Perfect in Every Way." Both books involve young 30-ish married women in hip towns (Charlottesville, VA and Berkley, CA) with one little boy and husbands with unconventional jobs. Both take a month-by-month approach to improving their lives: financial, parenting, fitness, relationships, home organization, etc.

The kicker here is that Lisick decides to go straight to the gurus themselves, instead of just getting their books. Some of her "guru" choices are curious. For example, pursuing fitness by going on a cruise with Richard Simmons is like flying to Paris and eating a Big Mac at McDonalds. What? No Oprah, Dr. Phil or Dr. Ruth? A week in Tuscany to read a book about artistic creativity?? Come on!!

Incurring the costs of dabbling in each of these self-improvement ventures sounds like it darn near bankrupts her family financially. It's hard to afford these trips when one of your main jobs is wearing a banana suit, though maybe she could get a job with Fruit-of-the-Loom for future marketing efforts.

The result is a relatively entertaining, albeit somewhat self-absorbed, journey down the path of reputed self-improvement.

At one point, Lisick quotes Henry Miller,

"Develop interest in life as you see it; in people, things, literature, music - the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself."

Maybe she should ponder that quote a little more. "Forget yourself," indeed!

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Help Yourself to "Helping...", December 19, 2007

By	Molly P. (Portland, Oregon USA) - See all my reviews

(What's this?)

On January 1, 2006, author Beth Lisick realized she wanted to make some life changes, so she set off on an inspiring and amusing year-long journey. In 'Helping Me Help Myself' she brings readers along for the ride. She is honest and doesn't mind poking fun at herself. (And she especially doesn't mind poking fun at others.)

The journey begins immediately and starts out slowly, and at times I wasn't sure what the author was going to learn or accomplish. But things start to get rolling around the "April" chapter, in which she goes on a "Cruise To Lose" and encounters the one and only Richard Simmons. The whole experience is fun to read about, and though I'm not sure how badly she needed Richard's help in the first place, it doesn't matter. How many of us have secretly wondered what happens on those cruises? It's like a tell-all, and it's fantastic. Richard Simmons has helped a lot of people, and maybe you can't afford to cruise with him, but you can afford to read this book.

Throughout the year (and the book), the author seeks help for various things, including disorderliness and hoarding, parenting, her financial situation, and success. She reads self-help books by leading gurus and attends seminars and conferences, then summarizes all the information she's gathered and puts it in simple terms for us readers, all the while adding her own insight and reactions. She is a funny writer, and while sometimes she goes off on tangents that don't seem relevant, she always comes back to the point.

'Helping Me Help Myself' was a worthwhile read, and after reading it once, I'm tempted to read it again. Several of the chapters didn't apply to me, but others did, and after reading those, I feel inspired to go out and make some changes in my own life. Thanks, Beth Lisick!