I am a self-confessed self-help junkie, so I was really looking forward to reading Beth Lisick's second book, particularly since I'd heard great things about her first, Everybody into the Pool.
Unlike me, Beth is a self-help skeptic, but following the realisation that, at age 37, she was sleeping in a room with plastic sheeting covering a damp patch on the wall, doing a job for which she had to dress up as a banana, and too unfit to keep up with her four-year-old son, she decides self-help can't, well, hurt and so undertakes to examine (and hopefully improve) one area of her life each month for a year.
From Jack Canfield's book The Success Principles to a Richard Simmons weightloss cruise, via (Men are From Mars author) John Gray, The Artists' Way and a parenting book entitled 1-2-3 Magic!, Lisick repeatedly steps out (way out) of her comfort zone.
I approached Helping Me Help Myself expecting to find Lisick disagreeing with or mocking every self-help method she tries, but she really doesn't. She genuinely seems to approach them all (okay, almost all) with a totally open mind. She's charming, funny, enthusiastic and self-deprecating and (and I know I always say this) by the end I felt like we were friends. So much so that I kept thinking of books to recommend to her before remembering that I don't actually know her at all.
Plus it genuinely contains good self-help information while, at the same time, cheerfully (and without malice) exposing the money-making opportunities inherent in the self-help industry. I loved it.
Self-help addict or self-help skeptic, there's something here for everyone. Oh and it'll make you look at Richard Simmons in a totally different way...
Rating: 5/5
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