Help Me! - by Marianne Power (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

"Equal parts touching and hilarious, Power's account of the year she spent follow-ing the tenets of self-help books will make you feel better about your own flawed life."--People

An instant international bestseller, and featured on the Today Show and NPR, journalist Marianne Power's Help Me! is her hilarious, thought-provoking, and unfailingly honest account of her year-long, often madcap, quest to find out if self-help books really can change your life. With humor, audacity, and disarming candor, Power plumbs the trials and tests of being a modern woman in a "have it all" culture, and what it really means to be our very best selves.

"A winner. Bridget Jones meets Buddha in this plucky, heartwarming, comical debut memoir." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"You'll laugh. You'll cry. You might even achieve the level of self-acceptance Power reaches by the end."--Refinery 29

Review Quotes

Praise for Help Me!

"Equal parts touching and hilarious, Power's account of the year she spent following the tenets of self-help books will make you feel better about your own flawed life."--PEOPLE

"Marianne Power had me at hello. I'd only read a few pages of her blog-turned-memoir, Help Me!, and I was already all in.... wry, cheeky... reads like a novel, with full-color recurring characters, including love interests, an increasingly exasperated roommate and Power's pragmatic, farm-raised mom always ready with a one-liner. "You're not going to go all American, are you?" she asks Power at the start of her experiment. "You know . . . happy."...Bridget Jones does self-help."--RACHEL ROSENBLIT, WASHINGTON POST

"Self-help is a huge industry-but does it actually work? Journalist Marianne Power decided to find out....With the rollicking, easy-to-read voice of a Sophie Kinsella or Bridget Jones novel, this book showcases how complicated the notion of changing your life actually is--and questions some of the inherent problems with self-help in the first place, while recognizing its very real ability to transform one's life. It also acts as a sampler platter of self-help books that are actually worth your time. If you're looking to make changes in the new years and wondering where to begin, this is a great jump-start."--MIND BODY GREEN, Best Books of January

"London-based journalist Power chronicles the harrowing, often side-splitting adventures she embarked on while pursuing happiness and inner peace... Throughout this consistently entertaining book, she writes with unflinching honesty--and bald hilarity, especially as she encountered deadpan reality checks from her mother, sisters, and skeptical friends--about the throes of facing her fears, tackling money issues, living in the present, opening herself up to rejection, and getting over her hang-ups with men...A winner. Bridget Jones meets Buddha in this plucky, heartwarming, comical debut memoir." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Some of her plights are hilarious; others are almost unbearably poignant. Self-help seekers will be moved and entertained by Power's over-the-top exploits." - Booklist (starred review)

"In this frank, funny, and occasionally heartbreaking debut, journalist Power ably lays bare her yearlong quest to live by the tenets of a different self-help book every month... Already a bestseller in Power's native England, the book will surely find a welcoming American readership. Power's total honesty and openness will make readers realize that, at heart, everyone has similar secret fears and insecurities." - Publishers Weekly

"A sweet sharp read, and the last chapter made me cry. As someone a bit dubious of self-help books, it's perfect: Power spends a year trying to live a month per book. It's quite a fun journey through the ups and downs of negotiating ourselves through life, but underneath that is a serious, generous message, and it really does feel like you've learned something by the end of it."--Jessie Burton, author of The Miniaturist

"Couldn't put this book down - Marianne's honesty and wit shone through. There's something everyone can relate to, whether or not you like self-help - just a hugely enjoyable, fantastic read."--Poorna Bell, author of Chase the Rainbow

"Sublime and ridiculous, in equal measure. I tore though it hungrily. One minute I was having an existential epiphany, the next I was honking with laughter. Britain's answer to Sarah Knight, with Amy Schumer's naked hilarity and Matt Haig's soul-deep profundity chucked in."--Catherine Gray, author of The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober

"Marianne's writing makes me smile and has moved me to tears more than once. She combines a journalist's no-nonsense investigative skills with a tenderness and honesty that sets her apart... Her writing has been a starting point for so many conversations that brought me closer to friends I thought I knew intimately...In helping herself, it turned out that Marianne was helping all of us."--Erin Kelly, author of He Said / She Said

"A laugh-out-loud funny book that also manages to be thought-provoking, perceptive and devastatingly honest. I loved it."--Lucy Diamond, author of Summer at Shell Cottage

"Sparkling . . . a laugh-out-loud odyssey, with embarrassing incidents and downright disasters aplenty. But the real triumph of the book is the way it transcends its "Bridget Jones gazes at her navel" premise to ask searching questions both about the purported effectiveness of self-help in the light of a multi-million dollar personal development industry; and about how we can really best find contentment. If you've ever worried that self-help might be a euphemism for self-obsession, then this is a book for you."--Bookseller

"Power is such an engaging writer, it's hard not to empathise with what she's saying . . . Plus, she's very funny . . . Marianne Power is a delightful companion and one who (putting all natural misanthropy aside) acts a powerful reminder that the traditional ways of denigrating or demanding too much of ourselves ain't going to get us anywhere . . . excellent."--Emerald Street

"Funny and fearless, I loved Help Me! almost as much as I loved Marianne's mum who was always on hand with some no-nonsense advice and really needs to write her own self-help book."--Red Magazine