Help Me! Special Edition

One Woman's Quest to Find Out If Self-Help Really Can Change Your Life

By: Marianne Power

Narrated by: Marianne Power, Mary Power

Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's Summary

This special edition includes bonus audio from the author herself at the end of the book and gives an inside look into her process of writing Help Me!

I wanted to find out what would happen if I really did follow the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Really felt The Power of Now. Could life be transformed? Could I get rich? Skinny? Find love? Be more productive and fulfilled? Because I really did want all the things these books promised.

For years journalist Marianne Power lined her bookshelves with dog-eared copies of definitive guides on how to live your best life, dipping in and out of self-help books when she needed them most. Then, one day, she woke up to find that the life she hoped for and the life she was living were worlds apart - and she set out to make some big changes.

Marianne decided to finally find out if her elusive "perfect existence" - the one without debt, anxiety, or hangover Netflix marathons, the one where she healthily bounced around town and met the cashmere-sweater-wearing man of her dreams - really did lie in the pages of our best-known and acclaimed self-help books. She vowed to test a book a month for one year, following its advice to the letter, taking what she hoped would be the surest path to a flawless new her. But as the months passed and Marianne’s reality was turned upside down, she found herself confronted with a different question: Self-help can change your life, but is it for the better?

With humor, audacity, disarming candor and unassuming wisdom, in Help Me Marianne 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.

©2018 Marianne Power (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved

One of the best and most brilliant books I have ever listened to

I have downloaded and listened to many, many audible books and, shameful to say
that I have never written a review. However, I feel compelled to say something about this one. Marianne Power is brilliantly witty, effortlessly funny and powerfully real. I love the fact that she reads it herself and that it’s a caption of her own journey to find happiness. I didn’t want it to end so, I’m starting it all over again. I will use this as a handbook moving forward in my own life. I loved every minute of it!! You should absolutely have a listen!!

Honest and relatable!

I chose to listen to this book for several reasons. First, I always prefer when the authors read their own books and Powers has a charming Brit accent. Additionally, she gets her mum to play herself, which adds to the charm. Second, I love reading books about people conducting long term social experiments on themselves and chronicling their journey in hilarious ways (A. J. Jacobs anyone?). It did not disappoint! I mean, nothing crazy complicated or complex here, but entertaining and honest. I appreciated her being forthcoming about her struggle with depression, and the roles the self-help books played in the different stages and manifestations of her spiraling.

Loved everything about it!

My sister kept telling me to listen to this book because she wanted to talk about it with me. She said she was probably hyping it up because she kept telling me how much she enjoyed it and how quickly she listened to it. I finally did what she told me to and I am so glad I did. I enjoyed every minute of it. Even my 10-year-old wanted to listen to it. I cannot wait to watch this in a movie or television show form because I know it will get there.

Loved It!

I loved this book, it was deep, yet lighthearted. It made me cry, laugh, and think. I recommend you give it a listen.

Cute Story, good performance.

The story is cute. A moderately neurotic woman tries self-help. The book is vert honest, and I probably appreciated this most about it. The only issue I had with it was that it really was just a story. I didn't personally get a lot of growth out of it because a lot of the "lessons" seemed fairly obvious. I also had an issue with the premise of the book. I was initially sold it because it was someone who was going to completely follow a self-help book's advice for 1 month. She followed the first couple books pretty well, but after that she started "half-doing" the books. She didn't follow them 100%. It's here that I appreciate the honesty and the realization that she couldn't actually stick to her initial goal. I think the sincerity somewhat makes up for it, but I do still wonder what it would be like if someone actually did all these self-help books 100%. The one thing I learned was that self help is definitely not for me.

A work of great honesty

I loved this book. The author bared herself to the world in her quest for truth and salvation. And she was so good at finding humor in her struggles.

Relatable

Relatable for the self help junkie and good story telling gives insight in enjoyable relaxed way

Loved this book

Inspiring, honest, a must read for any PD refugee! Very well written, awesome narration! Recommending to all my friends!