How to Be Fine

What We Learned by Living by the Rules of 50 Self-Help Books

By: Jolenta Greenberg, Kristen Meinzer

Narrated by: Jolenta Greenberg, Kristen Meinzer

Length: 4 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

A humorous and insightful look into what advice works, what doesn't, and what it means to transform yourself, by the co-hosts of the popular By the Book podcast.

In each episode of their podcast By the Book, Jolenta Greenberg and Kristen Meinzer take a deep dive into a different self-help book, following its specific instructions, rules, and advice to the letter. From diet and productivity to decorating to social interactions, they try it all, record themselves along the way, then share what they’ve learned with their devoted and growing audience of fans who tune in.

Before they began their podcast, Jolenta wanted to believe the promises of self-help books, while Kristen was very much the skeptic. They embraced their differences of opinion, hoping they’d be good for laughs and downloads. But in the years since launching the By the Book, they’ve come to realize their show is about much more than humor. In fact, reading and following each book’s advice has actually changed and improved their lives. Thanks to the show, Kristen penned the Amish romance novel she’d always joked about writing, traveled back to her past lives, and she broached some difficult conversations with her husband about their marriage. Jolenta finally memorized her husband’s phone number, began tracking her finances, and fell in love with cutting clutter.

In How to Be Fine, Jolenta and Kristen synthesize the lessons and insights they’ve learned and share their experiences with everyone. How to Be Fine is a thoughtful look at the books and practices that have worked, real talk on those that didn’t, and a list of philosophies they want to see explored in-depth. The topics they cover include:

• Getting off your device
• Engaging in positive self-talk
• Downsizing
• Admitting you're a liar
• Meditation
• Going outside
• Getting in touch with your emotions
• Seeing a therapist

Part memoir, part prescriptive handbook, this honest, funny, and heartfelt guide is like a warm soul-baring conversation with your closest and smartest friends.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2020 Jolenta Greenberg and Kristen Meinzer (P)2020 HarperAudio

Spot On

This sum up of an awesome podcast is SPOT ON. You are the author of you, and self-help books have good ideas for you...or not. Nobody knows you like...you.

This just saved me

This just saved me a lot on self help books. Kinda like a cliff notes version of the books. I really enjoyed the reading.

I confess, I am a self help book junkie …

What a great approach to “self help” tips from two, very thoughtful and entertaining strong women. It was refreshing to hear their experiences and stories implementing & calling BS on several instructions or tips provided by many of the books I have personally read & struggled to follow to improve myself. Bravo to Jolenta & Kristen for writing a book that really helped me put things into perspective - I highly recommend this book for anyone who struggles with the “self help addition” like me.

Keeping it Real!

Absolutely on point! Loved it so much! Thoroughly enjoyed it! So Me‼️ its great to confirm... Im simply... ME! Thank You!

some good insights, sort of preachy

I appreciated the hard work the authors put into this book, and the incredible amount of sharing personal information they were willing to do. That takes guts, for sure. Regarding the content, I didn't find I got as much out of this book as I do from actually reading self-help books themselves. This is kind of like a cliff notes of a cliff notes of 50 self-help books. The authors only lived each book for two weeks each, which I don't think was nearly enough time for them to absorb and really live the intention behind these books. Something like the 4-Hour Workweek takes months if not years to internalize and live. I could tell because I have read many of the books they discussed here, and I would often find them asking questions in this book that were directly answered in the books they were discussing. Trying to do each book in two weeks I feel leads one to have a shallow understanding and appreciation for what each of these books has to offer. But I think the thing that bothered me the most about this book was the sometimes overly preachy tone of the authors. I really appreciate their passion for the political topics they stand for. I definitely agree with them on everything they brought up. But the way in which they presented the material made the book sometimes harder to listen to. I am glad they are spreading awareness about these issues, I just wish they could find a less abrasive way to do it. Readers would both be more receptive to what they're saying about the political content and it would not distract from the self-help aspect of the book.

Entertaining listen for By the Book fans

This book is exactly as expected, which is exactly what I wanted. Kristen and Jolenta are who listeners know them to be from the podcast, and most of what is said here simply reorganizes and expands on things listeners have already heard on the show. I don’t mean that as a negative thing – I enjoyed hearing the information collected, organized, and presented this way. My only complaint (more of a disappointment, really) is that they recorded chapters separately. Recording together probably would have been quite difficult to pull off, but much of what is best about the show comes from their interaction, so I missed that here. In general, an entertaining listen for fans of by the book. Note: it’s not really a “story,” but Audible insisted I give a star rating for that. Please ignore.

Real People with Real Thoughts

This was a nice book about real people living by a number of self help books, and how they did, or didn’t, help them. I found both of the authors very down to earth and they had fair criticisms for issues that some self help books have that I’d never considered before, as well as surprisingly good results from other tidbits from self help books. I did find their voices very distinctive and at first had some trouble listening to them because I unfortunately found one of them a little grating, but I quickly adjusted to them and didn’t have any issues!

Wonderful words from lovely ladies

A no nonsense look at popular self help tropes and themes, distilled based on experience and common sense. You don’t have to by a fan of the podcast to get some good nuggets and be entertained by this book (but you should also totally go listen to the podcast).

Easy to relate

Thank you for sharing your insight on these (at times obnoxious) books. You put it all layman’s terms - easy to relate. Love the injected sarcasm and humor. Can’t wait for the next How to Be Fine!

This was entertainment, and not to take self help books too seriously

The idea behind this book (and apparently the podcast this book os taken from) is interesting- dedicate yourself to completely following everything in a self help book for two weeks and see how it goes. Predictably there weren’t any total winning formulas, and some losers. Everyone is different, which this book points out and reinforces well. So go for it to be entertained. There is some profanity and lewd talk, but overall it was good.