Megan Griswold was going about her daily routine, waiting for her husband to return from a business trip, when she receives a call. Her husband is in jail. This tipping point in her life starts her on a new road to therapy, self-help, and self-discovery. While Megan could already be considered an expert in the area of personal growth considering her familial upbringing of self-enlightenment and self-analysis, she finds herself adrift. This memoir follows Megan through different therapies and workshops she has attended since childhood and where they led her.
The author has taken her life experiences and tragedies and written a funny and tragic memoir. Readers will see similarities in their own lives and might be inspired to pursue a therapy, workshop, or practice that they hope to build from. I found the short chapters convenient at times, but also frustratingly brief at other times.

This book was a fascinating look into the life of the author. Her parents were involved in a lot of different seminars and programs to help them learn about themselves and how to live the best life they could. When they had two daughters, they signed them up for classes too.

I loved how funny this was. It was an interesting look at the content of the classes, how much they cost, and what materials you need to do each one. Since the author’s parents hosted many of the leaders in their home, there are also a couple interesting tidbits about how flawed the instructors could be.

One of my favorite parts was the bit about mantras. The author and her sister received theirs at a young age; it was the main thing they wanted for a Christmas present that year. They were told the mantras were only meant for them and not to share them. Megan tried for years to get her sister to tell her what her mantra was to no avail. The day Megan finally decided to open up and tell her sister what her was, she found out they had the same one.

This book is a funny, informative look at the self help courses out there and I would recommend it anyone who is interested in following this path.

Great littel book, filled with inspiring book about not giving up, and some instructional craftiness! Great book to give to a loved one.

To be fair, it feels strange to judge someone's memoir. It's their life, after all. With that said, I was intrigued by the premise and expected to read about a journey to wellness. Griswold's story is both eye opening and shocking. I give her tremendous credit for being so bravely honest. However, I'm left with the impression of someone who is wildly compulsive, consumed by grief, and craving attention. In the end, I didn't feel she evolved. In my opinion, none of her wacky quests for self help (drinking dog milk and yoga with cadavers included!) really seemed to help at all . I believe readers will be captivated by the shock value, but not much else.

This was an unusual book. Just as described in the summary, this book is an autobiography of sorts, told through the different self-improvement classes, seminars and events that the author participated in as a child and through her adulthood.

The most interesting part about it was how much she, and her friends and family, seem only to come to begin to understand themselves and their own behavior in spite of all of these classes that are specifically supposed to lead to such self-knowledge.

In some ways it reminded me a bit of Eat, Pray, Love—with a similar focus on the author changing the outside circumstances of her life in order to change her own internal experiences.

It was a quick read-difficult to put down; I so wanted to hear about the next thing she was going to try. I am not sure which specific type of readers would particularly enjoy this book, but I can definitely say that I did.

I received an advanced reading copy from the publisher via NetGalley. Thanks!

'It’s said when doing anything, a nearly alchemical event happens right around the ten- thousand- hour mark- you become an expert of sorts. So I suppose, in an unintentional way, I will declare myself an expert searcher.'

There is no doubt in my mind that Megan Griswold is an expert in searching for remedies of body, mind, soul and heart. This isn’t your usual run of the mill self-help book eater, nor a woman suddenly entering some spiritual awakening. Megan was born to it, with parents who were Christian Scientists who called their practitioners for ‘treatments’, not doctors over their ailments. Her father David was born to the religion, her mother Joyce a ‘newbie’ and believer, attributing curing her ulcerative colitis to Christian Science. Little did they know their daughter would spend her life doing her own searching, spiritual and mental work. Not all things are transcendental, want to be holier than thou, the universe will test you! Test her it does, especially when it comes to her husband. Let’s not jump ahead, but then again she did attend the About Sex seminar at the age of 14, before she had even kissed a boy. Is it so surprising when she falls in love with Tim, her ‘well-meaning, well–mannered puzzle’? Someone she can probe, explore, dissect?

Is Megan stripped physically and emotionally digging through all the muck of her being sometimes? Sure. Does she ingest weird or toxic substances for spiritual practice? Well, do you consider gulping Hoasca risky? It’s tea, okay? Sure, she may purge her insides and as she says ‘imagine what it would be like to completely fall apart’ and there is your glimpse into the tea’s spiritual enlightening. She may be eager to try any religious/spiritual experience on for size but certainly Megan doesn’t ‘dabble’ in therapies, not like so many other people. She doesn’t half-ass anything!

This memoir isn’t all hilarity, in fact there are some very serious family and relationship issues here within. These are not the usual ‘wow my spouse leaves the toilet dispenser empty’ issues either, these are spiritual dilemmas. Her own father can sometimes downright infuriate the reader with his arrogant spiritual blindness. “If I don’t see it, it’s not real.” Oh, if only life were like that… There is a tenderness towards the end of the novel, everything that happens with her mother’s health. I felt myself getting weepy. Yes, Megan therapist shops, and is game for any spiritual practice, training, self-help geared towards evolvement but truly it’s not just about getting to know herself. Somehow she comes away with a better understanding of those she loves. Maybe her search slows, but let’s face it, there will always be room for improvement.

It gets messy, and admittedly embarrassingly ugly but whether methods are tried and true or a complete fraud, she gives it her all and we get to ride her karmic bus as tourists. Add this to your memoir list, out 2019!

Publication Date: January 22, 2019

Crown Publishing

This is actually one of the worst, most disjointed books I've ever read. I didn't understand the point of the book and it didn't seem to have any coherent story or thread that tied everything together.

Ok, I have to start off by saying I feel a little guilty for reviewing a memoir. I mean, how can I sit here and critique such a personal story? So I’m not going to give a typical review where I’m making suggestions on what could and should have been included and excluded, but rather I’m going to focus on how it made me feel.

'The Book of Help' by Megan Griswold made me feel less alone. I could relate to Megan’s yo-yo diets of various self-help techniques and the emotional rollercoaster they took her on. I found her story compelling, her honesty heart wrenching, and her perseverance and resilience inspiring. I found myself falling in love with her love stories, crying with her heart breaks, and asking those big spiritual questions when she herself was lacking the answers. My biggest take away from her story was that self-help techniques are never going to answer your questions or even give you the peace that you seek. All of these different methods lock you in the perception that you are not good enough, that you need to be fixed. As Megan herself pondered through all of her trials and tribulations, why can’t we just live with who we are? Perhaps all of us are broken, and all the different experiences we have are ways to initiate the repairs we seek externally when we really should be honouring thy self. Part of the healing process involves understanding what it is we most need and doing everything we can to align our lives with them. So will all of the fancy schmancy new age remedies out there such as meditation, acupuncture, therapy, and herbalism (just to name a few) meet these needs? I’m not so sure, and as Megan concluded, protection, nourishment, and comfort is all any of us really needs and that will look very different for each individual. So go out there, find your happiness, and live your life by your own terms. We can only be responsible for ourselves. We are not here to fix everyone and everything, because what seems broken, is actually falling into place.

It took me awhile to understand this book. I didn't quite follow it at first, but I was glad I kept reading. I enjoyed the author's stories. It was a fairly quick read.

I would like to thank Netgalley and the Publisher for providing me with a copy of this book. This is my honest opinion of it.

Interesting √
Kept Me Hooked While Going Through The Various Stories Megan Presented In The Book √
Light Reading √