The Fuck It Diet was a really important book for me. It changed my relationship with food and my body in major ways. This one was...not as good. And unfortunately the author has perhaps lost her mind? Lots of conspiracy theory talk on her instagram. I just can't with her anymore

I needed this book in my life. It has taught me so much and I will get a physical copy to dog ear the pages. Things sometimes need to be written

I expected this to be a researched, nuanced book about burnout, but instead it's a memoir that doesn't really give the reader much to take away. A little disappointing.

I really hate to give a book one star, but I had to make myself finish this book and absolutely loathed the process. The entire book is one long, incredibly self absorbed, whiny memoir about Dooner's teens and twenties related mostly to how much she hated her appearance. She lived a life of incredible privilege with parents who bankrolled her teenage nose job, acting and singing opportunities, a summer in Europe, a nice NYC apartment, overpriced foods from one extreme diet to the next, and pretty much her entire privileged existence. And during all of those years, she hyper-fixated on her acne and her weight (looking at photos online, Dooner never appeared actually overweight). Again and again and again. How is this supposed to help anybody?

Each "chapter" is about a page and a half and it's got a flippant title that suggests it's going to be funny, but it won't be. It's just mildly bad thing after bad thing that happened to her, except you can't really feel that bad for her. She goes into a lot about her terrible dental procedures and they do sound absolutely painful and horrifying, but I don't really want to read about someone's awful dental procedures again and again. And I just don't care about her cystic acne or that she felt her boobs were too big or that everyone said she was such an amazing actress and singer but she hated auditioning and was always unhappy. Shrug.

There is nothing helpful in this book. She says it's a book to give up self-help and hustle culture but there's no real help offered and this woman has never hustled (having to take clown and babysitting jobs on the side sometimes is as close as she seemed to get other than one brief period where she had to work as a receptionist and was devastated by how boring, exhausting and not fun it was to work a real job). She has spent decades living off of her parents and now she lives off of the success of her first book and apparently the workshops she developed from it? There is no real advice, and she didn't really "rest" for two years anyway. She continued to act and work, but she stopped trying to date by doing things like using dating apps and she said no to (more) things she didn't want to do, plus she moved to a cheaper city because her parents were going to stop paying for her expensive New York City apartment.

Oh, and after reading about her years of mysterious health issues related to Epstein Barr/CFS, at the very end of the book she says she saw a sort of alternative doctor and he prescribed some kind of drops that mostly cured her. That is the least helpful bit of information in a book that I've ever read. She couldn't have gone and looked at the bottle or called the office and at least found out the ingredients in case it might help readers who had similar issues????? Nope. Some sort of drops. And now she's mostly fine. How nice for her.

This was just a hot mess. A whiny, self-absorbed, annoying, not at all relatable, boring, cringe-worthy hot mess. I cannot recommend it.

I read a digital ARC of this book for review.

I tried coming back to this book on multiple occasions and was ultimately unsuccessful in trying to finish it

Blending memoir and self-help, Dooner opens the cracks in the facade of existing as an adult. We're all tired in this world, and this book provides an excellent amount of relatability combined with advice in centering ourselves.

If you are expecting a self-help book it is not that. This is written more as a memoir. As such many will connect & identify and many won't. I would recommend reading a little before you commit to see if it is your style. Overall, it was fine for me. Not life changing but not bad or boring. The first 2/3 is really about the journey and the last part about how it all comes together and you come through it.

Caroline Dooner's Instagram page and The F*ck It Diet book/mentality are one of the reasons I was able to break free from diet culture three years ago, and for that I am so thankful! I was very eager to read her latest book, Tired as F*ck, as I have been feeling burnt out lately and like I just have too much going on. A lot of the book is just a memoir - it's not as "self helpy" as The F*ck It Diet. But I still related to so much she said and was able to take stock of what is causing so much exhaustion in my own life. She had a lot of difficult times in her earlier years and reading about her multiple dental surgeries made me cringe - I'm glad I've never gone through anything that physically taxing.

“Tired as F-ck: Burnout at the Hands of Diet, Self-Help, and Hustle Culture” is Caroline Donner’s follow-up, perhaps companion book, to her witty, well-regarded 2019 book “The F-uck it Diet: Eating Should Be Easy.” While similar in tone, humor, and authenticity, “Tired as F-ck” takes other aspects of contemporary life to task including the pressure to fill our lives with "sparks of joy" (Marie Kondo’s Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up has wreaked havoc on the mental and familial health of more of the United States than it possibly could have helped), the infinite lack that is our piecemeal health “care” system, and the impact of chronic stress on a plethora of health problems which (this is the fun part) exacerbate the chronic health problems.

Donner’s narrative arc weaves throughout her tween and teen years, allowing her readers a bird’s eye view into her development of food concerns (and the eventual “f-ck it diet”), questions about her place in the cultural order of beauty, and why the constant hustle, produce, hustle, produce journey led her down an alternate path.

It seems pretty ironic, doesn’t it? Creating a self-help book about how self-help culture ultimately causes more burnout these days. But Caroline Donner’s part-guide, part-memoir actually strongly accomplishes providing the reader reassurance, laughs, and genuine help for getting better. Caroline humbles herself so honestly in this book, bringing her down to all of our anxiety-filled levels. For those of you feeling extra tired of late–especially considering the whirlwind few years we’ve had since this pandemic started–this will be a great book for you to pick up whenever you’re down.

I really enjoyed Dooner's first book, "The F*ck It Diet" so I was all in for a copy of "Tired as F*ck". But for some reason it took me a lot longer to get in to than her previous book did. "Tired" is Caroline's story of her struggles throughout her life that led to her own burnout, and how she chose to come back from that. It was more of a memoir than I think I was expecting, but still a good read nonetheless.

I loved The F*ck It Diet--it was funny and smart--and the moment I found out Caroline Dooner had another book coming out, I was all in.

Tired As F*ck is not a self-help book but a funny/sad memoir about one girl's experiences growing up in our "do, do, no seriously, Do!" culture. While Caroline definitely did (and does) have a enormous amount of privilege, her experience of trying to do what she think she should even as her body (her poor teeth!) and mind rebel is a pretty much universal experience for girls growing up in the United States. Readers might not be able to relate to everything, but the pain of constantly worrying about what you're doing, how you're doing it, and is it enough is something just about every woman knows. Definitely a pick for collections serving Millennial/Gen Z patrons, and heck, even Xers. Different but interesting and absolutely engaging.

Burnout has been talked about a lot during this newfound COVID life, but many of us have been suffering in one way or another for much longer than just the past 2 years.

Dooner's account of her life, her medical issues, her relationship with eating, and her relationship overall with herself is one that many of us can relate. Dooner's response is witty and relatable, and it will make all of us step back and re-examine how we are treating ourselves during this neverending, overly tiring cycle that is life.

Thank you @netgalley and @harper_wave for this ARC!

Tired as F*ck releases Feb 8th!!

#BookReview #Bookstagram #CarolineDooner #TiredAsFuck #HarperWave #NetGalley #BookishLife #Reading #ReadingWithSnacks #InstaBooks #BookPhotography #BookRecommendations #GirlsWhoRead #Bibliophile #NonFictionBooks #NonFiction

I’ve read The F*ck It Diet and found it really helpful. I think I was expecting this book to be a little more prescriptive than it was. About two thirds of the book is a recap of all of Dooner’s exhausting experiences and traumas–trying to make a career as an actor, health problems, endless dieting, etc. Her experiences were hard to read about but they did help to land the last part of the book where she starts to generalize about the different kinds of experiences and environments that lead to burnout. This is a memoir more than a how to, but it’s a good starting point if you’re feeling burned out–especially if you’re a white millennial woman that can relate to some of Dooner’s specific circumstances. She touches on issues of systemic oppression like race and economic circumstances and acknowledges her privilege but this is largely a book written from a very specific point of view. If you’re looking for more specific action steps on how to deal with burnout, I’d suggest Emily and Amelia Nagoski’s Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle, and if you want to know about systemic problems that lead to burnout I’d suggest Devon Price’s Laziness Does Not Exist.

Content warning (I don’t know if this is a thing that is normally given a content warning but I think I would’ve liked to know) there is a lot about Dooner’s dental procedures.

ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A well written book for women approaching or in their 30s and 40s, Dooner hits the nail on the head as she explores diet culture, being a female in today's world, and just being generally exhausted. I thought her writing was clever, but it didn't grab me in the way other similar books have.

A thoughtful read as so many identify resolutions or struggle to sustain the pace of self-improvement. Written for the tired and over-inspired.

I wanted to like this so badly, but it was a miss for me. It reads more like a memoir than a self-help book — and I think if I had known that going in, I would have had different expectations. Caroline does a fantastic job of keeping the text moving throughout and retailing her struggles throughout life. I would have loved a deeper dive into burnout overall and more tips for how to heal it as a society.

I haven't been a fan of the recent trend of putting "f*ck" in the title of books to grab attention, but I loved the concept of this book so I picked it up. The author's main points are fantastic, but I think I'm a bit older than the demographic she is writing for.

Caroline Dooner knows how to write an entertaining essay and give a book an eye-catching and relatable title. Everyone I know these days is tired as f*ck, so how could I not want to give this book a read? Being a person who has tried every diet out there since I was a teen. I could easily relate to Dooner"s stories. The parts about her living life as a French woman - after reading French Women Don't Get Fat - made me laugh out loud because I "may" have gone through a similar phase. Donner has an engaging way of writing that really draws you in, but the true gold here is the struggle so many of us can relate to: the never ending quest to lose some weight and finally feel satisfied with how we look (and with our lives in general). There is a greater message here as well, that we need to let go of all the things that are just not serving us in life. Those things that we think we are supposed to do, but are actually draining us of energy and joy. After reading and enjoying Tired as F*ck, I began reading Dooner's first book, The F*ck It Diet, which was also very good, and a deeper dive into the concept of letting go of diet culture.

While I loved Dooner’s debut novel, this one didn’t land nearly as well with me. It reads much more like a memoir versus a self-help book which may be purposeful, but my perception and expectations were definitely off given the title and burnout angle.