Cover Image: Quarterlife

Quarterlife

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Member Reviews

OK, not liking this is my fault haha. I don't really love self-help or advice books, but I thought this one would appeal to me, but it really...doesn't? I'm getting old. DNF.

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The author coined the term "Quarterlifers" as individuals between the ages of (roughly) sixteen to thirty-six. She believes young people this age are going through a life crisis, which I don't doubt having worked on a college and seen the exponential need for mental health services among the students. I just don't believe the problem is as simple as the author makes it. She believes in dichotomies, and grouped the patients into either a Stability type or Meaning type. This dichotomy of personality is basically the plot of Larry McMurtry's novel Lonesome Dove. The book is not about the cattle drive, its about the relationship between McCall, the Stability type, and Gus, the Meaning type. I am probably a Meaning type as well since I spend a lot of time reading. I can't help though comparing the author's theories to the Baby Boomer generation I grew up in. We were much more independent than the current Quarterlifers, but we also had a greater sense of community with our peers and didn't look to our parents for direction. If we wanted to be free spirits and do our own thing, that was ok. Its the boomerang though of all that freedom that ended up stressing out today's young generation. We are worried about the future and the environment, and that means we are transferring that anxiety to our young people.

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As someone presently within this quarterlife age group, I was very excited to read “Quarterlife.” While there was a great amount of research, I found this book a tad boring. And for some reason, the personal anecdotes of the patients added little excitement to this one, which was perplexing since I thought the stories of patients in “Maybe You Should Speak to Someone” were fascinating. 3 stars ⭐️ for this-good, not great. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the copy for review.

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Honestly I couldn't really get into this. It got repetitive. I didn't really feel like it was providing new information or insight into a topic that I was really interested in, and it kept giving the same points over and over. I only read up to 18% but I did skim into the book quite a bit, and found the same to be true.

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It was amazing to have my quarterlife experience confirmed in this crazy life. For individuals who are unsure of their 20s and are looking for direction or strategies to start their personal travels, I would most definitely recommend. I appreciate how the author showed genuine concern for her patients rather than using their suffering to further the story, as is typical of other psychology works. As a psychology major I am pleased.

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This is a nice book with information about how to navigate life when you are in your 20s and 30s. There are tips are what to think about and good strategies to think about. Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for an ARC.

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📚Book 33: Quarter-life: The search for self in early adulthood by Satya Doyle Byock

💬Reader’s digest version: we hear about the mid-life crises all the time, but most seem to overlook the tumult of quarter life. Satya Doyle Byock does a beautiful job of describing the struggles faced by young adults in their twenties and early thirties.

🏃🏻‍♀️My Take: While I’m teetering on the edge of middle life myself, this book resonated deeply with me. In early adulthood, I struggled greatly between the need for stability and also the desire to find meaning in my life. These two needs often conflicted with one another and caused me great inner turmoil.

Satya Doyle Byock uses her years of experience in psychotherapy to aptly describe and prescribe ways to find balance in quarter life. My early 20s self would have greatly benefited from this book.

🙏🏻Big thanks to @netgalley and @atrandombooks for the Arc. This book hit shelves on July 26th. I definitely recommend checking it out!

⭐️my rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

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Although I found the stories about the author's therapy clients interesting, I couldn't help but think that this book could have benefited from more fleshed out chapters.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free e-copy.

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I definitely appreciate Byock's approach in thinking about the challenges of coming into one's own during "quarterlife," and think there is a lot of merit to her ideas about the spectrum between Meaning and Stability types. I do wish the second half of the book had incorporated more theory and less of the minutiae of her four character studies. Would still recommend to my fellow "quarterlifers," though, especially if you feel alone in thinking through some of these bigger questions about purpose/life's meaning.

Thanks to Random House for providing me with an early copy of this book through Netgalley. Quarterlife is out on July 26.

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I found this book to be very timely and relevant to the struggles young adults have, but I also found it hard to get through. The style, where it builds on dialogue in therapy feels like I'm reading about personal sessions and I hard a hard time extrapolating to the bigger picture coming from that specific level. I also wanted to understand where certain details came from, such as the wide age range the author labels (16 to 36), Overall it was interesting to read from a therapist's experience, but it also felt anecdotal at times.

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The Buzz Books 2022 Fall/Winter edition was my first exposure to this publication, and I am definitely impressed. There are 59 excerpts in several different genres. Each excerpt is listed in the contents, first by genre, followed by title, author, and publisher. This made it easy for me to pop in and out of each excerpt and find the ones that interested me. I have not actually read any, but I’m be looking forward to doing so when I’m not so busy.

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Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Thus book delves in the minds of young adults through the eyes of a therapist. They are going through life and some encounter some road blocks on the way to navigating life. They question the direction they are going in. This book made me think outside the box.

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Thank you Satya, Random House Publishing, and NetGalley for an advanced copy!

The funny thing about this book was that it landed in my queue by sheer coincidence. My partner's mother is a psychologist and she told me about how one of her colleagues was writing a book about Quarterlife. "Hey, I'd love to read about that!" I said. And voila! She put me in touch with Satya and her publicist, and the book was in my inbox the next day. I'm so happy I got to read this book about myself in many ways. As a "quarterlifer," I resonated with many of the struggles discussed in Satya's book. I identify more as a Meaning type, but I definitely see some qualities of a Stability type in myself as well.

I would recommend this book to anyone in their quarterlife, certainly, but also to those either exiting or entering this phase in life as well to learn more about how to facilitate the growth of generations to come!

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Very useful book for young adults. The subject matter and the way it’s presented are a little dry, but the info could be very helpful for someone in the target audience.

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It was good, a little boring, but informative. I found it to pick up with stories from the author’s clients/patients, but then it came down. Overall, I can see it used as a text in the classroom

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Satya Doyle Byock’s “Quarterlife” fills the gap in the literature for those folks courageously floundering through their Quarterlife years. With practical insights and compassionate prose this book will be a wondrous help for those traveling between adolescence and midlife and it is also an incredible asset for the heartfelt helpers who work with them.

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