Adulting is the perfect mix of romance, finding help in an unexpected source and growing up. Chase is an actress but after unsuccessful trips to rehab and breaking parole there is only one person willing to give her a second chance. Olivia is a successful therapist but now her employees typically work with patients. She doesn’t want to work with Chase and Chase is even less willing to work with her. Once they start working together, Chase and Olivia help each other. Addiction and sexual assault are mentioned in Adulting. Adulting shows how Hollywood and acting affects people. Chase doesn’t know how to adult, so it is entertaining to see her learning. Adulting really caught my attention and kept my focus throughout. This book really surprised me in a good way. I was expecting a cute romantic comedy, but this book was so much more. I recommend Adulting for fans of romance that like a mix of serious and comedy. Not everyone experiences helicopter parenting. There are plenty of remarkable people who have had nothing handed to them by parents as she details in her book. She says the stories of resilience from those individuals who grew up confronting tough circumstances alone can be a lesson for those who may have had it easy. This book had a phenomenal start and did some things very, very right. We follow Olivia Han, a therapist turned life coach to the stars who works to turn the lives of struggling stars around after the overdose death of her younger sister 13 years ago, and Chase London, a former child prodigy turned junkie actress who can't seem to stay out of jail or rehab. Julie’s career, her way of being in relationships, the way she shares the stories in the book, all embody to me that reinvention process—that constant change is actually the way that we are becoming ourselves,” Watkinson says. “And I find that really compelling and really beautiful and not the common narrative that always gets shared.”

Our modern understanding of childhood was invented in the late 19th century, and I wonder if our contemporary idea of what it means to be an adult emerged out of that same definitional project: being an adult is to be a not-kid. Kids are dependent on others and need constant care. Therefore, adults are independent and can look after themselves. The author’s continuing evolution is part of what makes the book inspiring to Fannie Watkinson, ’12, another member of the Zoom reading group, who quit her job in educational technology in 2017 and spent the next three years exploring careers. She recently started working as a life coach. But it was hard not to like her. She smoked cigarettes and was a good hang, always up for some gossip. It’s just true that some people shine bright and also aren’t villains. I think it’s taken me the better part of the past decade to realize that, myself. I didn’t work with Kelly for very long, but I didn’t forget about her. In 2013, when Adulting came out with her face on its cover, I was not surprised.Along with the other points about forgiveness that Julie made, this has inspired me to do the same with a couple of people in my life that I need to move on from and forgive. I have been harboring pain and anger and regret and none of it has been doing me any good. By the time I finished reading this part of the chapter, I was crying tears of relief because I was realizing that I could let go of my resentment too. Or at least that’s what they plan to write. With chapters alternating between mother and daughter, the two might put out contrasting realities. “You know the things she writes about, like what made it hell, may not be on my radar, and the things I choose to write about may not be on hers,” she says. “But, you know, that’s sort of the point of the book.” Spoken like an adult. But demographic pressures, labor-market conditions, and social norms have evolved a lot in the past decade, and the concerns of people in their 20s and 30s are not what they were in 2013. I've read several other books by Liz Talley and always loved them, especially her Morning Glory series, but I loved Adulting in a different way. In fact I reached out via FB to tell her I was enjoying the book immensely and that Neve had just arrived. I never message an author to fangirl while I'm still barely into the book! Up until now, you might have had someone else call the shots. But guess what? It’s your time to shine now! While it’s freeing to finally be considered an adult, having all of the responsibility can sometimes be scary. Goal-setting is one of the first items you need to do, and to set goals, you need to have some idea what you want to do, what you’re good at, and where you want to end up.

I very much believe in the power of our personal stories to help others feel less alone and more seen and supported.’ Something I appreciated about this story was the inclusion of believable established relationships. Chase's single healthy friendship with fellow child star Spencer Rome and Olivia's damaged sisterhood with Neve were both truly indicative of their traumas and histories, but also provided so much extra nuance and depth to their characters. In so many ways, this story was everything I wanted it to be, before I knew I wanted it to be that. Holed up in my parents’ guest room, Dan and I folded our bodies into each other as quietly as possible, and then sleep inevitably came. One night, we dreamed out loud about living a slower-paced life on this island. Dan could easily be a handyman. He understands how things work, likes to be helpful, and loves to make things. Being more of a people-person, maybe I would work selling fried clams near the beach, or T-shirts. Then we started really fantasizing. Maybe we could open a little inn to serve the tourists who make this their summertime mecca, and relax into a much slower-paced life during the other eight months of the year. But we’d always end these conversations with a wistful sigh. We were twenty-five (Dan) and twenty-six (me), and I’d just graduated from a powerhouse law school. Slower-paced didn’t seem the right speed for our age and stage of life. Your Turn: How to Be an Adult” dives into financial topics that she — and most adults — wish they knew at an earlier age, like how to start a 401k and what compounding interest is. Lythcott-Haims also writes reminders about the little things that can make major impacts. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Carly Robins. I really enjoyed her narration and the amount of emotion in her voice.

Think bigger. Adulting can’t be boiled down to ten tips or even a thousand. Being an adult is a state of mind that ignites the “doing” that ends up forging your adult self. It’s part wanting to, part having to, and part learning how. The hardest part is that because it’s happening in your own mind you pretty much do it by yourself. Yet you have all the adult humans around you going through it, too. They get it. At first I didn't think I was going to like this book. I wasn't drawn to a book about an entitled actress who wouldn't accept the help she didn't have to pay for. As the story went on and we got to know the characters better, I started to like the story better. Both of the women have issues in their pasts that have turned them into the women that they are today. Bill Burnett, #1 New York Times bestselling coauthor of Designing Your Life and Designing Your Work Life

Author Liz Talley put the above trigger warning in the front of Adulting which I appreciate and I almost didn’t read the book, but since I’ve been on a Liz Talley binge read lately I went ahead and started it and I’m so glad I did. Liz has the ability to write women and their friendships with one another in such a way that you want to insert yourself into the story and become a character. This book was no different despite that none of the women in this story were close at the beginning and that included the two sisters. A story of change, of acceptance, of forgiveness, of building new relationships and of hope, Adulting was an amazing women’s fiction novel. I will also go out on a limb and say this is probably one of those books you will either love or you will hate. She admits this may be a little complicated for today’s young people because of helicopter parenting. Many parents of millennial kids hovered too much, she writes, meaning those children had everything taken care of. It might seem a small pivot—from one side of the parent-child equation to the other—but for Lythcott-Haims, ’89, it proved paralyzing. She’d spent years at Stanford and as a Silicon Valley mom steeped in the habits of parents stage-managing their kids—and as a mother of two, she certainly would admit to having done her fair share of hovering. Overparenting was an area she knew cold. As a wise person once said, 'Prepare the child for the road, not the road for the child.' In all the discussions and debates about the challenges faced by young people today, too little effort has been spent helping them feel empowered, excited, and ready for the challenges of adult life. Julie Lythcott-Haims, after her parenting masterpiece How to Raise An Adult, has turned her skill and wisdom into a guide for living a fulfilling, rich, and meaningful life.”Create a step-by-step plan with a timeline. If you don’t include a timeline, it’s much easier to put it off.