Keep a budget, but get regular pedicures for self care - if you don’t, it’s definitely because you have a poor relationship with your monstrous mother.” I also really liked the "I'm in this with you" tone to the book. Part of it could be defined as a memoir as she takes you through some of her own experiences and, most importantly, what she learned from them. There's a definite "things don't have to be as hard for you as they were for me" kind of sentiment to the book that makes it incredibly relatable and approachable. A bracingly honest, funny read...like Wild meets You Are a Badass." (Adam Grant, number one New York Times best-selling author of Give and Take, Originals, and Option B)

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A lot of the book comes off a bit elitist, to be honest. When someone says they went to a really nice private school, followed by Brown University, and then flippantly states how "poor" they were, it irks me to no end. There are moments when the author realizes her privilege, but most of the time, I think the things she has to say come off as incredibly tone deaf. As previously noted, you can't trust someone who idolizes Coco Chanel, but the biggest problem here is that this is self-help from a person who 1. does not actually seem helped, and 2. does not in any way know how they want to deliver it. This is badly written memoir with a skin of journal prompts by a person who thinks three drinks multiple nights a week is "healthy," but repeatedly talks about a pint of ice cream like it's a demon lurking in the freezer, who buys into the, "You and Beyoncé have the same number of hours in a day," school of motivational thinking, who calls Cleopatra a "lady boss," with zero apparent irony. Brutally honest, often hilarious, hard-won lessons in learning to love and care for yourself from a young vice president at Comedy Central who was called “ahead of her time” by Jordan Peele As a current VP at Comedy Central, I think I would have been much more interested in a job-related book from her - one that explains her career steps in-depth, because I feel like that sort of information would have been much more valuable, and I probably would have taken that more seriously.

I enjoy the honesty and that the book covered a wholistic approach to the mind, body and relationships, which are the most important to develop a healthy and happy life. However, Tara ultimately winds up promoting an inherently self-centred world. In that world, the “individual” seems required to “win” against any wider social and cultural imperative.

Tara Schuster

I really enjoyed the first half of this. The author gives some great recommendations of methods to get yourself out of your own head and into some habits that will help you in the long run. I definitely want to take her up on at least a couple of her suggestions. This is essentially a self-help book by way of memoir. There’s a lot of good stuff in here. It’s always helpful to have a reminder to stop the negative thoughts about yourself—like that you’re a failure because you don’t have a boyfriend/the job you want/you aren’t working out or eating well enough and so on. For some of us, giving ourselves pep talks is not our natural state, but Tara reminds us: If your friend were in a similar situation, would you talk to her that way? For some people this might be a good book but I didn't really like it. It's a self-help book, with memoir elements, and if that's your jam you'll probably like this. Personally, she lost me when she started talking about how much she loved journaling and the merits of positive psychology. I have a very toxic relationship with journaling and no longer do that, and I don't really like positive psychology because I feel like it's been co-opted in the social media sphere by people who practice toxic positivity.I got an advance copy from NetGalley, so the first couple times I ran across the lowercase “rn,” I thought it was some kind of typo, which happens a lot in advanced reader copies. The third time, from the context, I realized she was trying to say “right now,” and apparently didn’t have the time or space to be clear about this. I’m on social media so I know many shorthand terms, but sometimes, just bothering to write things out makes for actual clear writing, which is a super handy thing when it comes to communicating in written form. And not to be callous, but if you've experienced this much trauma and also worked for a comedy network for a decade plus, shouldn't you be, I don't know, funny? Passably funny? Clever? I don't know how you could live for a year in a house with gynecological equipment rotting in your front yard and not turn that into a hilarious anecdote? Compelling, persuasive, and useful no matter where you are in your life." (Chelsea Handler, number one New York Times best-selling author of Life Will Be the Death of Me) The author, Tara Schuster, after years of therapy, spent a good amount of time working on trying to reparent herself, trying different methods. In this book, she shares different methods she suggests, along with her sense of humor throughout. I found it to be a kind of self help book with lots of ideas of things to try for changing the negative voice in your head, and just getting more positive about your life.

Taking care of yourself through eating well, not muting our lives with drugs including alcohol, getting enough sleep, and nurturing relationships, makes for a much happier life.But the title is *also* emblematic of what ultimately repelled me as a reader. I really wanted to love this — and there were moments of clarity AND hilarity. As a memoir, I think I would have better enjoyed this one. But as a pseudo self help-type book, it really missed the mark. It’s also good to remember to live in an attitude of gratitude for what you do have instead of always wanting what you don’t have. I did not know much about Tara Schuster as a TV Executive but certainly know her work very well being involved in The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Key & Peele. Her work with those shows helped their rise to popularity and its success. I loved to read about the personal life of very successful people and how they learned to manage the balance of their personal and professional life. The book was a great read and learned a lot from it and was able to take the advice to apply to my own personal life. I believe that other readers would be able to do the same as well. I found the read to be thoroughly thought provoking and admire the self-reflection as part of the book. I felt that the book was written with her heart on her sleeves and must be difficult to write these personal struggles for a very successful professional in the industry.