Helping Me Help Myself: One Skeptic, Ten Self-Help Gurus, and a Year on the Brink of the Comfort Zone

By Beth Lisick

William Morrow, $24.95

There's no denying that Berkeley author Beth Lisick's life is funny. Her 2005 memoir, Everybody Into the Pool, was hilarious. But for her new book, Lisick has decided she needs a gimmick. In Helping Me Help Myself, she attempts to follow the programs of some of America's most popular self-help gurus for one calendar year: Jack Canfield (Chicken Soup for the Soul), Stephen Covey (The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People), John Gray (Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus), and Oprah's clutter consultant. It's a classic culture-clash premise — watch as the Berkeley cynic tries to implement "mainstream" solutions to her "alternative" life. Predictably, hilarity ensues. See Lisick and her friend chat with Richard Simmons on a weight-loss cruise! Watch her "network" with professional women at a Suze Orman conference! The problem with these contrived setups is that, while they're funny, the premise eventually wears thin. Lisick doesn't seem to delve deeper than the laughs to make any lasting changes — except when applying the techniques of a book called 1-2-3 Magic to parenting her 4-year-old. Lisick says in the introduction that she truly wants to put aside her cynicism and "look for clear advice on how to fix some stuff," not debunk the self-help industry. Her big finish seems to be that we're all human, just muddling along as best we can. But you don't need to spend a year taking self-help courses to come up with that.