we’ve received and how we internalize it. It shows how we can reshape our
thoughts about ourselves, and make healthier thinking patterns, which
leads to us being happier and better to the people in our lives. I’m becom-
ing more aware of how I talk to myself and use more gentle language about
myself.Meinzer: A book that I liked a lot more than Jolenta was A Simple Act of
Gratitude by John Kralik [Hachette]. I was going through a really rough time
when we were working on this book. Living in a manner that told us to be
thankful for certain things—which, by the way, isn’t about erasing feelings; it
just says that even in bad times you can find something to be grateful for—I
kept thinking, “I’m grateful I have friends, because all of these terrible things
would be a thousand times more terrible if I didn’t have friends.”Greenberg: I was turned off by the author’s journey but not the book’s
message. It’s growing on me.The reviews in your book are pretty forthright.
Were you worried about offending anyone?
Greenberg: We have no skin in the game. We’re not going to burn any
bridges with our influencer friends. We’re just people who want to see, “If we
adhere to this as seriously as the authors take themselves, will it help our day-
to-day life?”Meinzer: A lot of these books are like cookbooks that never had a test kitch-
en. It’s like one obsessive person made all these recipes, but did they try them
out? Did they have other people try them out? Do they actually apply beyond
this one person? In a lot of the cases the answer is no. It feels like Jolenta and I
must be the first people who are giving these books a test drive.
—J.K.Greenberg Meinzer©lauren
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The Perfect
Self-Help
topic for
the Holiday
Season and
the New Year
978-1-61159-994-7
On sale 11/5/19Distributed by
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