1 and a half, for an ambitious undertaking. Rachel Bertsche decides to get her own life in shape by emulating the lives of selected celebrities. As someone who does not read People magazine, watch the Oscars, Emmys or even many movies or TV shows, this star worship was sort of lost on me. She follows Jennifer Aniston's workout tips, Gwenyth Paltrow's cooking, Jennifer Garner's devotion to her marriage, Julia Robert's meditation practices and Jessica Alba's pregnancy advice (once she and her husband get pregnant after IVF). Some humor sprinkled in, as well as some pschyo-social research. For example, feeling as if you are a friend to someone who doesn't know you exist (e.g. celebrity) is called a parasocial relationship. One gem from the book (that didn't come from the author or any of the celebrities: "There is no way to be a perfect mother, and a million ways to be a good one." Jill Churchill. Overall much prefer AJ Jacobs' side-splitting personal experiments to Bertsche's. ( )

Move over, Eat Pray Love, here's Food Fashion and Fitness.

I love this type of book anyway. It fascinates me what extent some people go to, esp when told with a sense of humor. And this one is a particularly good example of the "my year of doing x" genre. ( )

Move over, Eat Pray Love, here's Food Fashion and Fitness.

I love this type of book anyway. It fascinates me what extent some people go to, esp when told with a sense of humor. And this one is a particularly good example of the "my year of doing x" genre. ( )

Move over, Eat Pray Love, here's Food Fashion and Fitness.

I love this type of book anyway. It fascinates me what extent some people go to, esp when told with a sense of humor. And this one is a particularly good example of the "my year of doing x" genre. ( )

I was a little hesitant to pick up a book about celebrities, since authors are the only celebrities I get excited about. However, I enjoyed Rachel Bertsche’s MWF Seeking BFF enough to just trust her on this one. I’m glad I did, since the book turned out to be very relatable. Rachel’s desire to be more pulled together focuses a lot on working well despite having an unscheduled job and working at home. As a grad student, I completely get that and suspect that many authors and professional bloggers will relate too. And even those of us who don’t follow celebrity culture have probably still wished to look like them, dress like them, or live like them at one point or another.

A lot of the advice Rachel pulls from celebrity lifestyles is fairly obvious, but I can see why she might find the context motivational. She also does a good job converting vague, obvious advice (eat well, dress nicely), into specific tips, many of which she even pulls together at the back of the book. She rounds out the trifecta of self-help awesome by adding funny stories and fascinating research to this actionable advice. Her personal stories include her and her husband’s attempt to have a baby, as well as her selfhelp quest. Despite having read about A. J. Jacobs similar experience in The Know-It-All, I liked that Rachel shared that much of her personal life. I think the true strength of her books is how relatable she is, achieving the we-could-be-friends vibe she admires about Jennifer Aniston, which she definitely did here.

This review first published at Doing Dewey. ( )