‘Help Self’ By Tanya Hennessy Book Review

Tanya Hennessy has to be one of my favourite Australian social media personalities and comedians, I find her extremely hilarious and whenever I watch her content or read one of her books, I know I’m in for a good laugh. But I also feel that she is very down to earth and quite relatable.

In this post I’ll be sharing my review of her new book ‘Help Self’. I loved her previous book ‘Am I Doing This Right’ which I have listened to quite a few times on Audio book, so naturally when I found out that she had a second one going to be released I made sure to add it to my wish list right away.

Help Self By Tanya Hennessy

‘Help Self’ isn’t your average self-help book, while it includes topics like food, relationships, beauty, fashion and mental health, it has Tanya’s classic humor thrown in with a few tips and tricks as well as advice on cooking & entertaining, relationships (including friendships, romantic relationships as well as the one you should have with yourself), beauty secrets and fashion advice just to name a few.

What I loved most about this book was that each section had a mix of humor as well as advice. I particularly loved some of the more personal aspects of the book like ‘How to deal with the loss of a friendship’, I felt like this is something we have all probably dealt with from time to time and I appreciated that she included this in the book, because friendship break-ups can be hard, just as hard as romantic relationship break-ups. Friendships are a huge part of peoples lives, they are part of the family we chose to build for ourselves; we may not be blood related but often times these are the people that come into or are part of our lives that we are close to and treat as if they are family.

I also love the aspects of self-love and acceptance, because I feel that this is also very important, for so long we have been taught to hate ourselves, so I love it when people share the importance of self-love and accepting ourselves not just in books but in general, you know. This is a very individual journey for everyone and can take years to work through, but it is a super important part of our own mental health journeys. Tanya is also an ambassador for R U OK? She is passionate about destigmatizing Mental Health, in both her books, on social media and Television she has been open about her own battles with mental health. In ‘Help Self’ she gives some great advice on ‘What to do when you are helping someone who is going through a tough time’, Tips on how she deals with her own mental health, as well as the likes of ‘How to stay motivated and avoid burn out’. While the dedicated chapter is quite small, I feel like there are aspects of this spread through various areas of her book.

“How Do I Take An Outfit From Day to Night?
Wear The Same Thing And Put On More Deodorant.”
– Tanya Hennessy (Help Self)

Some of the lighter aspects of the book include ‘How to make 3 different types of Rocky Road’ or ‘Tanya’s Original Cheese and Charcuterie Board’ which includes the likes of Tim Tam’s, party pies, Cheezels, every Allen’s lolly in existence, fairy bread, etc.., this sounds yum to me and is very reminiscent of my child-hood birthday parties, especially the fairy bread. But she has also included things like ‘What Your Go-To Makeup Retailer Say About You’ (there were a few things like this through out the book that made me laugh so much that I was in stiches) and ‘Yoga With Tanya’ which includes poses like the ‘Tired Cat’, ‘Lazy Flamingo’ and the ‘I Stayed Up Too Late Drinking’ Mouse.

I received this book for Christmas from my parents and even if I hadn’t, I still would have purchased this for myself. Because I really enjoyed reading this book, I found it both funny and entertaining. I also appreciate that aside from the humor it also included some personal stories as well as delved into topics like self-love and mental health.

I can totally see myself reading this again, and maybe at some point I may decide to pick up a physical copy of Tanya’s original book ‘Am I Doing This Right’ because I quite enjoyed that one as well.

If you enjoyed Tanya Hennessy’s original book ‘Am I Doing This Right’ or enjoyed books like Angie Kent ‘If You Don’t Laugh You’ll Cry’ or Celeste Barber’s ‘Challenge Accepted’ then I think you will like this one. Also, if you don’t like reading books that are too long then this ones might be something you will enjoy because while it 219 pages there are a few pages with just pictures and most of the writing is in small bursts so if your looking for an easy read or short book then this one defiantly fits that criteria.

Reading Challenge Update:

These books tick off the following prompts for my reading challenge.

If you want to know more about my reading challenge you can check out my original post here.

Something Non-Fiction	√
A book written by an Australian or local author. Tanya Lives in New South Wales.	√
A book that was gifted to you. I was given this book as a Christmas Gift.	√
A book written by a female author. Tanya is an Australian Female Author and Content Creator.	√
A book released in 2020. ‘Help Self’ was released in November, 2020.	√
A new release or recent release (i.e., in the last 6-12 months.) ‘Help Self’ was released in November, 2020 and this post is going up in February 2021.	√

I hope that you enjoyed this book review. If you would like to know more about my 2021 Reading Challenge then you can check out my introduction post here, I’ve also included a downloadable pdf incase you would like to do your own reading challenge.

My next book review should be coming soon, I’m a bit behind on doing them, but I’m hoping to share the next one very soon.

Until next time, I hope that you have a lovely day.

Erin.

Disclaimer – This post is not sponsored and doesn’t contain any affiliate links, links included are for reference only in case your interest in checking out anything mentioned in this post. Read full Disclaimer here.

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