Review: Can't Help Myself by Meredith Goldstein

Can't Help Myself

by Meredith Goldstein

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Pages: 272

Format: book

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Every day, Boston Globe advice columnist Meredith Goldstein takes on the relationship problems of thousands of dedicated readers. They look to her for wisdom on all matters of the heart- how to cope with dating fatigue and infidelity, work romances, tired marriages, true love, and true loss. In her column, she has it all figured out, but in her real life she is a lot less certain. Whether it's her own reservations about the traditional path of marriage and family, her difficulty finding someone she truly connects with, or the evolution of her friendships as her friends start to have their own families, Meredith finds herself looking for insight, just like her readers. As she searches for responses to their concerns, she's surprised to discover answers to her own. But it's after her mother is diagnosed with cancer that she truly realizes how special her Love Letters community is, how this column has enriched her life as much, if not more than, it has for its readers.


Kritters Thoughts:  An interesting combo of a memoir combined with excerpts from her advice column.  Meredith Goldstein gives us a glimpse of her life and then at the end of each chapter inserts one or more dear abby letters she received and responded to with a few of the online comments.  I completely adored this book.  

I loved how the reader was given insight to her life and what she was personally dealing with and how that influenced her response to each letter and reader.  I have never written a letter into a dear abby, but this book made me want to, just to see what kind of response I would receive both from the author of the column and to the readers of the column.

I also don't read comments on newspaper articles online and I may just have to after this book!  How interesting that she thought of her repeat commenters as a community and to invite them to a happy hour was probably the best thing I read!  I never thought about this group as being a possible cohesive group, makes me think.  

I would love to read another one of these from Meredith Goldstein and from someone else who writes newspaper columns.  I enjoyed her personal context made things make so much more sense. 


Rating: absolutely loved it and want a sequel

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from Grand Central Publishing.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.