Non­fic­tion

Can’t Help Myself: Lessons & Con­fes­sions from a Mod­ern Advice Columnist

  • From the Publisher
March 29, 2018

Every day, Boston Globe advice colum­nist Mered­ith Gold­stein takes on the rela­tion­ship prob­lems of thou­sands of ded­i­cat­ed read­ers. Much like the many Jew­ish advice colum­nists before her (Ann Lan­ders, the Bin­tel Brief, etc.), her read­ers look to her for wis­dom on all mat­ters of the heart, from work romances to life-alter­ing breakups. In her col­umn, she has it all fig­ured out, but in her real life she’s a lot less cer­tain. In her 30s, Mered­ith has reser­va­tions about the tra­di­tion­al path of mar­riage and fam­i­ly, and won­ders about her place in the world as her peers move on and start hav­ing chil­dren. After her sin­gle moth­er is diag­nosed with can­cer, Mered­ith has even more ques­tions, and finds her­self turn­ing to her loy­al read­ers for help. CAN’T HELP MYSELF is the extra­or­di­nary (and often hilar­i­ous) sto­ry of a sin­gle woman who joins a long tra­di­tion of Jew­ish advice givers. It’s also a tale of fam­i­ly, friend­ship, and how to build the kind of com­mu­ni­ty (on and offline) that will be there when it counts.

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