Girl, Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis

Hyper-Christian and gender-normative, but a lot of good tips and actionable tricks, even for people that aren't god-fearing.

BLUF: Worthwhile, entertaining, but not for me.

This book had good themes, honest stories, and has reminded me to respect myself enough to reduce self-depreciation, but... it was a little underwhelming. This book was recommended to me by a coworker who swore up and down by it - and I see her life aligning with the concepts - but it wasn't as inspiring or life-changing as she made it out to be.

Thought this would be a fluffy, feminist, you-go-girl self help book. I've already read plenty but thought there might be something special about this one given its wild popularity. Turns out what's special about it is some really disturbing body shaming and ablelist body policing, a heavy layer of Christianity, excusing horrible male behavior with the implication that, well, you have to marry the guy you give your virginity to, and a really long, self-absorbed chapter about how unfair the foster care system is for rich white couples who already have biological children and aren't willing to take an older kid. I haven't hated a book this much in years.

I technically did not finish this but definitely got the gist. The author is cute and she wrote one really moving chapter about her early relationship with her husband. I don't really recommend it though, you can get everything she has to say from her Instagram.