"The best advice columnist of her generation" -- Esquire "[Havrilesky] is part Buddha and part Amy Schumer: wise, whip-smart, and profanely funny." -- Entertainment Weekly "Under her Ask Polly moniker, Havrilesky dishes radically honest, no-nonsense advice tempered with self-deprecating humor, gleeful profanity and an unfettered voice. It doesn''t feel like schadenfreude to read Ask Polly because she meets her reader''s vulnerability with her own." -- Los Angeles Times "The title of Heather Havrilesky''s How to Be a Person in the World is almost too cute. Like: do we really need a guide to that, and is that really what this is? But it turns out the answers are yes, actually, and yes. Deeply personal [and] funny. If you are even a little bit interested in people and the world, then this book will interest you. And if you think you aren''t interested in people or the world, then you should read this book anyway because it might surprise you by proving that there''s a lot to reward such interest--and compassion and empathy--after all.
" -- Chicago Tribune "There''s something nourishing in every column. But sometimes she writes things that are like opening up the fridge and finding the universe inside." -- The Atlantic "Casual and pathologically sincere, like you''ve just stumbled into the most engaging conversation at a party after spending 30 minutes talking about the weather across the room. Havrilesky eschews firm "correct" and "incorrect" ways of thinking and offers readers an alternate path: What if we all just accepted that we''re flawed?" -- Vogue "[T]he part of Havrilesky''s advice-giving that is not at all a throwback, is the feeling you get when reading it: that nothing else could be more important or feel more worthwhile to her than connecting with you. And, far from being on some kind of all-knowing deity''s pedestal, she often indicates she''s feeling around in the dark with all of us. This makes her the exact right person for the job of ministering to them." --Elle ".Havrilesky leans into the mess until it swallows her, its embrace resembling something like light.
She''s an alluringly wry cheerleader, an enthusiastic volunteer offering sports drinks as we struggle past during the half-marathon of life." -- Slate "How To Be A Person In The World can be deep, complicated, and back-of-the-throat sentimental all at the same time.She handles the besotted 22-year-old''s crush with the same delicacy and kindness as she does the parent in the middle of losing a sibling to terminal cancer." --Buzzfeed "A few years ago I wouldn''t be caught dead reading a self-help book.now I''m toting around How to Be a Person in the World. in broad daylight, around other humans, without a deceiving book jacket! Whether you''re already an Ask Polly fangirl or new to her tough-love approach to advice, this collection of old and new letters with responses, plus fun existential cartoons, will light a fire under your butt in the warmest, most loving way possible." -- New York Magazine''s The Cut "Heather Havrilesky is the advice columnist for people encountering doubt about the magic dwelling inside them. If this sounds corny and sentimental at first, that is because it is.
While much of the modern advice material dispensing wisdom to readers takes the form of small and practical steps toward self-improvement, Havrilesky is an unapologetic evangelist for sentimentality and believing in our own enormous potential. She speaks in the language of the epic, the supernatural, and the celestial." --The Guardian "Saying that Havrilesky has a way with words is like saying Marilyn Monroe liked diamonds. Havrilesky doesn''t just write--she dances with the words, building empathetic responses that can''t be classified as just advice columns. They are more keen observations of human behavior." -- BookPage "Havrilesky pours her heart into her answers, offering guidance that is equal parts tough love, ''I''ve been there,'' and curveball" --The Millions "Havrilesky''s prose courses with a fierce energy that is an immediate and rousing spur to self-improvement. Reading her is not unlike listening to your best friend finally reveal, four drinks in, what she really thinks of your boyfriend." --The Hairpin "You can feel the heart in how [Havrilesky] responds, and that mark of humanity makes her advice memorable -- and worth following.
" --Refinery29 "What I love so much about Heather Havrilesky and her new book is that, beside being her usual brilliant, hilarious, equally kick-ass and compassionate self, ‎she actually gives great advice. How to be a Person in the World will change your life, for the way better." --Anne Lamott, New York Times bestselling author of Small Victories "Heather Havrilesky is that rare writer who can dish out tangy snark but never fails to aim the knife back at her own damaged, hilarious heart. She''s dealing, brilliantly, with the curse of having too much insight--into herself and the world around her. Required reading." --Patton Oswalt, New York Times bestselling author of Silver Screen Fiend "Sometimes I think Heather Havrilesky''s Ask Polly column is the only true thing on the Internet. Week after week, while everyone else parrots and postures, she addresses the foibles and ennui of strangers, bucking up someone here, giving a kick in the pants there. Along the way, she offers up a slyly powerful critique of the ways in which culture shapes the individual.
How To Be a Person In the World distills her salty, expansive wisdom into a guide for better living that''s both pragmatic and philosophical, a large-hearted reminder that all of us are struggling, and none of us are alone." --Kate Bolick, author of the national bestseller Spinster "Heather Havrilesky''s advice leaves me laughing, nodding in recognition, pumping my fist with excitement, and furiously underlining passages to capture the wisdom that drops out of her mouth. At a time when we''re all navigating so many cheap and conflicting messages of how to be cooler, smarter, and happier, Ask Polly is a powerful reminder to listen to ourselves. This is more than an advice book--it''s a life raft." --Sarah Hepola, New York Times bestselling author of Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget "Among a certain set of mostly young people, mostly women, the mindset that Havrilesky preaches - in short, be yourself and ask for what you want - is almost gospel. ("What would Heather Havrilesky tell you to do?" another friend asked me recently, in response to some romantic quandary.) But Havrilesky''s columns aren''t really peddling advice. They offer empathy.
What Havrilesky does so effectively is to mimic, as closely as a stranger can, the sort of back-and-forth talking-through that you would have with a friend." -- The New Statesman "''There is such warmth and honesty in Heather Havrilesky''s writing,'' says Astoria Bookshop owner Lexi Beach. ''Reading this collection makes me wish I could sit down with her for coffee or drinks and get her take on my own life.''" -- New York Post, A Summer Must-Read "[E]qual parts humor, tough love and genuinely solid advice." -- Houston Chronicle "I never send group emails and I especially don''t send "quotes" (because I am not yet a mom), but I once sent a quote from Havrilesky''s Cut column and every single woman wrote back, ''I needed to read that.''" -- Man Repeller (Best Summer Beach Read) "If you believe advice can''t be a summer read you''ve never encountered Havrilesky, who has the amazing ability to entertain while also helping you feel so much better about absolutely everything." -- Health Magazine - 12 Best Books to Read at the Beach (or Anywhere) "The piquant, beautiful, vital Ask Polly started as a column on internet curio cabinet The Awl before finding a home on The Cut, but the kind of advice that Heather Havrilesky slings is way too important to live hidden away in browser tabs. Like a more profane, less precious Dear Sugar, Havrilesky''s advice is strident just where it needs to be, without sacrificing empathy.
It is the kind of book you should keep on your bedside table to turn to in times of duress or when you just need someone with a little more sense to tell you how it is and what it looks like and how it should be." -- The Frisky "Jam-packed with hilariously frank and useful words of wisdom on everything from jobs and relationships to overbearing mothers (and mothers-in-law). Havrilesky''s voice is a breath of fresh air." -- PureWow "With the caring but no-holds-barred voice of a close friend who knows you all too well.[Havrilesky''s] answers are often full of irreverent commentary and always contain some well-placed cursing, but at the heart of each is a plea to graciously accept the juddering path of mere existence, even at its worst moments, and embrace the vulnerability of the moment just as it is.Readers allergic.