Book Review: Living Oprah

I just finished reading Living Oprah: My One-Year Experiment to Walk the Walk of the Queen of Talk by Robyn Okrant. The author chose to follow Oprah’s suggestions for living her ‘best life’. She read the magazine, watched the show, and subscribed online. If Oprah said you must have this and must do that, Robyn bought it and did it. She made some great points that I would never have noticed (but then again, I watch Oprah about once a month). She brought up good points like how Oprah talked up the environment and then gave away an SUV, or how Oprah wanted everyone to sign the Best Life contract, but wouldn’t sign it herself, and then proceeded to promote ice cream on a show not long after.



I thought the book was interesting – it’s not what I would normally choose, but I was somewhat stressed and looking for an easy read. By the end of the book I began to wonder if it was worth it for the author to ‘live Oprah’ for an entire year. I was rather glad to be getting to the end of the book, but then I read the second to last page and come across this on page 256:

“I know I will never truly believe I am beautiful if I allow someone else’s definition of beauty to impact my self-esteem. I know I will never have a truthful, honest relationship with Jim if I judge my own marriage against others’ unions. The same goes for my friendships and my connection with my family. It is futile and exhausting for me to shape my life to meet anyone else’s standards.”

WHAM! She hit the nail on the head! If only I could bottle that paragraph. I would save it and sprinkle on my daughter as she sleeps, in hopes of giving her a hand up when she matures into a young woman. (I would give myself a healthy dose of it from time to time as well!) No will believe they are beautiful if they allow someone else to tell them what beauty looks like. Same goes for relationships of all sorts. I think the author wrote what every mother tries to get through to her maturing daughter – be yourself, believe in yourself, and for the love of God, don’t conform for the sake of fitting in!

Have you read this book? What did you think of it?