Adulting

How to Become a Grown-up in 468 Easy(ish) Steps

By: Kelly Williams Brown

Narrated by: Anjili Pal

If you graduated from college but still feel like a student...if you wear a business suit to job interviews but pajamas to the grocery store...if you have your own apartment but no idea how to cook or clean...it's OK. But it doesn't have to be this way.

Just because you don't feel like an adult doesn't mean you can't act like one. And it all begins with this funny, wise, and useful book. Based on Kelly Williams Brown's popular blog, Adulting makes the scary, confusing "real world" approachable, manageable - and even conquerable. This guide will help you to navigate the stormy Sea of Adulthood so that you may find safe harbor in Not Running Out of Toilet Paper Bay, and along the way you will learn:

• What to check for when renting a new apartment - not just the nearby bars, but the faucets and stove, among other things
• When a busy person can find time to learn more about the world - It involves the intersection of NPR and hair-straightening
• How to avoid hooking up with anyone in your office - Imagine your coworkers having plastic, featureless doll crotches. It helps
• The secret to finding a mechanic you love - or, more realistically, one that will not rob you blind

From breaking up with frenemies to fixing your toilet, this way fun comprehensive handbook is the answer for aspiring grown-ups of all ages.

©2013 Kelly Williams Brown (P)2013 Hachette Audio

ONE OF THE MOST USEFUL BOOKS AROUND

Thank you Kelly Williams Brown for sharing this great wisdom and your fabulous witty personality with us. Would have loved to listen to the updated version - 536 easy-ish steps. Now I’ll have to skim through the book and figure out what I’m missing! I could use a review of this amazing life manual anyways. I’ll be sure to keep your book handy - cause I know I’ll be needing it. Thanks again! - From A 24 year old wanna-be-adult. :)

Confused by the audio quality

Would you listen to Adulting again? Why?

Good contents, but i just don't really understand, after I purchased the audio book and audio sounds differently than the audio sample even the chapter they're reading. Hmm so confused. I am expecting the same audio quality as the sample.

Some good advice

Some great advice in here and I feel like I was at the right time and place in my life to read it.

intriguing, funny and very informative

loved this book kept me laughing yet thinking about the choices I have made or can make. highly recommended this book.

gave perspective

I liked it
kinda made me realize how much chance and circumstance is involved in adulthood

A very good read

It took me a while to get i to it but this is a very good book to help you get off of your bum and out i to the real world like a grown-up.

intresting

good read for teens and early 20 somethings. none the less well written and easy listen

I loved it

It was funny and quirky. There were very good tips with some obvious tips. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Funny, relevant, and surprisingly helpful!

What made the experience of listening to Adulting the most enjoyable?

I loved everything about this book. I bought it on a whim and with severe skepticism because I'm from the generation of current urban twenty-something's who feel too cool for "self-help" books. What a lucky impulse buy! It's hilarious, and feels more like chatting with a trusted older girl friend than a preachy or cheesy self help book. There are several one liners or tips from the book that keep popping into my head since I've read it, and I honestly feel like I learned helpful things from this book. If you like Mindy Kaling and Lena Dunham, you will like Kelly Williams Brown, and you might even get motivated to actually have the oil changed in your car.

What other book might you compare Adulting to and why?

It reminded me of "Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?" by Mindy Kaling, in tone and format, but of course to different purposes.

Have you listened to any of Anjili Pal’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I adored Anjili Pal's performance. She hit it perfectly, and she sounded like I was talking to a good girl friend. I kept having to remind myself that she was not in fact the actual author.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

YES.

Any additional comments?

Hilarious. Honest. Helpful. Truthful. Witty.

Common Sense and Thank You Notes

So far a lot of the advice in this are things I already have under my belt or had heard before and stored away in mind for future reference. For instance - whole chapter about moving, domesticity, cleaning... Got it down. Well, all except the consistently cleaning bit; it comes in spurts. Whole chapter about kitchen and cooking - I got the supplies and well-stocked ingredients, smart shopping, recipe following etc down, though in reality my fiancé does most of the actual cooking, and we've never hosted any kind of house/dinner party. Whole chapter about social adeptness - being patient and kind with strangers (like people who cut in line), be comfortable by yourself in public/at social gatherings, be informed/know local and national news ... Those things I have down (yay for podcasted newspapers for listening while on public transportation!). Whole chapter about having/getting a job- I got it down, or at least have managed it at least once since college, though the networking part is fledgling still. Whole chapter about money and budgeting - I have got that SO down that it's second nature. Finances are one thing I think I can say I have got under control. Some things have arisen in her tips that I have not done though, like devoting time to do something you care about, like volunteering ... Not something I had given thought to lately. So far making me feel pretty successful at the whole being adult thing.
Second half of this book was more if the same kind of things, standard stuff that helps out day to day (like a whole chapter on maintenance, i.e. laundry, cars, plants, pets etc., much of which didn't apply to me at the moment, though I did take special note of a few stain fighting tips) and then several chapters on people and relationships (including the whole gambit from friends and family to lovers and significant others). Some good advice about emergency prevention and preparedness (though, again several things here I know because of where I grew up but that don't currently apply as I don't have a car). She couldn't stress the thank you notes enough.
Overall, not a bad read, but not something I think I'd feel the need to read again. I fit the target audience demographic, and have already independently achieved many of the steps outlined, noted down a few tips about the things I haven't yet (like on buying a and maintaining car, even though that's not going to be in the budget any time soon). This would be kind of book for an aunt or older cousin type to give to a recent college grad, someone who has never lived on their own before. It is full of the kinds of stuff that will help them in starting out, but that I have already passed in my few years since I graduated.

The reader did fine, nothing remarkable, and I think she captured the author's tone well throughout (sometimes sarcastic) and deftly adopted a few pop culture speaking patterns when they came up but - my one issue was that she never once did anything vocal to distinguish quotes from others in the text, which often left phrases sounding weird or out of context until you suddenly caught a quick "...so and so said" tagged on at the end.

Probably more useful for reference or just pursuing step by step in print form, rather than audio. Also, there is occasional gratuitous swearing. It helped her point sometimes, and reinforced her voice as an every-woman 20-something with attitude making her way... and several references to rap and hip hop singers. She and I have different tastes, to say the least, but she got the message across.