How can we start a new decade and not talk about Oprah Winfrey? Haters, step aside, because I love my Oprah. I can’t tell you the number of things I’ve learned from the talk-show host over the years (including the proper shape of poo and how to not be a “schlumpadinka”), but one author took it a step further, following Winfrey’s advice for a whole year.
Robyn Okrant had to make sacrifices, of course, and her husband was mostly on board with the whole thing. While Oprah doesn’t intend for each of her viewers to abide by everything on her show, what if? That’s the fascinating premise of LIVING OPRAH: MY ONE-YEAR EXPERIMENT TO WALK THE WALK OF THE QUEEN OF TALK.
The book is set up in monthly installments, from one January to another, with Okrant carefully following the advice on Oprah’s TV show; her magazine, O; and Oprah.com. It was a heady task, to say the least. Kudos to Okrant for not just picking the easy ones, either. I recall the Bob Greene “Best Life” challenge. I probably even went to the website, but Okrant signed that damn contract and went for it.
She is both witty and wise, not one to simply take an outsider’s bit of advice without questioning. Such is the case with participating in the big doozy of all book club picks, Eckhart Tolle’s A NEW EARTH, and its accompanying 13-week webinar series.
I loved the way Okrant set up the graphs in the book, showing the theme of the show, how much it cost for her to pull off each task, and the result. In this way, it’s also easy for us as readers to take this advice, if we so choose. After all, the author did all this research, so why not use it to our benefit, too?
Truth be told, Okrant sounds like she was a pretty great gal with a good life from the get-go (clutterbug and all), but it’s fun to journey with her through her escapades. The bigger question is determining what the best life for you — a unique individual and not a clone of anyone else — looks like. The real one led by your own truth, which you may or may not discover with self-improvement courses or articles.
This is an enjoyable and, yes, even enlightening read that Oprah’s fans — and maybe even her haters — will love. —Malena Lott
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