Cathy Glass is a bestselling British author, freelance writer and foster carer. Her work is strongly identified with both the True Life Stories and Inspirational Memoirs genres, and she has also written a parenting guide to bringing up children, Happy Kids, and a novel, The Girl in the Mirror, based on a true story. Glass has worked as a foster career for more than 20 years, during which time she has fostered more than 50 children. Her fostering memoirs tell the stories of some of the children who came in to her care, many of whom had suffered abuse. The first title, Damaged, was number 1 in the Sunday Times bestsellers charts in hardback and paperback. Her next three titles, Hidden, Cut and The Saddest Girl in the World, were similarly successful, all reaching the bestseller charts. The name "Cathy Glass" is a pseudonym for author Lisa Stone.
This book is a self help guide targeted towards adults looking for happiness and contentment.
The book includes various topics including goal setting, negative/positive thinking, self confidence, body image etc.
Although I did enjoy the premise of this book, I've decided to give it 3 stars because I felt like I didn't quite learn anything new. The message the author was trying to give to its audience is very much basic and things we have all heard before. She does give tips on how to accomplish certain things which I also think is great but it was nothing eye opening.
I still believe that this was a good read and a great reminder despite having heard majority of the topics discussed in the book.
Where are the references? There were no references! There were multiple claims of "research shows that..." without references.
I assumed this would be a personal reflection on resilience and sustaining optimism while working as a foster carer. Bizarrely, it's mostly based on letters Glass has received from fans of her work. Very strange.
In this book, Cathy Glass demonstrates very well how much power we can have on our own life, whatever we have gone through as a child. She actually explains how to really become an adult. This book is very helpful, because too many people are physically adults but still think and act as children.
It is almost impossible to always act as an adult, particularly when we are submerged by emotions, but the methods Cathy Glass propose to get out if that are easy to apply and efficient.
For all these reasons, I definitely recommend this book.
I decided not to read the whole of this book after not being impressed by happy kids, I had taken them both as a borrow from the library at the same time and decided to go and return them and collect my usual proper story’s by Cathy glass which I had reserved. Don’t think I gave it much chance, but I like to read a true stories and not advice personally.
It was a nice little listen but I expected a more realistic approach from Cathy Glass and found it rather idealistic and patronising in parts. Still, some good reminders and tips.
Simple but good read and a good reminder as some of the things said are often taken for granted in practice; e.g. taking responsibility for your own life, thinking and acting positively, setting goals; diet, exercise and sleep