The Weekend Makeover: Get a Brand New Life By Monday Morning

by Jill Martin, Dana Ravich

Every woman has at some point felt overwhelmed, overworked, and overtired. She knows she'd feel better if she could just organize her office, get her butt to a yoga class, or finally plan that vacation she's been desperate to take. However, the idea of taking an afternoon or even a few hours for herself seems selfish. Jill Martin and Dana Ravich argue that "me" time is essential to living a more balanced, stress-free life, and show readers how to do this without feeling guilty.

Packed with entertaining anecdotes and sprinkled with clever illustrations, The Weekend Makeover offers a collection of life-altering makeovers for body, mind, and spirit that can be accomplished in just 48 hours, such as: The Relaxation Makeover, The Romance Makeover, The Clutter Makeover, and the Refrigerator Detox Makeover.

Each makeover tackles not only the nitty gritty details (like how to stock one's pantry with nutritious essential or the best ways to get rid of old paperwork), it also guides readers into the right mindset to make the changes stick so that all it takes is one weekend to make, execute, and apply a foolproof plan to get life on track by Monday morning.

Genres: Nonfiction, Self Help, Fashion, How To

226 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 24, 2012

Reviews

[Caro Lyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I give the authors credit for coming up with the idea and selling it to a publishing house. As for the book, there's not much substance.

The book has a chapter for each thing you might want to do to improve your life (eat better, get a hobby, clean out your closet, get a better beauty routine, etc). Within each topic, there is some really basic guidance that you could get from a few web sites. Everything is broken down into planning (Friday night), some easy things to do (Saturday morning, day, and night), and sitting back and figuring about how you will continue to do your item (Sunday night). There is also some advice that may or may not work for you.

For example, the first chapter is about eating better, so of course the weekend is about thinking about what you do need (um, creating a shopping list), clearing out your "bad" foods from your fridge & cupboards, and going shopping with your new list. There's also some gratuitous (and laughable, given my dietary requirements) advice about what the authors think you should be eating.

Oh, yeah, the comment about knitting being a hobby that won't cost you much money? Clearly made by someone who doesn't knit. The authors then admit that neither knits, making their advice on that topic useless. Which led me to the question of the usefulness of all of their advice.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Weekend Makeover, or a quick glow up and guide to become 'that' girl. They give you a ton of advice from essential makeup items to shelf life of food that you should always have in your fridge. It's an easy and quick read too. They even organized it by days in each section, so read it on a thursday! I honestly really like the book and if I to be consistent enough I might actually try a thing or two from it. Though some of the information is out of date, mainly the trends but what can you expect. I'd definitely recommend this book to someone whos looking to get a glow up and become just like a better versions of themselves.

[Catherine · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the idea of it. Taking a weekend to make a specific part of your life better is a good idea. This just wasn't a very helpful book. It felt very superficial with little useful information. The book seems to only be written for white, 20 something, straight, rich, thin women who live in LA or NYC. The kind of women who shop at Lululemon and visit the Goop website frequently. I think it might have been better if they did chapters on taking a weekend to improve other things in your life like your finance or career.

[Skylar · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you're a wealthy urban white woman who loves rigid gender roles, you'll probably love this book!

[Carrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting. Gives a bunch of brief overall ideas for a wide range of topics to get you moving and inspire you. But was also simplistic and some of it I disagreed with.

[Cassandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun easy read. Motivated me to get some things done on the weekends!

[Cat · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly, I am not impressed with this book. I picked it up believing from the title that it would be a book filled with complete ideas and have various make-overs that would encourage someone to feel more attractive, more active, or more filled. It is more like a series of Cosmo articles that couldn't get published another way.
This book is full of well meaning, but half-thought out advice. And it is clear as you read it that the authors believe that you will follow their plans week by week, not just picking topics that you want. A lot of their ideas are good in theory, but not in practice, such as getting rid of all "bad foods" in your kitchen, not taking into account that these might have been a significant investment; or taking a weekend off to "relax" by giving yourself spa treatments and reading while drinking tea ... which is good for an afternoon but can make for a very dull weekend.
That being said, if you need advice on how to make a fitness plan, or clean out your closet pick up this book. Those ideas that they put out are well constructed and will apply to anyone reading it, not just the authors.

[Deyara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Idea was good, but there wasnt much substance here. The style was very consumer-driven - throw away everything you have now and replace it with new stuff, even frozen peas (if you want them later you just buy more, WTF?) - and there wasnt really much advice that was helpful. More a book you could read as maintenance of your new life than to get you started.

[Erika Jaques · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a whole lot of new information and because both of these ladies are single without kids, it wasn't super practical for my lifestyle, but nonetheless, I liked their tone & no-nonsense style and I found a few tips that made the read worthwhile (e.g., the closet, food, and clutter chapters). They also tried to acknowledge other peoples' life situations, so I give them credit for that.

[Jana · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is seriously the worst book I have ever read. I didn't have high hopes but I certainly wasn't expecting the shallow, vapid, and almost patronizing way the authors present the information. There is no way--not even if someone paid me--that I would recommend this book to anyone ever.

[Susan Dunn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just read the chapters on organizing your closet. Got a few good ideas.

[Margo · Rating 1 out of 5]

No new advice. Anyone could come up with the ideas in this book. All common sense.

[Trish · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really didn't care for this book. I felt that a lot of this information wasn't new or interesting. This book is more for the urban dweller than middle America.

[Barbara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing special.

[Kimberli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun book

[LemontreeLime · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not really what I was looking for. I didn't really read it, just skimmed parts. But I suppose it would be just right for somebody else.

[Ann Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

Basically skimmed through the book, picking up a few good ideas along the way, especially in challenging areas of self-care.

[lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

So, so blah. A few bits and pieces of good advice, but on the whole this was a very boring read.

[Linda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not much depth of content here. More for the chick lit readers, perhaps.