My Year with Eleanor Audiobook By Noelle Hancock cover art

My Year with Eleanor

A Memoir

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My Year with Eleanor

By: Noelle Hancock
Narrated by: Emily Beresford
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After losing her high-octane job as an entertainment blogger, Noelle Hancock was lost. About to turn 29, she'd spent her career writing about celebrities' lives and had forgotten how to live her own. Unemployed and full of self-doubt, she had no idea what she wanted out of life. She feared change - in fact, she feared almost everything. Once confident and ambitious, she had become crippled by anxiety, lacking the courage required even to attend a dinner party - until inspiration struck one day in the form of a quote on a chalkboard in a coffee shop:

"Do one thing every day that scares you." -Eleanor Roosevelt

Painfully timid as a child, Eleanor Roosevelt dedicated herself to facing her fears, a commitment that shaped the rest of her life. With Eleanor as her guide, Noelle spends the months leading up to her 30th birthday pursuing a "Year of Fear". From shark diving to fighter pilot lessons, from tap dancing and stand-up comedy to confronting old boyfriends, her hilarious and harrowing adventures teach her about who she is and what she can become - lessons she makes vital for all of us.

©2011 Noelle Hancock (P)2017 Tantor Historical Women Memoir Celebrity Funny Witty

Critic reviews

“A charmingly candid memoir of the year a young journalist spent conquering her deepest fears.... Inspired, white-knuckled fun from start to finish." ( Kirkus)
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I was pretty excited to have found this book because this is my year of doing things scared. I'm challenging myself to do the things that I've wanted to do, but that make me uncomfortable.
While I'm not doing something every day, I am so motivated after listening to this story. I have done things in these past few months that I haven't done in many years....all scared.
Best I've heard in a very long time.

Right on time!

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A book of great adventures for those who leave constantly in fear, really enjoyed it.

Good adventures

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This book was much funnier than I expected. It was a joy to listen to!

Very humorous!

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I’m almost mad that it’s over, it was so easy, fun and funny to follow. While also being throughly thought provoking. I would 100% recommend this book!

Thoughts?

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I wonder if I might have enjoyed this book more if I had read it with my eyes instead of my ears. I found the narration distracting. The narrator was rather cartoonish in her reading, particularly the silly male voices. The premise of Ms. Hancock's memoir is very interesting but I didn't feel invested in her journey at all.

Distracting narration

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clever concept. witty writing but at times a bit choppy. enjoyed the information on eleanor

witty and insightful

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The narrator was pretty awful. She sounded like a robot and it was very difficult to get through the book.

Narrator

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It was good for a little while. The narrator read pretty fast and she would go from quiet to loud. After a while the story dragged on and it seemed like the author complained too much.

The storyline for old after a while.

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I had heard raves about this book, so I was excited to read it. Less than halfway in, I was exhausted by her approach to life, landing on the fact that she’s an exhausting, vapid, privileged, self-centered, neurotic, doom-filled complainer. I don't know how she used to get out of bed, especially since she didn't have a backbone and was an addict. Her addiction was the real fear she never seemed to acknowledge or address. I also do not know how her BF and friends put up with her; it was exhausting to read, I can't imagine being in her orbit of delusional, outrageous fantasy-based fear that dictated her life on a regular basis.

I applaud her for attempting to make progress, but taking this journey with her was irritating, frustrating, and I found myself screaming at the audiobook saying, “FFS, get a grip!“ No wonder Matt didn’t marry her, he was probably exhausted by her too.

The narrator didn’t make the story much better. Her male voice sounded stiff, and the squeakiness of the main character‘s voice made Noelle even less likable: it was whiny, insecure and awkward.

This book could’ve been half the length, and focus more on the joy and confidence of overcoming the fears versus the majority of time leading up to overcoming the fear with an undertone of a seven year old. And middle school writing quality, btw. Instead of feeling relatable to a healthy dose of fear, her constant nagging, worrying, anxiety and whining (and pill popping) made this book annoying and a brain suck. This book could’ve been incredible, and such an inspiration of self-confidence and growth, but instead it was poorly written, portly narrated and a total drag.

Do not read/buy. Mousy main character and a narrator that made it worse

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