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Adulting: How to Become a Grown-up in 535 Easy(ish) Steps Paperback – March 6, 2018

by Kelly Williams Brown (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 2,161 ratings
Goodreads Choice Award nominee
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From breaking up with frenemies to fixing your toilet, this way fun comprehensive handbook is the answer for aspiring grown-ups of all ages.

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.
Previous page
  1. Print length
    352 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Grand Central Life & Style
  4. Publication date
    March 6, 2018
  5. Dimensions
    5.5 x 1 x 8.25 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    153872913X
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1538729137
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"This hilarious and super-relatable how-to guide for acting like an adult...is full of aha moments."―Cosmopolitan

"These are the steps I wish I'd had before I grew up. Wait-What am I talking about? These are steps I will start using today! Kelly Williams Brown writes as charmingly and hysterically as she does helpfully. Get this book and grow up!"―J.J. Abrams, writer, director, producer

"Fun, chatty, and surprisingly informative.... perfect for the wayward 20-something, or 30-something, or..."―Publishers Weekly

"Twentysomethings who are looking for a silver bullet will find it here in the form of 468 silver pellets. Without a doubt, one (or a hundred) of these pellets will change your relationship or your career or your mind or your potatoes, all of which matter in adulthood. Kelly Williams Brown is my kind of twentysomething."―Meg Jay, PhD, author of The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter and How to Make the Most of Them Now

"Kelly Williams Brown is wise beyond her years, which is great news for those of us who are immature beyond ours. Her advice is brilliant, warm, funny, and USEFUL, much like the lady who wrote it. I'd love to have her over for tea but I don't want her to see my apartment."―Julieanne Smolinski, blogger, comedian, @BoobsRadley

"Kelly Williams Brown, author of Adulting, is the voice of her generation. Unfortunately, that voice is telling her she should make a soufflé and take her LSATs. She shouldn't listen to the voice, and neither should you. Kelly Williams Brown should be writing: period. Anything else is just robbery. Adulting is hilarious and filled with keen insight, a terrific dance down the road of everyday insecurity."
 ―Dana Haynes, author of Ice Cold Kill, Crashers, and Breaking Point

"Adulting is a must-read for anyone in their twenties! Author Kelly Williams Brown has penned an incredibly helpful how-to geared toward twenty-somethings who may be grown up but don't always feel like it....Adulting is incredibly funny and a pure joy to read."―Wit and Sin

About the Author

Kelly Williams Brown is the New York Times bestselling author of Adulting, Gracious, and Easy Crafts for the Insane. A former reporter, ad copywriter, and Bourbon Street bartender, she lives with her giant, neurotic dog in Salem, Oregon.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Grand Central Life & Style; Revised edition (March 6, 2018)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 153872913X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1538729137
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.7 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 1 x 8.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 2,161 ratings

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Kelly Williams Brown

Kelly Williams Brown

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Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
2,161 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

katarinaism
5.0 out of 5 stars This is like an irreverent
Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2017
Verified Purchase
This is like an irreverent, modern version of Peggy Post's book on Etiquette but covers so much more than that - from how to write thank-you notes, to dealing with difficult neighbors, to more practical things like how to get stains out of your clothes (!) and basic groceries you should have in your house. It reads like a funny but wise pep talk from the home-economics teacher that you never had (because of all the budget cuts during your millennial high school years) - inspiring and entertaining at the same time. Yes, a lot of the book is either common sense (how to behave in a car accident) or google-able things (how to get stains out of clothes, how to fill in nail holes in the wall) but honestly, we all have our "knowledge gaps" and I definitely learned a few new things from this book. If you grew up in a loving but perpetually frazzled household, some of the concepts about cleaning may be new to you (or me). Most of it was a gentle prod regarding things I know but need to work on (and I'm a young, married, employed professional) such as how to stay organized and how to approach investing. The drawings are so relatable and definitely hit the nail on the head. I would definitely recommend this book to other twenty-somethings.
3 people found this helpful
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flanders
5.0 out of 5 stars it is a fun reminder on things that we should be doing as ...
Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2016
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I got this book for my cousin that just graduated high school... then I bought four more copies for the interns at my work place. I did a quick breeze through before sending it to my cousin and had a hard time putting it down. I remember thinking "where was this book when I was 18!?" Everyone I gave it to had read the book in under a week. My target audience was 19-23. I thought the book was very well written and informative. It quickly and clearly gets to the point for each piece of advice. The book is a plethora of advice collected from large group of people and summarized into an entertaining and effective guideline on how to be an adult. The book covers everything any person ought to know- from personal hygiene to relationships to business etiquette. For those above 30, it is a fun reminder on things that we should be doing as both adults and role models. For those younger folks- read through it, absorb as much as you can (I bet you will want to read it again), and act on the advice given.. it will only help you get what you want out of life faster.
2 people found this helpful
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Angela Risner The Sassy Orange
4.0 out of 5 stars Good advice for recent grads, even for older folks
Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2013
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I enjoy the Adulting blog when I get a chance to read it, so I thought the book would be a fun, easy read. It was. I think it's written in a way most kids (and yes, I call twenty-somethings "kids," which is the first sign that I'm way older) will find accessible, yet it doesn't cross over into that "hey, you're trying too hard to sound like me" vibe.

There's solid advice here, without being preachy. I found a few new things for this old dog, too, such as Step 8: Remember your circle of concern versus your circle of action. It's sort of like an updated version of the Serenity Prayer.

Not every piece of advice is one that I would follow, though. It may be tempting to call a co-worker the c-word, but I wouldn't recommend it. I think you can handle conflict without calling people names.

Some favorite moments:

•We all sense our own dysfunction so clearly. And because we can't do that one thing - whether it be keeping a clean house, not feeling shy and awkward at work, or having a credit score of 750 - we assign it a higher priority on our own personal Things That You Must Be Good At If You Wish to Be a Functional Adult list. We don't remember the fourteen things we do reasonably well; we remember our one arena of miserable failure.
•Intentions are nice, but ultimately intentions don't really matter because they only exist inside you.
•A big part of being a well-adjusted person is accepting that you can't be good at everything. Some things will always be hard. Decide what you can do in those arenas.
•You're a grown-up, and you get to decide what behaviors affect you for five minutes versus what behaviors change you as a person.
•As my friend Kate put it, if you don't like someone and they don't like you, that's not a problem, that's mutual agreement.
•You know why movies are so satisfying? Because they reflect back a reality that we all wish were true, that being good is its own reward and that being right means we will win.
• The value of the relationship is not in the uninterrupted continuity of same-level friendship, but in the fact that you can be friends at twelve, twenty, twenty-five. So don't freak out if you're not close friends for six months when you're twenty-three. You won't ever make any new old friends. Don't get mad at them, or yourself, if it's not exactly the same as it used to be. A lot of times you'll find that after a few years, you'll feel closer again.
•Being in a real, grown-up relationship means deciding every day to love another person, even though sometimes they will annoy the everlasting s*** out of you. Everything needs maintenance. Loving someone is not a onetime thing, something earned once then secured forever. It's more like a human six-year-old, something delightful but also in need of vigilance and attention, lest it fall out of a tree and break its wrist.
•People can and do change. When they want to.
•We all want "closure." But that doesn't make closure any more of a real thing than, say, a kind and gentle Pegasus who is eager to read your unpublished novel...In real life, closure comes from months or years of perspective, reflection, and insight. Or it doesn't - some things close, some don't.

Definitely recommended for the younger set, but older set will likely enjoy as well.
41 people found this helpful
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Alicia
5.0 out of 5 stars Bought for my son, 20, but I stole it almost immediately
Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2024
Verified Purchase
Why couldn't this book have been around when I was establishing my young life, away for my parents for the first time.? So with that in mind, I bought this book for my twenty-year-old son for Christmas. The book had great Amazon reviews, but I wanted to see for myself what the hoopla was about so I dipped into the book and scanned a couple of pages. Next thing I knew, I'm reading the entire thing and my son hasn't seen it since Christmas!

The author has a friendly, respectful tone and she goes into granular detail on everything: why tidy a home after a party? Why bother sweeping? How to deal with car insurance. When and how to clean out your washing machine (this was totally new to me). The author writes in a very familiar, hey-we're-all-in-this-together kind of way.

Very readable, very worth it.
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Samantha
3.0 out of 5 stars Quick, helpful lists
Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2021
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A good book to skim through to takeaway the high points. Some lists may be overdone but this one was east enough to get the whole picture without reading every single word
One person found this helpful
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Eileen J
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Gift
Reviewed in the United States on March 13, 2024
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I gifted this book to my daughter for her 18th birthday.
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Karla
5.0 out of 5 stars Great for all ages!
Reviewed in the United States on July 9, 2023
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I purchased this book to gift to my daughter on her 18th birthday but decided to read it myself first. The advice is really wonderful with a sense of humor. Truly enjoyed.
One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Chiaowen
5.0 out of 5 stars great
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 27, 2019
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useful tips and practical example. good.
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MF196
5.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious and so accurate!
Reviewed in France on October 9, 2018
Verified Purchase
So perfectly described! I love the structure by which this book was writen. Every adult woman should have this as a guide! I absolutely loved it and laugh so much! This is truly adulting 101, it cannot get more specific than this. Perfect idea for a gift as well! 😂
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Chandrika Kolavennu
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in India on September 3, 2017
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Great book
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Good read
Reviewed in Australia on August 3, 2023
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Informative
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Chiara
5.0 out of 5 stars Divertente, coinvolgente, una risata continua :)
Reviewed in Italy on November 15, 2016
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Tanti pratici consigli su come sopravvivere dopo i 30 anni una volta usciti di casa.
Divertente e consigliato!
difficile interrompere la lettura, vi troverete a ridere come dei matti!
One person found this helpful
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