cover image The Self Matters Companion: Helping You to Create Your Life from the Inside Out

The Self Matters Companion: Helping You to Create Your Life from the Inside Out

Phillip C. McGraw. Free Press, $22 (240pp) ISBN 978-0-7432-4296-7

For this handsome volume, the truth truly is in the title: it's the sidekick to ""Dr. Phil's"" bestselling Self Matters. The author asks readers to re-read chapters from his previous book before doing the exercises in this one; hence, without a copy of Self Matters, this workbook won't do much good. Disappointingly-and despite its fairly high price-this book is half empty (it leaves space for the reader to scribble answers to its questions) and needlessly repetitive. The exercises themselves ask solid, garden-variety questions (typical examples include lingering ellipses such as, ""I am happiest when... "" and ""A time when I felt really special to someone was when I... ""). McGraw's many avid fans may want to consider making a smaller investment by purchasing a plain notebook and doing the exercises in Self Matters on their own.