She discovers plenty of room for improvement

Helping Me Help Myself

One Skeptic, Ten Self-Help Gurus, and a Year on the Brink of the Comfort Zone

Beth Lisick

William Morrow: 264 pp., $24.95

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BACK in the olden days, memoirs were written the olden way. A set of compelling events befell our protagonist, who then wrote about them. In these days of marketing before content, that paradigm often gets flipped on its head: Authors contrive events so as to write about them. Welcome to the new, not-so-brave world of shtick lit -- all those books with titles such as "My Year of Eating Only Cheddar Cheese!" ("Chapter One: My relationship to cheddar cheese has always been complicated. . . .")

Thankfully, Beth Lisick's new book, "Helping Me Help Myself: One Skeptic, Ten Self-Help Gurus, and a Year on the Brink of the Comfort Zone," manages, in its best moments, to transcend the limitations of this insidious genre. The Berkeley-based humorist has an easygoing style and a light comic touch. She's also wise to her own weakness for flattery. As she browses a book by her inaugural guru, success coach Jack Canfield, she comes across the dedication, which praises "all of those courageous men and women who have ever dared to step out of the dominant culture of mediocrity. . . ."

"My cynicism falls away," Lisick declares. "He means people like me, the ones taking the road less traveled. Just as I'm thinking, Why, thank you, Jack! Thanks for the kudos! it dawns on me. Reading this type of book is exactly something I've always associated with the dominant culture of mediocrity."

Nonetheless, our heroine trudges forward. There's a book to be written, after all. She flies to Chicago to hear Stephen Covey, author of "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People." "This man has a hypervitality about him that is slightly otherworldly," she observes. "Like he might possibly be emitting a messianic high-pitched buzz at all times."

The undisputed highlight of Lisick's year (and her book) is a weeklong "Cruise to Lose" with fitness guru Richard Simmons. Simmons may be a prancing punch line on the late-night shows, but Lisick and her friend are dazzled by their first encounter.

"He comes at me with his arms extended, wraps them around my shoulders, and affixes his lips to my cheek. Mwah mwah mwah mwah mwah mwah MWAH!

" 'I'm so glad you guys are here!' he exclaims, as if he's been scouring the ship for the two of us all afternoon. He bends in the knees a little and claps a few times. It feels pretty great.