OnlineBookClub.org

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "How to Quit Smoking in 30 Years or Less" by Derotha Ann Reynolds.]

Title: How to Quit Smoking
Author: Derotha Ann Reynolds

Smoking is expensive, smelly, bad for your health, bad for your looks, and, these days, sometimes socially unacceptable. There are people, especially young people, who are possibly trying to fit in with their peers who are taking it up these days (in the form of vaping), which, in my mind, is absolute madness. In this little book, Derotha Ann Reynolds offers unhappy smokers some sensible, down-to-earth pointers to help them quit.

Derotha herself knows the path is not easy. She knows that going back to it, especially after a couple of years, is dangerously possible. She gave it up after smoking since she was a small child and hasn't gone back for 30 years. She is not a fan of the nicotine patch.

She was a group leader for five years, from 1987, for an accredited organisation that helped people give up. She worked very hard and was incredibly successful. I loved her story about the happily married woman whose husband also smoked. Giving up and the accompanying lack of patience caused her husband to leave her (although he did come back). She explains the ins and outs of couples giving up at the same time.

Her methods for kicking the habit are sensible, personable, and doable. She knows it's not easy; she's not condescending, knows that it is very difficult, and she has reservations about going 'cold turkey'.

I loved the section about giving up swearing. Like me, she doesn't see the point in it!

There is a useful website at the end for those who need advice.

As I mentioned, the book is short and easy to read. The prose isn't flowery, and the tone is conversational. Giving up nicotine is not easy, and people do struggle to do it, but at least within this book, there is an approach to doing it that seems to work.

I would have loved a more in-depth explanation of her methods; I thought this aspect was a tad lacking, so for this, I will award four stars out of five. The editing was perfect; I did not notice any grammatical errors.

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How to Quit Smoking in 30 Years or Less
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I completely agree that smoking/vaping is "absolute madness" and devastating to individuals and society. As an advocate for health, I appreciate how Derotha Ann Reynolds offers sensible, "down-to-earth pointers" and her personal experience. Your insight into the book's methods, despite wanting more depth, makes me eager to try this book myself. Thanks for the review.

As a stressed-out student who’s occasionally tempted to take up bad habits just to cope with deadlines, I picked up How to Quit Smoking in 30 Years or Less half-expecting it to be another preachy, "just say no" kind of book. Spoiler alert: it wasn’t. And thank goodness.

Derotha Ann Reynolds doesn’t write like a health guru with a six-pack and a green juice in hand. She writes like your funny, no-nonsense aunt who once quit smoking and swearing, and somehow lived to tell the tale. Her tone is friendly, her advice is practical, and her attitude is refreshingly down to earth.

What I appreciated most is that she gets it. She knows quitting isn’t easy. She doesn’t pretend it is. She’s been through it—starting from childhood smoking (yikes)—and finally kicked the habit for good. She even ran a support group, which gives her advice some serious street cred.

There’s a great little story in there about a couple quitting together that made me laugh (and also fear for every relationship ever). Honestly, if you’ve ever tried quitting something—smoking, sugar, or scrolling TikTok after midnight—you’ll relate to the struggle.

That said, I wish the book had gone a little deeper into her actual quitting techniques. I felt like I was ready to take notes but didn’t get as much detail as I hoped. Still, what’s there is helpful, and the website at the end offers more resources if you want to keep going.

One of the aspects that would definitely make this a very useful book is that Derotha knows that the journey is difficult, which would encourage many more people. Thank you, @Rebecca De Figueiredo, for the amazing review.