Book Review: Good Morning Good Life by Amy Schmittauer Landino
This blog post was written by a human.This is a spoiler-free review.Good morning, good life, readers and writerly friends!
When life gives you lemons, you write a book review, right? No? Just me?
In any case, I hope you all are doing well and being safe during this COVID-19 mess and I hope things will start to brighten before long. If you’re new to this site, I encourage you to stick around and check out some of my other blog posts! (You’ll find out pretty quickly that I am part of the Amy-llion club too!) No need to be sour about this book—let’s get into the review! 🍋🍋🍋
If you’ve followed me for any considerable amount of time, then you know I RAVE about Amy Landino. Honestly, I can’t get enough of her and all of the wonderful, actionable advice she puts out into the world. And not to mention—she has SUCH an aesthetic. Like, wow, I’m living for the berry pink and lemon vibes.
Amy Landino is known for her incredibly useful lifestyle-type videos on YouTube—one of which, titled “*ACTUALLY* WAKE UP EARLY | my 7 tips” has garnered her a lot of attention from viewers and aspiring entrepreneurs around the world. She’s an award-winning YouTuber, bestselling author, lifestyle coach, entrepreneur and fabulous podcast host. She claims she’s obsessed with helping people go after the life they want and is also the founder of her own company dedicated to doing so—GATLUW House. She’s helped thousands of people (including myself) redesign their lives their way.
So, after reading her first book, Vlog Like A Boss, and becoming a lifelong fan/follower of hers, it’s safe to say I was definitely picking up her next book. Good Morning, Good Life released in December of 2019 and now that we’ve all had a few months (and not to mention extra time thanks to COVID-19) to pick up this book and sink our teeth into it, let’s get into the tea—or lemon water if you’re a true fan. 🍋💦
The digital copy of the front book cover of Good Morning Good Life by Amy Landino from Amazon.
The digital copy of the back book cover of Good Morning Good Life by Amy Landino from Amazon.
I am absolutely obsessed with everything to do with habits, habit-change, productivity, and routines, so when Amy said she was writing a book focused on helping people go after their perfect mornings, I was stoked! I pre-ordered my copy of GMGL, and when it arrived in the mail, I was ready to crack open the cover and get reading. Not only did I get the paperback version, but I also purchased the audiobook as well, so I could read them in tandem. (I have a whole blog post about immersion reading with audiobooks and you can check it out here!)
The book starts off with a behind-the-curtains look at what life was like for Amy before she became the thriving businesswoman, we all know from her YouTube channel. She talks about her experience working a 9-to-5 job, trying out for a marathon race, and the pivotal, aha-moments in her life that pushed her in the direction of her success. Layered on top of this insightful narrative, is Amy’s actionable advice for crafting a truly magical morning.
The book is broken up into five sections—Decide, Defy, Rise, Shine, and Thrive. Throughout these sections, she offers action steps that ask probing questions to get the reader thinking, “What’s a moment that you remember being truly excited about something?” or “On a scale of 1-to-10, how well do you sleep?”. She includes writing exercises to get readers truly motivated and ready to make a difference in their mornings and ultimately, their quality of life. Additionally, she includes “Good morning” stories from her colleagues, and fellow YouTubers to offer up extra insight into the mornings of successful people she’s come to know over the years.
I Gave Good Morning Good Life 3 Stars ⭐⭐⭐
The novel has been dubbed an Amazon bestseller and has garnered rave reviews from readers across the globe, both on Amazon and Goodreads. However, it isn’t all sunshine and rainbows in the comments. Many readers have come out saying that the book isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Readers with children argue that Amy’s advice is not really applicable or useful for them since she doesn’t have children herself and doesn’t know what it is really like to try and design a morning around them. In the book, she acknowledges this fact and urges readers to hear her out and set aside any excuses they may have in order to give her advice an honest try.
I personally enjoyed the book on a surface level—knowing it was content that Amy created and by reading it, I was getting to know her better and I was able to support her. However, despite my love of Amy’s style and content, I found the book did not live up to the hype. But before you all come for me, I just want to clarify, if you’ve never seen any of Amy’s work and have never heard her advice, this book is everything.
It really does give you a great look into how to design a morning that works best for you, that gives you time for yourself, and ultimately allows you to practice self-love in whatever form it comes. And as a woman in her twenties without children, I found this book to be extremely insightful and useful. But in reading this book, I quickly realized, it had no new information to lend readers. With that being said, aside from the actual advice, Amy gives us a little narrative and peek into her life before YouTube and being a business owner which I enjoyed.
My Goodreads review of Good Morning Good Life
So, what did you think of Good Morning Good Life? Was it helpful to you? What did you think of this review? Do you agree or disagree with anything I said? Let me know in the comments below!
Bibliography
Hayes, Payton. "My Goodreads review of Good Morning Good Life" (Graphic made with Canva) Accessed May 29, 2020.Landino, Amy. “The digital copy of the front book cover of Good Morning Good Life by Amy Landino from Amazon.”Accessed May 29, 2020.Landino, Amy. “The digital copy of the back book cover of Good Morning Good Life by Amy Landino from Amazon.”Accessed May 29, 2020.Landino, Amy. “Amy Landino’s author photo from Instagram.” Accessed May 29, 2020.
Further Reading
Amy Landino's "*ACTUALLY* WAKE UP EARLY | my 7 tips" YouTube VideoVlog Like A Boss: How to Kill It Online with Video Blogging by Amy Landino on AmazonGood Morning Good Life: 5 Simple Habits To Master Your Mornings and Upgrade Your Life by Amy Landino on AmazonConnect with me on Goodreads!
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This blog post was researched, written, and published by a human author without the assistance of generative artificial intelligence (gen-AI). Gen-AI models are trained on text written by humans, therefore, the presence of specific punctuation, verbiage, tone, or predictable, marketing-style phrases alone are not sufficient indicators of gen-AI usage. I implore readers to use context clues, critical thinking, pattern recognition, research, and employ their best judgement when determining the validity of human authorship of print and digital media today. If you want to learn more about my stance on gen-AI and it’s role in media and the publishing industry, I plan to release a blog post on this topic very soon, so stay tuned for that. This disclaimer will be updated once that post goes live. In the meantime, I will continue to be transparent about which tools and resources I use in my work.