{ "item_title" : "Tryhard", "item_author" : [" Laura Mayer "], "item_description" : "Funny, brutally honest and compulsively readable. -- BookPage, STARRED reviewAn insightful, funny, and refreshingly personal journey into workaholism and the pathological Type A mind. -- Cat Marnell, New York Times bestselling author of How to Murder Your LifeA superstar podcast producer delivers a unique, laugh-out-loud, cry quietly invitation to examine our delusional obsessions with work in this eye-opening book--part memoir, part mentoring, part confessional guide--that dissects the emotional ties that bind us . . . to our desks.For any type-A, high achiever out there, this is the book that sees you. And provides a cathartic, funny, emotionally charged insight into what drives the perfection-oriented.Laura Mayer was born a girlboss. As a child in suburban Illinois, she played V.P. of Sales in her bedroom, dictating important memos to her twin brother and swapping Judy Blume for the buzzy business books of the day. While other kids dreamed of being pop stars or pro athletes, little Laura had a single-minded focus: the corporate ladder.Some thirty years later, from a dizzying perch on that very ladder--as Executive Producer of Podcasts at ABC News, with such blockbuster shows as Revisionist History, Bad Blood, and Happier with Gretchen Rubin to her credit--and with an identity shaped by annual reviews, performance indicators, and executive presence (whatever that means) a disillusioned Laura is calling bullshit on the whole work-is-life thing. Sort of.Tryhard is a gonzo memoir for 9-to-5 devotees who have read every business book and C-suite-or-bust instruction manual yet still find we're burnt out and unhappy. It is also a deeply personal and poignant examination of why we race at all. Laura detangles this delusional mess of priorities we've created, rejects the boss-at-any-cost culture, and invites us to laugh at ourselves (and her) along the way. She offers the modern office worker a new path forward through her own revelations, and implores us, for the love of God, to chill out a little bit.This is Laura's messy, somewhat enlightened, possibly transformative, heart-wrenching and always entertaining story--a one-of-a-kind sightseeing trip on the Great American hamster wheel.", "item_img_path" : "https://covers2.booksamillion.com/covers/bam/0/06/338/050/0063380501_b.jpg", "price_data" : { "retail_price" : "27.99", "online_price" : "27.99", "our_price" : "27.99", "club_price" : "27.99", "savings_pct" : "0", "savings_amt" : "0.00", "club_savings_pct" : "0", "club_savings_amt" : "0.00", "discount_pct" : "10", "store_price" : "27.99" } }

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In Tryhard: A Cautionary Tale of Clocking in and Spinning Out, podcast producer and creator Laura Mayer details her erratic trajectory through the ever-shifting world of audio media—a journey that demanded her energy at every stage, from high school yearbook editor to junior NPR producer to Slate podcast executive. In this funny, brutally honest and compulsively readable memoir, Mayer not only traces her wild career but also explores the origin of her tryhard energy, which was forged in her childhood home as the daughter of a mother with alcoholism and an enabling father. They were not encouraging. One example: Mayer’s acceptance into Northwestern was met with physical abuse and emotional ridicule from her parents—mistreatment that still burns, decades later. I read Mayer’s memoir almost without stopping, finishing it in a single weekend. I was drawn to her insistence on excelling, her relentless drive to achieve and her laugh-out-loud experiences with corporate manipulation and straight-up sexism. I then turned to her podcast “Shameless Acquisition Target,” which combines Mayer’s lust for material gain (specifically, to gain enough money to buy a house) with devastating insights about the podcast industry. Mayer argues that the desire of corporations to churn out predictable content has led to a widespread homogenization that is curdling originality and shortchanging talent, including her own. Mayer has, as two guests put it on her podcast, “main character energy,” and that vigor is fully on display in a memoir she had the opportunity to write because of the podcast’s success. Beyond wild creativity and an almost inadvisable passion for work, Mayer’s willingness to be vulnerable is her great superpower, an engine that propels both the podcast and her memoir with tremendous momentum. And, on top of that, she’s funny. I found myself simultaneously cringing and cheering her on, especially after she becomes a mother—perhaps the ultimate challenge for someone who feels the need to control every outcome. Tryhard demonstrates Mayer’s willingness to go to any lengths to address the obstacles that stand in her way—whether due to the industry she’s chosen, the vice-grip of her past or the intensity of her passion.