Give It Up!: My Year of Learning to Live Better with Less

“Refreshing, inspiring, and honest….One book I’m not going to be ‘giving up’ anytime soon.”
—Nicole Williams, author of Earn What You’re Worth

Give It Up! is author Mary Carlomagno’s inspiring chronicle of her 365 days spent learning to live better with less—when she decided to give up one modern convenience (eg: elevators) or indulgence (eg: alcohol) every month for a year. A joyous celebration of voluntary simplicity, Give It Up! offers a solution and a liberating new outlook to shopaholics, jaded consumers, and spirituality seekers overwhelmed by the unnecessary clutter in their lives, in the most uplifting self-help guide to better living since Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project.

Would it be possible to live without the specialty coffee, the designer bags, the technology that was a part of my everyday existence? Could stripping away some of those items and habits make me appreciate what I was so fortunate to have? I created a plan. Each month for one year, I would choose one of my favorite things and give it up cold turkey for one month. This would become my year to live better with less.

Like most people, Mary Carlomagno was stressed out, overscheduled, and tripping over the clutter of her days—until she decided to take control and simplify her life. Give It Up! is Mary's chronicle of the year she renounced one thing for a month every month—from alcohol to chocolate to newspapers to elevators to cell phones—and, by doing so, was able to take stock of her life, discover what was really important, and gain a deeper appreciation of the world around her.

Warm, humorous, and eminently sensible, Give It Up! provides a commonsense blueprint for anyone looking for a fresh start or a new outlook. It's about simplifying your life and cherishing every moment of it.

“The best part of Give It up! is that I didn’t actually need to hand over my martini to truly live Mary’s experience of self-denial and true abundance. Refreshing, inspiring, and honest, Give It Up! reminds us of just how much better off we are with a little less. One book I’m not going to be ‘giving up’ anytime soon.” - Nicole Williams, author of Earn What You’re Worth: A Wildly Sophisticated Approach to Investing in Your Career and Yourself

“Mary Carlomagno’s warm, humorous, best-friendly guide into the intimidating world of self-control proves that denial isn’t punishment and that less really can be more.” - Barrie Dolnick, author of Instructions for Your Discontent and Enlighten Up

“Inspirational and thought provoking” - Library Journal

“Book for a Better Life” selection - Timeonline.com

“Refreshing, inspiring, and honest, Give It Up! reminds us of just how much better off we are with a little less. One book I’m not going to be ‘giving up’ anytime soon.” - Nicole Williams, author of Earn What You’re Worth: A Wildly Sophisticated Approach to Investing in Your Career and Yourself