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Be a Triangle: How I Went from Being Lost to Getting My Life into Shape

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From the New York Times bestselling author of How to Be a Bawse comes an "insightful and charmingly funny" (Rupi Kaur) primer on learning to come home to your truest and happiest self.

"I love Lilly's honest and helpful advice about achieving happiness."--Mindy Kaling, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Why Not Me?

"It's time to flip right side up. It's time for this book title to make sense. It's time to be a triangle."

Everyone--even world-famous actress, author, and creator Lilly Singh--knows that sometimes life just sucks. In this book, Singh provides a safe space where readers can learn how to create a sense of peace within themselves. Without sugarcoating what it's like to face adversity--including acknowledging her own intensely personal struggles with identity, success, and self-doubt--Singh teaches readers to "unsubscribe" from cookie-cutter ideals.

With her signature blend of vulnerability, insight, and humor, Singh instructs readers to "be a triangle," creating a solid foundation for your life, one that can be built upon, but never fundamentally changed or destroyed. As she puts it, we must always find a way to come home to ourselves: "we must create a place, a system of beliefs, a simple set of priorities to come back to should life lead us astray, which it definitely will."

Like a wise, empathetic friend who always keeps you honest, Singh pushes you to adjust your mindset and change your internal dialogue. The result is a deeply humane, entertaining, and uplifting guide to befriending yourself and becoming a true "miracle for the world."

Hardcover

First published April 5, 2022

162 people are currently reading
4,717 people want to read

About the author

Lilly Singh

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Lilly Singh is a Canadian YouTuber, comedian, talk show host, writer, and actress, who initially gained fame on social media under the pseudonym IISuperwomanII.

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 408 reviews
Profile Image for Reading_ Tamishly.
5,225 reviews3,338 followers
January 5, 2023
The book does it's job I say!

It's comforting and it's realistic. You will feel the genuineness of the writing while you're reading this short book.

I wasn't expecting much from this book. I loved the author's first book in a very new bright eyed girl kind of way.

However, this book is different. More mature and totally echoes what the youtube blogger has learnt so far from all the ups and downs.

A good short read. All the Matt Haig's vibes.
Profile Image for Avani ✨.
1,873 reviews444 followers
April 9, 2022
Be A Triangle by Lilly Singh, another book by the best selling author and creator of 'How To Be A Bawse'. The book is brutally honest, inspiring and funny at the same time. Just like her previous one, this one hits the mark too! 💯

The book has some beautiful illustrations to match along with the strong words headed by Lilly Singh herself. The illustrations are done by Simmi Patel. The book is all about learning to come home to your truest and happiest self.

The book talks about Lilly Singh's journey and how she copes up with difficult situations she faced through her childhood and adulthood both. Not to mention again, but illustrations are the best part of this book. 😂

I would say, this book is better than her previous work. I can see her evolving not only as a creator but also a great author. Cannot wait for her future books! ❤️
Profile Image for Nicole.
494 reviews235 followers
March 26, 2022
This book was short and sweet. I really like the way it was written. Some books that claim to teach readers how to create peace within themselves and not to pay too much mind to the what they should do in terms of ideals can sound preachy or boring.

This author mixed humor that was actually funny with unpretentious wisdom. She stressed the importance of meditation as well as having a strong foundation. I’m not too into self help books but this was entertaining, easy to read, and easy to understand. There are a few diagrams that help as well.

Thank you to Kathleen Quinlan, Netgalley, and the publisher for this arc in exchange for my honest review.
Profile Image for Carly.
93 reviews32 followers
May 14, 2022
Very short, easy read under 100 pages. Touches briefly on mindfulness, and building a solid foundation for yourself and your spiritual beliefs (hence the triangle shape), but all of this has been covered before and much better by others.

If you’re looking for a quick read to change your perspective, I recommend The Four Agreements by Miguel Ruiz instead.
Profile Image for Monica Hills.
1,196 reviews41 followers
March 2, 2022
The title of this book intrigued me. Be a triangle; how in the world was I going to do that? Upon reading I found out that it is about having a strong foundation. I thought the advice was spot on and really made me think about my relationship with myself. I also loved that the author kept this book short. This is a book that is true to itself and didn't weigh me down with too many steps and strategies that I have to follow. The author really stressed meditation and focusing on oneself. I found that very therapeutic and her advice just makes sense. There were also some diagrams that I really appreciated since I am a visual person and they helped me to visualize what she was talking about. I highly recommend this book for anyone looking to feel more balanced and happier in their life. This is definitely a book that I will reread and I can see it helping me to stay on track when I feel like my life is spinning out of control.

Thank you to Ballantine Books/Random House Publishing for this advanced copy.
Profile Image for onthemoon.
23 reviews
April 10, 2022
I was gifted this book with little knowledge or awareness of Lilly Singh so I was able to go into it with no expectations and with no bias as a Lilly fan.

I really wanted to like it but the book is fluff. I would call it Self Help Lite and would be most beneficial to people who haven’t really read that kind of material before.

The pillars of the book are essentially be true to yourself, meditate and practice gratitude. Ok, thanks!

On the upside it only takes an hour or so to read as it’s about 90 pages long.
2 reviews1 follower
April 6, 2022
First let me preface by saying that I am a big time fan of the author Lilly Singh since 2012. I am however not that impressed with the second book. It feels rushed and has many sections that could have been more elaborated on. More time could have been put into the book. So I hope the author - who has had Bill Gates among other people as interviewees on her YouTube channel - will put more effort for the next book. I'm not a hater. In fact I'm going with the content of this book when I say: Take your time. You earned it.
Profile Image for Irene.
10 reviews
November 14, 2022
Me lo he leído en menos de dos horas y aunque obviamente ningún libro de autoayuda te va a cambiar la vida por si solo, me ha hecho darme cuenta de algunas cosas básicas pero necesarias. Además es entretenido de leer y no se hace pesado en ningún momento. Muy recomendable 👍🏼
Profile Image for Fareya.
346 reviews911 followers
May 31, 2022
Now that was a pleasant surprise of a book! I listened to the audio and it was like listening to a wise friend give life advice.

Inspiring, funny, entertaining but also realistic Be a Triangle by Lilly Singh was a joy to read. The essence of the book is having a healthy relationship with yourself and coming home to happiness. The author talks about mindfulness, meditation andgratitude, and somehow does it in a way that does not sound preachy but in fact makes sense.

Also, I really loved her concept of being a triangle, that is having a strong foundation and building up on that. Overall, a short and witty read that I might pick up again.

Some favorite lines-

"Nothing is forever, and you will change multiple times over the course of your life. And what you want in life will change as well."

"So go ahead, have a rough moment, vent about a challenge, and feel whatever you need to feel. But when you find yourself struggling, understand you don't need to stay in the land of negativity."

"It's important to recognize that any conversation around happiness and personal fulfillment is inevitably a privileged one."

"You will not always feel grateful and you shouldn't force yourself to. But gratitude is always the place to return to after these distractions temporarily have their way. It's quite simple, really. If grateful is what we want to be, then anything that makes us feel ungrateful is a distraction."

**Thank You PRH audio for a complimentary listening copy. All opinions are my own**
Profile Image for Robin Castle.
Author5 books58 followers
April 23, 2022
Fair warning: it's very short and best listened to as an audiobook (read by Lilly Singh herself!)

Great gift idea for younger friends too (tweens and terns).
Profile Image for Kari Yergin.
780 reviews21 followers
May 21, 2023
It was fine. An hour long listen that the author narrates. I listened to it because I heard her interviewed by Kelly Corrigan, and she felt like a little light in the world. She got her fame on YouTube; you may have heard of her. I hadn’t. Nothing too new here but she really IS a little light.

Excerpts: inevitably, being able to talk about happiness, and fulfillment is only something you can do when you are in a place of privilege. But�

Not prioritizing happiness and fulfillment is no longer a necessity for some people but a habit. If you have paid your dues and are in a situation where you can,

She believes that living our best lives is an act of service and that should not be considered selfish. People who are happy and/ or act with purpose make the most difference in the world. Your best version of yourself, your fullest potential, can serve the world best.

The foundation of a triangle has to be made up of two things: our relationship with ourselves and a relationship with the universe. With the supporting tiers of understanding distraction and implementing design.
Profile Image for Bandita.
577 reviews94 followers
May 14, 2022
Be A Triangle is Lilly Singh's second nonfiction book. This one is relatively shorter than her first book, less than 100 pages.

I really loved this book. Lilly shows her vulnerable self in this book and admits that sometimes even she is lost like all of us. While writing this book she is also finding answers to her questions. This book is rather very simple, it feels like Lilly is our friend and she is having a conversation with us.

In this book, Lilly instructs listeners to “be a triangle�: You must build a solid foundation for your life, one that can be built upon, but never fundamentally changed or destroyed.

There are many beautiful quotes in this book that I have highlighted. And the cute illustrations makes the reading experience even better! Also, some parts were really funny and quirky in the typical Lilly style. I laughed out many times.

Overall it was a good reading experience and I really liked the book. Would definitely recommend!
Profile Image for Meghana Kumar.
48 reviews6 followers
June 18, 2023
This book could have been a blog or a podcast episode. While I did resonate with the concept of building a home inside you that is strong and defensible and can weather the storm of external circumstances, I was disappointed that this was not fleshed out enough. It is clear the author wrote this with a lot of vulnerability, when they were going through tough times. But as a book, I was left wanting for more. Also super quick read < 1hr
Profile Image for Michelle Herzing.
725 reviews34 followers
December 28, 2022
Fans of the You-tuber would probably enjoy this very short self-help, motivational audiobook. It was not my favorite ever. I found a few tidbits of valuable advice, about paying the universe back for that which you are grateful (my summarization). Again, if I was a fan, I might have liked it more.
Profile Image for Melina.
119 reviews6 followers
November 10, 2022
I usually have a hard time reading non fiction but this is easy, smooth and relatable. One of my favorite quotes: "Growth was always measured by a grade or a salary, never by an increase in compassion or patience."
Profile Image for ⁷ .
270 reviews36 followers
Read
January 29, 2024
on reflecting and realising how problematic lilly singh is, there's nothing 4 star about this book.
Profile Image for Vidhya Thakkar.
1,023 reviews131 followers
June 6, 2022
Be a Triangle is a brilliant book filled with humour, harsh truths, candid moments and how important it is to have the best relationship with ourselves and with the universe. Everything else is a distraction.
Right from the first page, this book is inspiring and one could easily connect to. The candidness and honesty in her writing style and the fun interesting illustrations truly do the magic.
This book is about finding ourselves, what makes us happy, and how the universe creates obstacles and continues to paint its complicated masterpiece. From the spirit of never giving up to creating a sense of peace within ourselves, a home to ourselves.
It's a straightforward, no-nonsense guide filled with fun. She shares her journey, about the obstacles she faced and how changing the patterns helped her find her happiness.
This book has many lessons that can transform our lives. These lessons which we can apply in our daily lives, and witness the change.
A short, 91 pages book that each one of us must-read.
Profile Image for Virginia.
1,218 reviews154 followers
September 3, 2022
A fun, fast read that I picked up because the author’s from the thriving metropolis of Scarborough, Ontario (although she’s now living in some backwater called Los Angeles.) I truly am one for whom the last few pandemic years have been “kind of sucky� as she says, and I enjoyed her attitude and sense of humour as well as her honesty. She doesn’t cover a lot of new ground - make time for yourself, meditate, help others, be grateful, say no - but she does include a great section on gratitude.
I believe we should unsubscribe from the idea that gratitude is a feeling and instead understand it is a place, somewhere we can should reside. We should live in gratitude and understand that anything that takes us away from it is merely distracting us.
I also loved her suggestions for unsubscribing from rules and expectations since I’ve been scrabbling to do that for, oh, all my life. I loved her comments on using my individual agency to make choices for myself, and on changing expectations regarding friendships. She also makes some astute observations about vegetarianism which interested me as I had pretty much the same experiences with it as she did. (We aren't all meant to be full-time vegetarians.) This little book would make a great gift for a young woman who needed a bit of a boost, or an old woman who’d appreciate some affirmation. My only caveat is about the colour of some of the font and illustrations - some of us can’t see or read pastel colours like the light green here which made some of it a bit difficult. 4 stars.
Profile Image for Nathaniel.
Author33 books252 followers
November 11, 2022
Surprisingly, this had a lot of good moments. Didn’t love everything, but there were times I definitely paused to think about something and reflected a little in my own life. Definitely better than I expected.
Profile Image for Anya.
314 reviews5 followers
July 18, 2022
be a triangle!
Profile Image for Maria Bozhkova.
4 reviews
September 4, 2022
Напомня неща, които знаем, но блажено игнорираме 😄
1,448 reviews
March 4, 2022
I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher.

“Be a Triangle� is a short self-help book by Lilly Singh. The author and publishers state that Ms. Singh is a “world famous actress, author, and creator.� I have to admit, I’d never heard of her before I was offered this book.

So, what is this book about? It’s about letting go of what you think you should do to be happy and instead become comfortable with you. Ms. Singh goes through a number of things one should do to “become a triangle,� including why she chose a triangle. Some of her advice is very sound and things that others recommend, such as meditation (in whatever form one decides to do so), being self-aware, and realizing that roadblocks (or distractions) are always there, but there are healthy ways to get around them, including realizing gratitudes.

I think that if I were a lot younger - say closer to Ms. Singh’s age - I would’ve gotten a lot more out of this book. I did like that this book was short. I also liked the illustrations. I also liked that she didn’t fill this book with pithy sayings - and also explained why “being a triangle� is a good thing. I did like that she used examples from her own life - including things she did to become more like a triangle and the last section provides examples. Ms. Singh is also clear about why she wrote this book - she needed help. Not everyone will write a book about those times, and that Ms. Singh did so - and in a serious yet playful manner - I found good. Is this a deep book or a replacement for therapy if that is needed? No, but if you need a different way to look at your life, this might help you change some of your thinking to get to a healthier you.
Profile Image for Stephanie Davy.
136 reviews8 followers
April 3, 2023
This book said, in an attempt to impress the idea of everything in the universe having a cost, that the cost of raising $10mil for a cancer charity is ‘losing your father to the disease�.

What?!


This is NOT anything to do with mindfulness, manifestation, or The Law of Attraction. This is a harmful and triggering example to put in a book, presumably a skewed version of 'every action has a reaction'.


I can't stress how wrong this message is on every possible level. Massive oversight that undermines the cutesy, entry-level positivity in the book.

So now people will worry that a great success will cost a LIFE? Or that all achievement must come with suffering? Or imagine people who have lost someone to this horrible disease, now wondering what they did to 'cause' it?

Just no.

I can't believe this was overlooked before being published. Massively disappointing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Amanda.
418 reviews76 followers
November 1, 2022
Let me preface this with the fact that if it hadn't been selected as the monthly read for a book club, I would probably never have heard of it or picked it up of my own volition. The instagram-addled, positivity influencer, "hashtag authentic" thing just holds no appeal for me. I think the best thing I could say about this book is that at least it was short.

It had zero substance behind it; I got significantly more out of the discussion at the book club on tangential matters than I did from the book itself. It just felt like another self-indulgent pandemic project from a creative who wanted to "connect more deeply" and "come out of this better than they went in". It can join the pile along with every other bit of sappy faff that came out of 2020. I can't imagine it will stand the test of time. It was exactly the sort of fluff that tries to sound profound but doesn't have anything to back it up which I would expect from someone who lists a follower count in their "About the Author" paragraph.

Probably the single unique-seeming concept I found while reading was the idea of distractions from a state of gratitude. That was actually an interesting mashup of two concepts that are often spoken of separately; gratitude and distraction/attention economy. I don't think I've seen them joined like this before (though I'm sure it's out there somewhere in the ether). I'm not sure how I feel about it yet, but it's an interesting idea.

I think the biggest thing that bothered me about it, though, was that in between all the fluff where she tried to make more solid assertions, some of the statements she made were downright bad takes. For someone who tries to give an appearance of "wokeness" and superficially mentions privilege in a few places, she makes at least one really toxic statement about happiness/fulfilment in the context of mental health, and a really ahistorical and individualist approach to talking about shitty social norms. It's clear that very little thought went into the meaning/consequences of things she stated as grand truths about the universe.

Would not recommend this to pretty much anyone. Some alternatives:
- For more light-hearted self-help stuff with cute doodles and instagrammable qualities, there's an artist named Adam J. K. who does that kind of thing, and has done it for years and years now. I would be shocked if some of Singh's visuals and style in this book wasn't influenced by him.
- For more on being present with yourself in the moment and not on your phone all the time, I recommend Catherine Price's or just the free 7 day bootcamp on her website. I did the mini bootcamp and still use some of the tips from it to this day. A friend of mine did the full 30 day program and is convinced it has changed his life.
Profile Image for Nancy Lewis.
1,518 reviews56 followers
May 18, 2022
This phone call, this traffic, this tiredness, and this growling stomach were all distractions leading me astray. To manage the situation, I kept repeating, "This is a distraction from my gratitude. And you will not distract me."

You will not always feel grateful and you shouldn't force yourself to. But gratitude is always the place to return to after these distractions temporarily have their way. It's quite simple, really. If grateful is what we want to be, then anything that makes us feel ungrateful is a distraction.

So go ahead, have a rough moment, vent about a challenge, and feel whatever you need to feel. But when you find yourself struggling, understand you don't need to stay in the land of negativity.


Profile Image for Krutika Puranik.
760 reviews293 followers
May 13, 2022
// Be a Triangle by Lilly Singh

I don't often read self-help books but on the rare occasions that I do, I end up disappointed. There's this voice in my head that finds it strange that people pay to know about things that somewhere already lies in the corners of their minds. But when Be a Triangle was out, I was intrigued because I've watched and enjoyed Lilly's videos over the years. The book not only looked gorgeous but also had relatively lesser pages compared to other self-help books and so I dived in.

The 112 pages of this book boils down to basically three things ; to practice self love, to meditate and to live in gratitude. There! As far as self-help goes, this book doesn't really offer much. I didn't learn anything new and Lilly's attempts at cracking jokes fell flat as well. I did however like the concept of her 'be a triangle', where she points out that our foundation has to be solid and wide (just like that of a triangle) upon which anything can be built.

I read this in an hour and ended up being disgruntled because I honestly expected more. More from a book that has a catchy title and more from someone as sensational as Lilly Singh. The illustrations too were fairly ordinary. All in all, it was a lukewarm experience.

But if at all you are interested in this light weight book that just touches upon the surface of deeper issues, then go ahead and give it a read. Who knows, you may actually enjoy it.

There's only one thing that I learnt from Be a Triangle. That self-help will probably never work for me.
Profile Image for maya.
149 reviews
September 10, 2023
a very quick read (< 100 pages !) that i expected very little from (i am a skeptic).

when a celebrity writes a self help book it tends to be kinda preachy fluff with that same sort of nicely packaged canned ""meaning"" that'll make all the readers go "wow! this was so good! what a nice message!"

and yeah, this was all that. i think the whole triangle thing was quite pointless (hah pun), it was there to give the book a structure (hehe pun) and i guess it worked. same with the little quips and jokes. typical of lilly singh's character and i found them fairly unfunny, certainly not charming, but they helped keep the narrative light. same with all the doodles. nothing discussed in the book was new material, which fits the repackaged message part. that being said, i did like the message she chose to put out. always good to hear.

singh mentioned a couple times (a few times) that this book was written partly to help her work through her problems on the page, so i worried it would be one of Those books. the kinds that really should've been kept as a private journal. thankfully, this wasn't that.

underneath everything, what i liked was that it felt genuine and to some extent, relatable. i know her whole thing is being a relatable funny queer desi-canadian and tbh it got me. thanks. 2.5 rounded up

p.s. my brother thinks it's unfair that i read this in under half an hour when people prolly spent months/years putting this thing together BUT IT'S SO SMALL!! 91 PAGES!! WITH PICTURES!!!
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