Thursday 10 March 2016

Book: Furiously Happy

I recently finished the book Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things by Jenny Lawson. If you aren't familiar with her work, she also wrote a hilarious book called Let's Pretend This Never Happened and blogs at thebloggess.com.
"For most of my life I’ve battled depression, anxiety and a host of other disorders, but I wrote this book less as a manual on how-to-survive-mental-illness and more of a compendium on how-to-thrive-in-spite-of-your-brain-being-a-real-bastard. Some of it is very serious and some of it is very funny, but I hope you’ll find that all of it is honest, baffling and relatable in ways that may make you question your own sanity."
- Jenny Lawson, thebloggess.com/furiously-happy/

Furiously Happy is more focused on her personal story with depression, anxiety, and other mental health complications than Let's Pretend This Never Happened which was more of a collection of funny stories about her growing up. In between all the stories that make no sense, there is a real discussion about what it's like to have mental illness or, really, any illness. I would recommend it to all.

It's an easy read but at the same time, I found it wasn't one that I could sit and read for an extended period of time. Probably because the chapters aren't particulary related to each other so it's much more a collection of short stories or essays than a book with a plot. I guess you could consider that the overarching plot is figuring out how to deal with the world while having depression or anxiety.  It's a good book to read a chapter or two before going to bed or when you have an extra 20 minutes in your day.

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