Nancy C. (babycronin) reviewed Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things on + 4 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
I laughed out loud through the whole book! Her honest look at mental illness will help many of us be more real and less ashamed.
Helpful Score: 2
Lawson's ups and downs with depression are...inspiring. Even through the worst of times she forces herself to understand and realize that it is not always going to be bleak and painful. She is a fighter - what I like most is that she is not one bit pretentious. She is delightfully quirky - she knows she's not perfect, and she doesn't try to be. Her husband deserves mad props as well. He's so supportive and calls her on her BS without being mean about it. They share a lovely relationship. They are both hysterical and bring out the best in one another. I look forward to reading more about their journey together.
Elizabeth R. (esjro) -
Helpful Score: 1
Meh. Jenny Lawson's first book was much funnier. Furiously Happy is meant to be an honest yet humorous account of living with mental illness. I'll assume that the former is true, but it failed in the latter. Unfortunately, this book about depression seems...... depressing.
Lori C. (LoBri) reviewed Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things on + 41 more book reviews
I just love Jenny's humor. Not sure what that says about me, but then again, I don't give a rip.
This, her second book, is not like the other. Well, not totally anyway. There are some very funny stories that made me laugh out loud. Her mind works like a set of dominoes. One thought leads to another thought and then another and then another until the original thought is all but forgotten until poof...you're connecting the dots, laughing and thinking wow, she is as crazy as me!
There are also very poignant moments, when Jenny talks about her serious bouts of depression and mental illness, with nothing held back. That part is not funny and it is not fake or staged or included for sympathy. She is very candid and talks about never being recovered but being okay with that. It has always been okay to talk about being sick, but not nearly as acceptable to talk about being mentally sick. I'm so glad that Jenny is making it okay to talk about it. Mental illness is real and debilitating but it is also possible to live a full and productive life.
Keep up the good work. Can't wait to see which dead animal she chooses for the cover of her next book. :)
This, her second book, is not like the other. Well, not totally anyway. There are some very funny stories that made me laugh out loud. Her mind works like a set of dominoes. One thought leads to another thought and then another and then another until the original thought is all but forgotten until poof...you're connecting the dots, laughing and thinking wow, she is as crazy as me!
There are also very poignant moments, when Jenny talks about her serious bouts of depression and mental illness, with nothing held back. That part is not funny and it is not fake or staged or included for sympathy. She is very candid and talks about never being recovered but being okay with that. It has always been okay to talk about being sick, but not nearly as acceptable to talk about being mentally sick. I'm so glad that Jenny is making it okay to talk about it. Mental illness is real and debilitating but it is also possible to live a full and productive life.
Keep up the good work. Can't wait to see which dead animal she chooses for the cover of her next book. :)
I wanted to like this book. I liked the idea of approaching the distress of mental illness from a lense of absurdity, but instead of being humorous it is written as though the author is in the grips of a manic episode. It feels that she is selling the idea that the opposite extreme from depression (mania) is somehow positive, adaptive, and healthy. This is not funny and irreverent, as I expected, but rather illustrative of an inherently unhealthy, frenetic, potentially delusional state.
I won't comment on her opinion and approach to mental illness. I know it can be offensive and it's very personal to some people. I'll just say I was actually looking for a good read about self acceptance and instead I got the painfully annoying 6-paragraph intro to a recipe on a mommy blog. She wore me out. My analogy of this book: Imagine sitting in the window seat of a plane flying non-stop from the East Coast to Hawaii (a 12 hr flight), and the passenger next to you never shuts up- never! Every single life story-every single whiz of a thought- even the narrative dialogues in his/her brain are spoken about.
I won't comment on her opinion and approach to mental illness. I know it can be offensive and it's very personal to some people. I'll just say I was actually looking for a good read about self acceptance and instead I got the painfully annoying 6-paragraph intro to a recipe on a mommy blog. She wore me out. My analogy of this book: Imagine sitting in the window seat of a plane flying non-stop from the East Coast to Hawaii (a 12 hr flight), and the passenger next to you never shuts up- never! Every single life story-every single whiz of a thought- even the narrative dialogues in his/her brain are spoken about.
Julie G. (renegadespiritcat) reviewed Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things on + 198 more book reviews
Frankly this book sucked VERY overrated and inane NOT humorous in the least bit. What a waste of $ and time reading it in the hopes it would get better at some point.
Jessica C. (e-zreader) reviewed Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things on + 14 more book reviews
One of the best uplifting books i have ever read. How Jenny can take such mundane and every day situations (some she makes extraordinary by her own hand) and make it so humorous is outstanding. It made me order 2 more of her books.
