Broken (in the Best Possible Way)

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Whether you crave a good laugh, a good cry, or — like me — a weeping, snorting mash-up of the two, Jenny Lawson’s Broken (In the Best Possible Way) has you covered. Pairing her trademark irreverence and infectious sense of humor with candid dispatches from the front lines of mental illness, Broken is an effortless, but not always easy, read (I’d advise keeping tissues handy for “An Open Letter to My Insurance Company”) that confirms Lawson as the shoe-misplacing, button-hoarding, truth-telling hero we need. Recommended By Tove H., Powells.com

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Jenny Lawson comes her most personal book yet.

As Jenny Lawson’s hundreds of thousands of fans know, she suffers from depression. In Broken, she explores her experimental treatment of transcranial magnetic stimulation with brutal honesty. But also with brutal humor. Jenny discusses the frustration of dealing with her insurance company in “An Open Letter to My Insurance Company,” which should be an anthem for anyone who has ever had to call their insurance company to try and get a claim covered. She tackles such timelessly debated questions as “How do dogs know they have penises?” We see how her vacuum cleaner almost set her house on fire, how she was attacked by three bears, business ideas she wants to pitch to Shark Tank, and why she can never go back to the post office. Of course, Jenny’s long-suffering husband Victor — the Ricky to Jenny’s Lucille Ball — is present throughout.

A treat for Jenny Lawson’s already existing fans, and destined to convert new ones, Broken is a beacon of hope and a wellspring of laughter.

"Jenny made me laugh so hard I feared for my safety!" Allie Brosh, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Hyperbole and a Half

"You'll laugh, wince, writhe in discomfort, cry, then laugh again... But the two things you'll never do is doubt Jenny's brilliance or her fearlessness when it comes to having honest discussions about mental illness, shame, and the power of human resilience." Brené Brown

"The Bloggess writes stuff that actually is laugh out loud, but you know that really you shouldn't be laughing and probably you'll go to hell for laughing, so maybe you shouldn't read it. That would be safer and wiser." Neil Gaiman

“I consider Jenny Lawson to be a therapist colleague — not because she’s a fellow clinician, but because in courageously sharing the truth of her story, she makes us feel instantly seen and fully understood in all of our alternately painful and hilarious humanity.” Lori Gottlieb, New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk To Someone

Jenny Lawson is an award-winning humorist known for her great candor in sharing her struggle with mental illness. She lives in Texas with her husband and daughter and was constantly “buying too many books” (“Not a real thing,” she insists), so she decided to skip the middle-man and just started her own bookshop, which also serves booze because books and booze are what magic is made of. She has previously written Let’s Pretend This Never Happened and Furiously Happy, both of which were #1 New York Times bestsellers. She also wrote You Are Here, which inexplicably made it on the New York Times bestseller list in spite of the fact that it was basically a very fun coloring book. She would like to be your friend unless you’re a real asshole. And yes, she realizes that this whole paragraph is precisely the reason she shouldn’t be allowed to write her own bio.