From Powells.com
Hand-selected books for your reading list.
Our favorite books of the year.
Staff Pick
Jenny Lawson writes mainly about therapy, mental illness, and taxidermy, and I was laughing about every two sentences. About every six sentences, I had to put the book down and regain composure. In fact, reading this book made me annoying to be around, as though I were involved in a 273-page inside joke. Recommended By Britt A., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
In Furiously Happy, #1 New York Times bestselling
author Jenny Lawson explores her lifelong battle with mental illness. A
hysterical, ridiculous book about crippling depression and anxiety? That
sounds like a terrible idea.
But terrible ideas are what Jenny does best.
As Jenny says:
"Some
people might think that being 'furiously happy' is just an excuse to be
stupid and irresponsible and invite a herd of kangaroos over to your
house without telling your husband first because you suspect he would
say no since he's never particularly liked kangaroos. And that would be
ridiculous because no one would invite a herd of kangaroos into their
house. Two is the limit. I speak from personal experience. My husband
says that none is the new limit. I say he should have been clearer about
that before I rented all those kangaroos.
"Most of my
favorite people are dangerously fucked-up but you'd never guess because
we've learned to bare it so honestly that it becomes the new normal.
Like John Hughes wrote in The Breakfast Club, 'We're all pretty bizarre.
Some of us are just better at hiding it.' Except go back and cross out
the word 'hiding.'"
Furiously Happy is about "taking
those moments when things are fine and making them amazing, because
those moments are what make us who we are, and they're the same moments
we take into battle with us when our brains declare war on our very
existence. It's the difference between "surviving life" and "living
life". It's the difference between "taking a shower" and "teaching your
monkey butler how to shampoo your hair." It's the difference between
being "sane" and being "furiously happy."
Lawson is beloved around the world for her inimitable humor and honesty, and in Furiously Happy,
she is at her snort-inducing funniest. This is a book about embracing
everything that makes us who we are — the beautiful and the flawed — and
then using it to find joy in fantastic and outrageous ways. Because as
Jenny's mom says, "Maybe 'crazy' isn't so bad after all." Sometimes
crazy is just right.
Review
“[Lawson] writes with a rambling irreverence that makes you wish she were your best friend.” Entertainment Weekly
Review
“Lawson's self-deprecating humor is not only gaspingly funny and
wonderfully inappropriate; it allows her to speak... in a real and raw
way.” O, The Oprah Magazine
Review
“Even when I was funny, I wasn't this funny.” Augusten Burroughs, author of Running with Scissors and This Is How
Review
“Jenny made me laugh so hard I feared for my safety! I think that's how
she was able to get past my defenses and make me feel more okay about
myself.” Allie Brosh, author of Hyperbole and a Half
About the Author
JENNY LAWSON, The Bloggess, is an award-winning humor writer known for
her great candor in sharing her struggle with depression and mental
illness. Her first book, Let's Pretend This Never Happened, was a #1 New York Times bestseller.