Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things

I’m a huge fan of Jenny Lawson’s blog ‘The Bloggess’ which has had me laughing and crying on many occasions. I also adored her first book ‘Let’s Pretend This Never Happened’, so I was so excited to read her second book.Jenny is breathtakingly and beautifully honest about her mental health issues. She has crippling depression and anxiety, and, on top of this, also has to contend with problems with her physical health. As someone with OCD and as the mother of a (now adult) son with generalised anxiety disorder and OCD, I’ve read a lot of books about these issues, but never have I read an author as inspiring, as honest and open and as terribly, horribly funny as Jenny Lawson.This book focuses more on mental illness than the first book, but is no less hilarious for that. Jenny writes about her struggles with disarming honesty, the effects it has had on her life, her career and her family. She clearly adores her family, but they don’t escape her unusual sense of humour. The arguments she has with husband Victor are a highlight of the book, as Jenny often goes off on a tangent that Victor finds increasingly difficult and frustrating to follow. But her love for him and his for her is touchingly shown when she tells him his life would be easier without her.“It might be easier,” he replies. “But it wouldn’t be better.”A brief run through of some of the chapter titles tells you most of what you need to know about this book:‘George Washington’s Dildo’‘LOOK AT THIS GIRAFFE’‘Death by Swans Is Not as Glamorous as You’d Expect’and‘Cat Lamination’are a few of my particular favourites.While the book is very, very funny, it’s also very, very emotional to read, at least it was for me. Jenny’s mental health issues mean that she often can’t function, that she hides in hotel rooms when she’s supposed to be promoting her work, that she often feels like a failure because she can’t cope with the things other mothers seem to excel at, like PTA meetings. But she’s determined that when she feels fine, that when she can face life, that she will really live, that she will be ‘furiously happy’. She understands that there’s a flip side to the extreme emotions that depression brings – that she has the ability to also experience extreme joy, and she’s determined that she will have a storeroom of memories for those dark times, filled with moments‘of tightrope walking, snorkelling in long-forgotten caves, and running barefoot through cemeteries with a red ball gown trailing behind me.’As she says, it’s not just about saving her life, it’s about making her life.Despite great breakthroughs in recent years, mental illness still carries a stigma. But sufferers are no more to blame for their illness than people with cancer, or MS or anything. Jenny’s writing humanises mental illness. She isn’t ashamed, and neither should anyone else be. The epilogue, ‘Deep in the Trenches’ made me cry. It’s the most touching, insightful, compassionate and beautiful piece of writing I’ve ever read about living with mental illness, or helping someone you love to live and to live fully.And I’ll always be grateful for the very clever, but characteristically quirky, ‘spoons’ analogy. I read this part of the book at exactly the right time, and it really helped with a situation where someone I love really didn’t have enough spoons. Read it – you’ll get it, and it might help you too.I love this book, and if I could give it more stars I would. Yes, it’s incredibly funny, but it also says something extremely important. If you have mental health issues, or care for someone who does, please, please read this.

Very funny book, read a quarter of it very quickly, and made me laugh out loud.

This book is incredible. I will be forever grateful for Jenny Lawson for writing it, my friend Vicki for suggesting I read it and for the lunch hours at work I spent reading it. It has made me laugh until tears fall down my cheeks. It's twisted my heart until breathing got difficult. I've heard the lies she talks about her brain telling her. I'm going to buy a physical copy of this book so I can make my parents read it. And perhaps another one so I can annotate it and record the memories, feelings and comfort it brought in the moment. Thank you Jenny. You're freakin' hilarious.

Not sure what I expected, this book is a roller coaster laugh out loud, feel deep empathy, understand a tiny bit more about mental illness combo. Never read anything like it and couldn’t put it down. Quite intense (in a good way), think I’ll read something “easier” before returning to Jenny for another round.

I discovered Jenny Lawson through her blog ‘The Bloggess’ and was instantly drawn to her wit and humour in the face of A LOT of adversity. Jenny suffers with a myriad of mental health conditions including anxiety, depression, panic attacks and self-harm, as well as physical illnesses and chronic pain, but through all this she still manages to find the humour in situations others would find incapacitating.‘Furiously Happy’ was born from one such incident, where everything in the universe seemed to be stacked against her. But instead of giving up and giving in, Jenny made the bold (and some might say foolish) decision to face it head-on by being ‘furiously happy, out of sheer spite’. Within hours #FURIOUSLYHAPPY was trending worldwide on Twitter as people chose to join Jenny and fight to take back their lives from the black dog of depression.This is the point at which the book starts. However, if you’re expecting some kind of a self-help guide or memoir about Jenny’s life after the movement took hold, you’ll be disappointed. It’s less of a memoir and more a collection of essays, composed of disconnected occurrences and encounters which seem to have been lifted directly from Lawson’s blog and then expanded upon for the purposes of the book.That’s not to say ‘Furiously Happy’ isn’t good, it’s just a bit… random. There’s anecdotes from Jenny’s everyday life, tales of trips she goes on despite feeling crippled by social anxiety, conversations with her husband (who is patient to a fault, incredibly understanding and VERY funny) and many, many stories involving her pets. It’s just not a memoir, at least not in the traditional sense and sometimes that makes it difficult to read, mainly because you’re never quite sure what’s coming next or what tone the next chapter should be read in.If you’ve ever experienced crippling anxiety and/or depression, or know someone who has/is, then there are certainly chapters of this book which will resonate. The same goes with anyone suffering with a chronic physical illness. That said, there are also some parts which might leave you scratching your head in confusion and wondering whether Lawson has made them up or exaggerated for comedic effect. It’s definitely worth a read, but don’t expect to come away with any insightful revelations or self-help tips, just a smile or two along the way.

I literally had to put this book away when I was reading it on the plane because I was laughing so loud and hard that everyone thought I was as nuts as Jenny Lawson. Such a fantastic, candid, optimistic view of some really dire things - showing us that sometimes, when it all goes to hell, at least we can laugh about it. I'm so grateful that at last we have a book that celebrates mental illness instead of trying to pretend that it doesn't affect like 1 in 5 people! And reassures us that our quirks, ticks, ups, downs, mad-cap ideas, terrors etc. are part of who we are, not necessarily defining us, but that we need to embrace them, deal with them and bring our own unique voice and view to the world. Smart, funny, with a great eye for the odd details, I really enjoyed this book and all of Jenny Lawson's writing.

Thank you for this easy to read, informative and very funny book. I feel so much better prepared to support people around me, including myself :-)

This was a gift for Christmas. Hands down one of the funniest books I've read in a long time. I laughed so hard I couldn't see to read. I loved it so much I gave one to a friends for her birthday. She sent me several messages saying the same thing. I have not laughed that much in a long time. Looking forward to reading more of her books.

New year means more books. Furiously Happy has been on my goodreads list for a hot minute now and finally i get to read it. The book arrived yesterday, i opted for a used copy because i saved money and am always excited to see if previous reader left notes in them, so i was super excited that it arrived so quickly. I immediately sat down an started reading. Today i am 100 pages away from finishing it. If you got a good sense of humor and are not intimidated by a bunch of cursing then grab a copy and enjoy.

Sin duda uno de los libros más cómicos que he leído en toda mi vida. No puedes evitar sentir ese sentimiento de culpa por las situaciones terribles por las que pasa la autora, pero la forma en que las describe te hace reír a carcajadas. Puedo decir que leer éste libro me hizo Furiously Happy. Lo recomiendo 100% a todos aquellos que saben reírse de sí mismos y que quieran entender cómo funcionan ciertos padecimientos de la mente.

ok, honestly if u are a little sensitive, and personalise things too much this might disturb you a little. I got disturbed but she doesn't mean to do so, because as you read forward you start understanding that what made you feel disturbed, she lived through it and it made her stronger and as you read it you really start becoming aware of how important some things are for someone and not for others. just read it even if at times makes you a little worried if you become mentally ill but let me assure you, you won't. you will become more mature, laugh a lot, and just start seeing others in a more wholesome sense. yes thass all I gotta say!