Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things by Jenny Lawson

Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson
Non-Fiction, Unabridged Audiobook  8+ Hours
BUY/GR

LET'S PRETEND THIS NEVER HAPPENED, Jenny Lawson baffled readers with stories about growing up the daughter of a taxidermist. In her new book, FURIOUSLY HAPPY, Jenny explores her lifelong battle with mental illness. A hysterical, ridiculous book about crippling depression and anxiety? That sounds like a terrible idea. And terrible ideas are what Jenny does best.

According to Jenny: "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.'"

Jenny's first book, LET'S PRETEND THIS NEVER HAPPENED, was ostensibly about family, but deep down it was about celebrating your own weirdness. FURIOUSLY HAPPY is a book about mental illness, but under the surface it's about embracing joy in fantastic and outrageous ways-and who doesn't need a bit more of that?

I liked this book. It made me laugh. Not all rolling on the floor and laughing my effing bum off but it made me laugh on the inside. I knew it. And that is all that counts.

This Jenny person has a skewed sense of humor that I love and adored. She is weird and she embraces it. She’s also mentally ill with a laundry list of disorders. She suffers from depression and crushing anxiety and a host of other disorders but she still manages to live a life that sounds fun and that is inspiring. She does get to navel gazing a wee bit here and there and not everything is laugh on the inside funny but it never, ever bored me. I can see why her blog is so very popular. She has a way of telling a story that drags you into her world. She talks about some serious issues but you never want to drown in a pit of despair. How she manages to do this is beyond me. I’m just thankful she has the talent to do so because I needed a little laugh after A Little Life.

I did not take notes and although there are many quote worthy tidbits in this book, you’ll have to go read the thing yourself because I was reading selfishly for joy and was too frigging lazy to be bothered to write any of them down. I think reading them for the first time is part of the fun anyway. So do yourself a little good and find yourself this audio. It’s read by the author whose voice is a little squeaky (she even admits this) but it’s her words and I don’t think it would feel right to listen to anyone else voice them

Audiobook #1: Audiobook Challenge