Book review! Furiously Happy

Furiously Happy, by Jenny Lawson ~~

I love this woman. And I love the crazy raccoon on her cover.

I'm a little late to the party since this came out in the fall of 2015, but it's been on my radar since then. I enjoyed Lawson’s first book, Let's Pretend This Never Happened (2012), so I was thrilled to see her second book on the shelves. Like Let's Pretend, the new Furiously Happy is a collection of short stories and insight from the author’s lived experiences. While the theme of the most recent book revolves around her life with mental illness, including depression and a series of phobias, a number of the passages are straight up entertaining vignettes around her bright and vibrant life.

Let's Pretend This Never HappenedIt's been awhile since I've read , but I don't remember the mental illness theme being prevalent. If it was, and I'm somehow downplaying it, I apologize. I don't struggle directly with many of these conditions, though I can certainly see getting into Social Anxiety Disorder or skimming the very surface of some other phobias she addresses. I find it difficult to write about her perspective on coping mechanisms and her embracing her illness, because it is all fairly foreign to me and I don't want to mistakenly do it an injustice. (That is something I would totally do while trying to give praise and heap on the awesome.) However, I know the conversations around these challenges and see pain and struggle in the eyes of friends and students and loved ones. It's not always recognizable, obviously, but sometimes I can identify in behaviors and haunted eyes. Lawson's approach to coping with these issues seems to me to be fantastic. And again, I know it's easy to say for someone who doesn't deal with it. What thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of people deal with. But I am glad and grateful for picking up this book. She owns her illness and depression, embracing everything that is her, and tries to reach out to others suffering to help them see that it will get better. And to those who need to support people suffering - maybe they can have an inkling of what their loved ones and friends are going through.

Independent of that very important and very central theme, and the work this book does in that vein, most of her stories are just downright hilarious. I laughed out loud repeatedly, and had uncontrollable tears streaming down my face more than once. The paths and connections Lawson's brain makes her not unlike the thoughts that occasionally trail through my head. And that's what makes her stories all the better. I can identify with the absurdity and ridiculousness that happens as thoughts tumble around like a bean bag in a dryer.

Regular arguments with her husband, Victor, having her gallbladder removed, her trip to Australia to cuddle a koala, dressed as a koala... They are fantastic. I want to hug this woman for so many reasons. Because of her humor, her work, her outreach, and her love for taxidermy. She is seriously amazing on so many levels and I'm glad I get to be a part of that world even for the briefest of 300 pages. You go, sister.

I'd love to hear your thoughts if you've read Furiously Happy. And I've got more coming, so sign up for my mailing list here. It would be great to hear from you!