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

Just to start, the cover of Furiously Happy is pretty awesome. It was the first thing that caught my eye when I was in the book store. How can you not stop to look at a book that has a psychotic looking raccoon on the front? It’s one of the reasons why I bought the book; I thought it was hilarious.

It was the first book that I purchased from Jenny Lawson and I’m really glad that I did. For one thing, she’s hilarious, and there were a few times that I found myself on the bike at the gym laughing out loud. She knows how to bring comedy to a terrible situation and you start to see that maybe things aren’t as bad as you think they are.

Furiously Happy is Jenny Lawson’s story about how she deals with a lifelong battle with mental illness. She explores the aspects of her life that many people find frightening. She digs deep and comes out with a smile on her face. You might think that a book about crippling depression shouldn’t be funny but that’s where you would be wrong. It just teaches the lesson that no matter how bad you think things are you can always laugh about it. At the end of the day, the world is not going to end and if you can laugh about the tragic things in your life, then you are probably way ahead of a lot of the normal, well-functioning people out there.

I started reading Furiously Happy when I was writing my own story in You Taste Like Whiskey and Sunshine. It was the perfect time for me to be reading the book because it made me realize that although I was reliving some terrible things in my life that I could still spin it in a happy way. It was okay to use humor to talk about the things that happened in your life. If I could laugh about the bad things that happened to me and make others laugh about their own problems, then we were all one step closer to being happy individuals. I’ve always had a strong sense of humor, so it was easy for me to talk about the things that have happened to me with a dry, sarcastic sense of humor.

I learned a lot from Jenny Lawson while reading her book. I learned that everyone has some kind of problems in their lives whether they are big ones or small ones. Also, I learned that it’s okay to laugh about the bad times, just as much as it is to laugh when things are going well. I learned that laughing through heartache is the best possible way to turn yourself into a stronger more badass human being.

This book is a five-star rating because it gives you a new outlook on mental illness and it reminds you that it’s okay not to be normal. If nothing else, you should buy it for that seriously awesome book cover and all the hilarious pictures Lawson has inside, that really make you shake your head.