Furiously Happy: A Funny Book about Horrible Things Hardcover – Illustrated, 22 Sept. 2015

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 think Jenny Lawson writes the funniest books I've ever read! I follow her Blog on Facebook and she has me falling about with laughter.Without giving too much away, she has a very warped sense of humour, she speaks her mind and holds nothing back. She has highs and lows, but even at her lowest ebb, she is hilarious. I laughed until I cried, then when I read parts out loud to my husband, he fell about laughing too!Once you have read her books, you will be a loyal follower of hers on Facebook and Twitter, I can't recommend this book enough, she the funniest author of the century! I adore her!Please tick the box if you found this review helpful

In Jenny Lawson’s book, Furiously Happy we learn about daily struggle with her mental health. This kind of subject is hardly new but what is refreshing is Lawson’s unashamedness about her condition. There is so much negativity surrounding the discussion of mental health that here Lawson is saying ‘hello, look at me and my stonking issues’ and I personally feel we need more literature like this. Furiously Happy helps to take away the stigma and the sting of mental health and provides a fresh perspective on mental health and how personal acceptance can be very helpful. Besides being really enlightening, Furiously Happy is just damn funny. The situations that Lawson finds herself in had me chuckling aloud and getting some funny looks because I couldn’t keep the laughter inside. A very funny look at a very serious subject.Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson is available now.

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.