Furiously Happy

If you met Jenny Lawson at the grocery store, you’d think she’s just another mom trying to keep her family in motion.  What you might not notice is the battle going on inside her.  According to her biography on Wikipedia and what she’s shared in her writing, Lawson lives with “rheumatoid
arthritis, depression, anxiety, avoidant personality disorder, and mild obsessive-compulsive disorder.” (Wikipedia, 2023, here).  While these are all “invisible illnesses”, Lawson has used her platform to remove the stigma around discussing mental and chronic illnesses and made them visible to her readers in a relatable and hilarious prose.  From her debut autobiography Let’s
Pretend This Never Happened to her most recent release I Choose Darkness, Lawson’s writing gives hope to moms who are going through the darkest moments of parenting and marriage, and a voice to the internal dialogue so many of us carry on.  Furiously Happy is the author’s take on her own darkest days while also finding ways to experience joy through the everyday things.

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I give Furiously Happy 4 out of 5 stars.  This book isn’t something I’d recommend widely for everyone, and maybe that’s my own attempt at hiding my mental illness.  I found her previous book Broken (in the Best Possible Way) during a really dark period in 2021 when my professional and personal lives took turns I wasn’t prepared for.  Listening to that book helped me remember how to laugh through the darkness.  Furiously Happy did the same for me as a worked through a dark period last month.  Lawson’s honest and in-your-face style gives her writing the feel of a standup comedy routine.  It allows readers to connect with her stories through laughter and every laugh releases a little bit of the darkness inside. 

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I would recommend this book for readers like me who need a little laughter and an escape from their own dark days.  However, given topics of mental illness and struggles, I would caution this for readers who may be triggered by these discussions.  I would recommend this book for the moms who are just a bit overwhelmed and would like to feel like they aren’t alone in their feelings.

I chose Furiously Happy for the Read With Lindsey Reading Challenge prompt “with an animal on the cover”.  I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to read this book once I saw the hilarious racoon on the cover!  And once you read the story of who this little guy is, you will never look at the cover without a smile on your face. 

If you are living with depression and anxiety (like me), or any other mental illness, and find yourself in a dark period…you don’t have to do this alone.  I encourage you to reach out to the National Alliance on Mental Illness either online at nami.org or via phone at 988.  Don’t feel like talking?  You can also text “helpline” to 62640 to connect with their team of professionals.

 

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What I’m Reading

• Current print book: Spirit Crossing, William Kent Krueger
• Current audio book: Beach Read, Emily Henry
• Book I’m most looking forward to: My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry, Fredrik Backman