To have a mental illness is frustrating - to the person who has one and very often to those around her. Jenny Lawson has several, including OCD, ADD, depression and an anxiety disorder. As bad as things can get at some times in her life, Lawson believes in seizing the moment and experiencing as many positive adventures as possible. She calls this being “furiously happy”.
Lawson is a best-selling author and a well-known blogger and is often hilarious. This book reads like a collection of blogs based on real episodes in her life; on the challenges of dealing with her mental illness, on her personal life and career, and on her relationship with her husband, Victor. Her writing style is as exuberant as her ideas, and as intense. It rushes along, full of almost manic energy and pulls the reader with it. Some of the chapters are very funny, some deal with specifics of her mental illness and are so revealing and honest that they are painful.
In Lawson’s words “…there is something wonderful in accepting someone else’s flaws, especially when it gives you the chance to accept your own and see that those flaws are the things that make us human.”
Lawson has succeeded in putting a very human face on the challenge of mental illness. And she made me laugh while doing it. Her book is available at the library in both print and ebook formats.
Reviewed by Kate Tesdell
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