Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things (Hardcover)

Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things By Jenny Lawson Cover Image

Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things (Hardcover)

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October 2015 Indie Next List


“Anyone living with depression knows that it's like being held hostage by your own brain, and sometimes survival means clinging to the knowledge that it won't last forever. Lawson takes this to the next level in Furiously Happy, her catalogue of the wonderful, ridiculous adventures that she has gone on in an effort to make the good times overshadow the bad. By fearlessly embracing her weirdness and being open about her experiences with mental illness in a culture that still largely stigmatizes and misunderstands such disorders, Lawson shines a light on what it's like to live with depression, OCD, insomnia, and anxiety. More than that, though, she shows that it is possible to fight back - even if it sometimes requires holding a midnight raccoon rodeo.”
— Marita Rivir (M), Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Cincinnati, OH

In Furiously Happy, #1 New York Times bestselling author Jenny Lawson explores her lifelong battle with mental illness. A hysterical, ridiculous book about crippling depression and anxiety? That sounds like a terrible idea.

But terrible ideas are what Jenny does best.

As Jenny says:

"Some people might think that being 'furiously happy' is just an excuse to be stupid and irresponsible and invite a herd of kangaroos over to your house without telling your husband first because you suspect he would say no since he's never particularly liked kangaroos. And that would be ridiculous because no one would invite a herd of kangaroos into their house. Two is the limit. I speak from personal experience. My husband says that none is the new limit. I say he should have been clearer about that before I rented all those kangaroos.


"Most of my favorite people are dangerously fucked-up but you'd never guess because we've learned to bare it so honestly that it becomes the new normal. Like John Hughes wrote in The Breakfast Club, 'We're all pretty bizarre. Some of us are just better at hiding it.' Except go back and cross out the word 'hiding.'"

Furiously Happy is about "taking those moments when things are fine and making them amazing, because those moments are what make us who we are, and they're the same moments we take into battle with us when our brains declare war on our very existence. It's the difference between "surviving life" and "living life". It's the difference between "taking a shower" and "teaching your monkey butler how to shampoo your hair." It's the difference between being "sane" and being "furiously happy."

Lawson is beloved around the world for her inimitable humor and honesty, and in Furiously Happy, she is at her snort-inducing funniest. This is a book about embracing everything that makes us who we are - the beautiful and the flawed - and then using it to find joy in fantastic and outrageous ways. Because as Jenny's mom says, "Maybe 'crazy' isn't so bad after all." Sometimes crazy is just right.

Jenny Lawson is an award-winning humorist known for her great candor in sharing her struggle with mental illness. She lives in Texas with her husband and daughter and was constantly “buying too many books” (“Not a real thing,” she insists), so she decided to skip the middleman and just started her own bookshop, which also serves booze because books and booze are what magic is made of. She has previously written Let’s Pretend This Never Happened and Furiously Happy, both of which were #1 New York Times bestsellers. She also wrote You Are Here, which inexplicably made it onto the New York Times bestseller list in spite of the fact that it was basically a very fun coloring book. She would like to be your friend unless you’re a real asshole. And yes, she realizes that this whole paragraph is precisely the reason she shouldn’t be allowed to write her own bio.
Product Details ISBN: 9781250077004
ISBN-10: 1250077001
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Publication Date: September 22nd, 2015
Pages: 352
Language: English

“Jenny made me laugh so hard I feared for my safety! I think that's how she was able to get past my defenses and make me feel more okay about myself.” —Allie Brosh, author of Hyperbole and a Half

“You'll laugh, wince, writhe in discomfort, cry, then laugh again. You might even feel the need to buy a raccoon. But the two things you'll never do is doubt Jenny's brilliance or her fearlessness when it comes to having honest discussions about mental illness, shame, and the power of human resilience. She's changing the conversation one rented sloth at a time.” —Brené Brown, Ph.D., LMSW, author of the #1 New York Times Bestseller, Daring Greatly

“I freaked strangers out by snort-laughing on the subway and in restaurants. I can't stop talking about this book to friends. I'll shut up now and let you resume your life but buy this book. It's AMAZING.” —Paul Fischer, author of A Kim Jong-Il Production

“The Bloggess writes stuff that actually is laugh-out-loud, but you know that really you shouldn't be laughing and probably you'll go to hell for laughing, so maybe you shouldn't read it. That would be safer and wiser.” —Neil Gaiman

“Even when I was funny, I wasn't this funny.” —Augusten Burroughs, author of Running with Scissors and This Is How

“Lawson's self-deprecating humor is not only gaspingly funny and wonderfully inappropriate; it allows her to speak...in a real and raw way.” —O, The Oprah Magazine

“[Lawson] writes with a rambling irreverence that makes you wish she were your best friend.” —Entertainment Weekly

“Take one part David Sedaris and two parts Chelsea Handler and you'll have some inkling of the cockeyed humor of Jenny Lawson...[She] flaunts the sort of fearless comedic chops that will make you spurt Diet Coke through your nose.” —Parade