Furiously Happy

Book 51 of my 2016 Reading Challenge
read from June 14 - 19

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

Summary (via Goodreads)
In her new book, FURIOUSLY HAPPY, Jenny explores her lifelong battle with mental illness. A hysterical, ridiculous book about crippling depression and anxiety? That sounds like a terrible idea. And terrible ideas are what Jenny does best.
According to Jenny: "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.'"
Jenny's first book, LET'S PRETEND THIS NEVER HAPPENED, was ostensibly about family, but deep down it was about celebrating your own weirdness. FURIOUSLY HAPPY is a book about mental illness, but under the surface it's about embracing joy in fantastic and outrageous ways-and who doesn't need a bit more of that?

My Opinion
I love Jenny Lawson!  This book really bares it all.  The section on the gall bladder was my favorite.  I've heard the 'spoon theory' before but it works so well as an explanation and she hit the nail on the head regarding conserving her energy supply.

She addressed my main concern with these kinds of books (the privacy of the people in the writer's life and if they're okay with how they're portrayed) by saying everyone she mentions gets to read the book first and can request to have things removed if they want.

In case you haven't heard of her, here are a few out-of-context quotes from the book.  If you're curious to know more of the story, check out this book.  If not (or if you're bothered by language), this isn't the book for you.

"Waking up shirtless with a bunch of concerned dogs staring at your bra because you're afraid of coats is about the seventh-worst way to wake up."

"Like it says in the Bible, being a friend means never having to witness farting belly buttons. Or something. I might be misremembering."

"...but when I got back to my desk MY VAGINA WAS MISSING. I mean not my vagina. The gifted vagina. (Not that my vagina isn't gifted. It's fine. This isn't a contest.)"

"She's probably right, but I suspect that the people who would want to get drunk out of my leg hole wouldn't be the people I'd want to have getting drunk out of my leg hole. That's just one of those truisms of life."

Quote from the Book
"When we share our struggles we let others know it's okay to share theirs. And suddenly we realize that the things we were ashamed of are the same things everyone deals with at one time or another. We are so much less alone than we think."