Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson

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

Find out more about this book and author:
Amazon
Goodreads
Website
Facebook
Instagram
Pinterest
Twitter @TheBloggess

Published: 2015
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Genre: Humor, Memoir
Hardback: 352 pages
Rating: 5

First sentence(s):
"You're not crazy. STOP CALLING YOURSELF CRAZY," my mom says for the eleventh billionth time. "You're just sensitive. And . . . a little . . . odd."

Zombie sighting:
I'm Turning Into A Zombie One Organ At A Time
-chapter heading, page 144

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.

My two-bits:

Just like Jenny's first book. This book gives off the same crazy (in a good way) vibe. Entertaining and informative perspective on life from a person who lives with mental illness, depression and anxieties.

I was tickled by Jenny's word creations and word play.

Love the personal photos that were shared.

fyi: While I do have the print copy, I listened to the audio version this time around which the author reads. It is such a treat to hear it as the idiosyncrasies hit home.

March: Women's History Month

I will be celebrating Women's History Month with the following...


READing:

Furiously Happy:
A Funny Book About Horrible Things
by Jenny Lawson
-Humor, Mental Illness, Memoir
Amazon | Goodreads | my review
In LET'S PRETEND THIS NEVER HAPPENED, Jenny Lawson baffled readers with stories about growing up the daughter of a taxidermist. 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?

Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl: A Memoir
by Carrie Brownstein
-Music, Memoir
Amazon | Goodreads
From a leader of feminist punk music at the dawn of the riot-grrrl era, a candid and deeply personal look at life in rock and roll.

Before Carrie Brownstein codeveloped and starred in the wildly popular TV comedy Portlandia, she was already an icon to young women for her role as a musician in the feminist punk band Sleater-Kinney. The band was a key part of the early riot- grrrl and indie rock scenes in the Pacific Northwest, known for their prodigious guitar shredding and their leftist lyrics against war, traditionalism, and gender roles.

Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl is the deeply personal and revealing narrative of Brownstein's life in music, from ardent fan to pioneering female guitarist to comedic performer and luminary in the independent rock world. Though Brownstein struggled against the music industry's sexist double standards, by 2006 she was the only woman to earn a spot on Rolling Stone readers' list of the "25 Most Underrated Guitarists of All-Time." This book intimately captures what it feels like to be a young woman in a rock-and-roll band, from her days at the dawn of the underground feminist punk-rock movement that would define music and pop culture in the 1990s through today.

In Order to Live:
A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom
by Yeonmi Park, Maryanne Vollers
-Korea, Memoir
Amazon | Goodreads
Human rights activist Park, who fled North Korea with her mother in 2007 at age 13 and eventually made it to South Korea two years later after a harrowing ordeal, recognized that in order to be "completely free," she had to confront the truth of her past. It is an ugly, shameful story of being sold with her mother into slave marriages by Chinese brokers, and although she at first tried to hide the painful details when blending into South Korean society, she realized how her survival story could inspire others. Moreover, her sister had also escaped earlier and had vanished into China for years, prompting the author to go public with her story in the hope of finding her sister.

My Life on the Road
by Gloria Steinem
-Feminism, Memoir
Amazon | Goodreads
Gloria Steinem—writer, activist, organizer, and one of the most inspiring leaders in the world—now tells a story she has never told before, a candid account of how her early years led her to live an on-the-road kind of life, traveling, listening to people, learning, and creating change. She reveals the story of her own growth in tandem with the growth of an ongoing movement for equality. This is the story at the heart of My Life on the Road.

=====> DID you know actress, Emma Watson (Hermione of the Harry Potter movie series), created a Goodreads book club (here) with this book as the January book.


WATCHing...

Suffragette (2015)
Director: Sarah Gavron
Writer: Abi Morgan
Starring: Carey Mulligan, Anne-Marie Duff, Helena Bonham Carter
-Biography, Drama, History | imdb
The foot soldiers of the early feminist movement, women who were forced underground to pursue a dangerous game of cat and mouse with an increasingly brutal State.


~*~
* let me know how you will be celebrating the month

* image source from National Women’s History Project

Stacking the Shelves - 12.5.15

Stacking the Shelves
hosted by Tynga's Reviews (details)
Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

~*~
Bought:

Furiously Happy:
A Funny Book About Horrible Things
by Jenny Lawson
-Humor, Memoir
Amazon | Goodreads

=====> Books Passage, Corte Madera presented JENNY LAWSON and her latest book!

Here are a few things that she shared:
- read one chapter and a bit from another chapter from her book
- does not write about current disputes with hubby, Victor
- permission is obtained from everyone included in her writings

Me and the Happy Raccoon
=====> Loved going to see another of my all-time favorite authors. Jenny is one of those authors who is amazing and personable in public which comes across the same in her writing. I especially love listening to the audio versions of her book which she reads.

Fortune Smiles
by Adam Johnson
-Short stories
Amazon | Goodreads
======> Loved his first novel, The Orphan Master's Son. And currently loving this collection of short stories.

For Review:

Curio
by Evangeline Denmark
-Steampunk, YA
courtesy of BookSparks -Thanks!
Amazon | Goodreads
=====> Can't resist steampunk themed stories.

Gifts:

Come December
by Holly Schindler
-Holiday, Short Story
courtesy of author -Thanks!
Amazon -kindle version is currently free, GET yours! | Goodreads
=====> Looking forward to reading this during the holiday season.

Slade House
by David Mitchell
-Horror, Mystery
courtesy of family -Thanks!
Amazon | Goodreads
=====> This has an interesting haunted house premise. The cover of this book has a cool cut-out window. I may wait to read this when I am in a dark mood.

UNBOXING:

From Powell's Indiespensable club package (details & signup):
Powell's subscription club delivers the best new books, with special attention to independent publishers. Signed first editions. Inventive, original sets. Exclusive printings.... Every six weeks, another installment to read and admire. Plus, every package is stocked with exciting surprises! @indiespensable

This is box #56. (sorry - this is sold out, but you can signup for the next one)

Box includes:
- A signed first-edition of City on Fire by Garth Risk Halberg in a custom slipcase exclusive to Indiespensable
- A collectible booklet featuring the Powells.com interview and Indiespensable Q&A with author
- Tumbes 73% chocolate bar from Ranger Chocolate Company

City On Fire
by Garth Risk Hallberg
-Historical, New York
Amazon | Goodreads
New York City, 1976. Meet Regan and William Hamilton-Sweeney, estranged heirs to one of the city’s great fortunes; Keith and Mercer, the men who, for better or worse, love them; Charlie and Samantha, two suburban teenagers seduced by downtown’s punk scene; an obsessive magazine reporter and his idealistic neighbor—and the detective trying to figure out what any of them have to do with a shooting in Central Park on New Year’s Eve.

The mystery, as it reverberates through families, friendships, and the corridors of power, will open up even the loneliest-seeming corners of the crowded city. And when the blackout of July 13, 1977, plunges this world into darkness, each of these lives will be changed forever.

City on Fire is an unforgettable novel about love and betrayal and forgiveness, about art and truth and rock ’n’ roll: about what people need from each other in order to live . . . and about what makes the living worth doing in the first place.

=====> Actually purchased this book recently, but excited to see it highlighted as a Powell's special. And, thrilled to get this special edition. IF you are interested in receiving my second copy, comment on this post along with your email address. Offer ends: Dec 13, 2015

Library:

Nowhere But Here
by Katie McGarry
Amazon | Goodreads
Seventeen-year-old Emily likes her life the way it is: doting parents, good friends, good school in a safe neighborhood. Sure, she's curious about her biological father—the one who chose life in a motorcycle club, the Reign of Terror, over being a parent—but that doesn't mean she wants to be a part of his world. But when a reluctant visit turns to an extended summer vacation among relatives she never knew she had, one thing becomes clear: nothing is what it seems. Not the club, not her secret-keeping father and not Oz, a guy with suck-me-in blue eyes who can help her understand them both.

Oz wants one thing: to join the Reign of Terror. They're the good guys. They protect people. They're…family. And while Emily—the gorgeous and sheltered daughter of the club's most respected member—is in town, he's gonna prove it to her. So when her father asks him to keep her safe from a rival club with a score to settle, Oz knows it's his shot at his dream. What he doesn't count on is that Emily just might turn that dream upside down.

No one wants them to be together. But sometimes the right person is the one you least expect, and the road you fear the most is the one that leads you home.

=====> After seeing this on a lot of other blogger bookshelves, I wanted to give this a try. So far, loving it!

The Paying Guests
by Sarah Waters
-LGBTQ, Historical
Amazon | Goodreads
It is 1922, and London is tense. Ex-servicemen are disillusioned; the out-of-work and the hungry are demanding change. And in South London, in a genteel Camberwell villa—a large, silent house now bereft of brothers, husband, and even servants—life is about to be transformed as impoverished widow Mrs. Wray and her spinster daughter, Frances, are obliged to take in lodgers.

With the arrival of Lilian and Leonard Barber, a modern young couple of the “clerk class,” the routines of the house will be shaken up in unexpected ways. Little do the Wrays know just how profoundly their new tenants will alter the course of Frances’s life—or, as passions mount and frustration gathers, how far-reaching, and how devastating, the disturbances will be.

Short-listed for the Man Booker Prize three times, Sarah Waters has earned a reputation as one of our greatest writers of historical fiction, and here she has delivered again. A love story, a tension-filled crime story, and a beautifully atmospheric portrait of a fascinating time and place, The Paying Guests is Sarah Waters’s finest achievement yet.

=====> Listening to the audio version. So far, so good. Loving the details, details, details of the characters presented.


OTHER things on my shelf: kinda book-related

SEE who I picked for my NOVEMBER Literary Hunk of the Month (here)

AND watched: on DVD

Laggies (2014)
Director: Lynn Shelton
Written by: Andrea Seigel
Starring: Keira Knightley, Chloë Grace Moretz, Sam Rockwell
-Comedy, Romance | imdb | my rating: 5
In the throes of a quarter-life crisis, Megan panics when her boyfriend proposes, then, taking an opportunity to escape for a week, hides out in the home of her new friend, 16-year-old Annika, who lives with her world-weary single dad.

=====> So cute - coming of age story.

Pitch Perfect (2012)
Director: Jason Moore
Screenplay by: Kay Cannon
Based on book by: Mickey Rapkin
Starring: Anna Kendrick, Skylar Astin, Brittany Snow, Rebel Wilson
-Comedy, Music, Romance | imdb | my rating: 5
Beca, a freshman at Barden University, is cajoled into joining The Bellas, her school's all-girls singing group. Injecting some much needed energy into their repertoire, The Bellas take on their male rivals in a campus competition.

=====> Another cute one. The music and choreography performances just warms the heart. Makes me want to check out shows by local acapella groups.

Must watch Pitch Perfect 2. And Pitch Perfect 3 is due to release in 2017.

~*~
* some of these may be offered as giveaways within the next two months

* comment and TELL me what you have acquired for your shelves recently

* per usual, check out the sidebar for my current giveaways offers

Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir by Jenny Lawson

Let's Pretend This Never Happened:
A Mostly True Memoir
by Jenny Lawson

Find out more about this book and author:
Amazon
Goodreads
Website
Facebook
Flickr
Pinterest
Twitter @TheBloggess

Published: 2012
Publisher: Putnam Adult; First Edition edition
Genre: Humor, Memoir
Hardback: 336 pages
Rating: 5

series:
Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir
Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things -released on September 22, 2015

When Jenny Lawson was little, all she ever wanted was to fit in. That dream was cut short by her fantastically unbalanced father and a morbidly eccentric childhood. It did, however, open up an opportunity for Lawson to find the humor in the strange shame-spiral that is her life, and we are all the better for it.

In the irreverent Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, Lawson’s long-suffering husband and sweet daughter help her uncover the surprising discovery that the most terribly human moments—the ones we want to pretend never happened—are the very same moments that make us the people we are today. For every intellectual misfit who thought they were the only ones to think the things that Lawson dares to say out loud, this is a poignant and hysterical look at the dark, disturbing, yet wonderful moments of our lives.

PeekAbook:



My two-bits:

Hilarious!

The author describes many mishaps in her life with a sense of humor that tickles. Despite it all lessons are learned or at least provide warnings for readers ;-)

About the author:
Known for her sardonic wit and her hysterically skewed outlook on life, Jenny Lawson has made millions of people question their own sanity, as they found themselves admitting that they, too, often wondered why Jesus wasn't classified as a zombie, or laughed to the point of bladder failure when she accidentally forgot that she mailed herself a cobra. Her blog (www.thebloggess.com) is award-winning and extremely popular.

~*~
* heard the audio version which the author reads which makes this book so much more enjoyable.

* added to my COYER challenge/scavenger hunt (details)

Stacking the Shelves - 6.20.15

Stacking the Shelves
hosted by Tynga's Reviews (details)
Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

~*~
Bought:

Beat
by Vi Keeland
-New Adult, Romance
Amazon | Goodreads
=====> saw this on a couple fellow blogger Stacking the Shelves posts and it called to me...

For Review:

Escape from Witchwood Hollow
by Jordan Elizabeth
-Fantasy, Witches, YA
courtesy of author
Thanks !
Amazon | Goodreads
Library:

Let's Pretend This Never Happened:
A Mostly True Memoir
by Jenny Lawson
-Humor, Memoir
Amazon | Goodreads
When Jenny Lawson was little, all she ever wanted was to fit in. That dream was cut short by her fantastically unbalanced father and a morbidly eccentric childhood. It did, however, open up an opportunity for Lawson to find the humor in the strange shame-spiral that is her life, and we are all the better for it.

In the irreverent Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, Lawson’s long-suffering husband and sweet daughter help her uncover the surprising discovery that the most terribly human moments—the ones we want to pretend never happened—are the very same moments that make us the people we are today. For every intellectual misfit who thought they were the only ones to think the things that Lawson dares to say out loud, this is a poignant and hysterical look at the dark, disturbing, yet wonderful moments of our lives.

=====> listening to the audio version which the author reads. Hilarious!

Must GET her next book...

Furiously Happy:
A Funny Book About Horrible Things
by Jenny Lawson
-Humor, Memoir
Release date: September 22, 2015
Amazon | Goodreads
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.

OTHER things bookish-related:

COYER Scavenger Hunt
The Clean Out Your E-Reads Challenge
Saturday, June 20 – Friday, September 4, 2015
hosted by Fantasy is More Fun, Because Reading, and Books, Movies, Reviews.Oh My!
(details, rules and signup)

=====> Starts today! I am looking forward to filling in my scavenger scorecard (here)!

AND binge watching:

Breaking Bad
tv series, season four
-crime, drama
Amazon | imdb
A chemistry teacher diagnosed with a terminal lung cancer teams up with his former student to cook and sell crystal meth.

~*~
* comment and TELL me what you have acquired for your shelves recently

* per usual, check out the sidebar for my current giveaways offers