Furiously happy A funny book about horrible things

Review by Booklist Review

Lawson, known as The Bloggess to readers of her immensely popular blog of the same name, fills her second memoir with stories that revolve around the crazy things that happen in her life, with an emphasis here on her struggles with mental illness mainly anxiety and depression. Lawson is known for blowing just about everything out of proportion, often proudly. For example, she recounts how she was once convinced that a herd of swans was chasing her in order to eat her, or, worse, impregnate her (hey, she read about it on the Internet!). In most of these anecdotes, her long-suffering husband attempts to bring her back to reality. But, in some, she digs deep, revealing how her mental issues leave her feeling frightened and useless. Scenes from her therapists' offices are funny but usually uncomfortably so. Lawson is a witty comic writer, but the repeated subject matter here feels best read in bits and pieces as one would with a blog. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: TheBloggess.com gets a reported one to two million page views per month, and promotion at book and library conferences has been high. While Lawson's offbeat brand of humor might not be a hit with all readers, the 300,000-copy print run suggests that this book will make the best-seller lists as quickly as her first title, Let's Pretend This Never Happened, did.--Vnuk, Rebecca Copyright 2015 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Lawson-aka "the Bloggess"-delivers a captivating roller-coaster ride of a performance that elicits wickedly uproarious laughter and heartfelt emotional catharsis. In this collection of personal issues, Lawson mixes her lifelong struggle with mental and physical illnesses and her quirky brand of humor, connecting those two threads together with the notion that those who suffer the deepest lows should embrace a form of happiness that allows for the wild and uninhibited side of life. Lawson possesses a distinct vocal pitch and tangential style of delivery that matches the unapologetically scattershot nature of her narrative. Her renderings of the daily banter of her marriage to a supportive husband with a diametrically opposite temperament ring with authenticity. As a quirky animal lover who also loves taxidermy, Lawson doesn't miss a beat in giving voice to the rich characterizations she has created for the critters in her life, both living and dead. Her language is not for the faint of heart, but the appeal of Lawson's sheer humanity cannot be denied. A Flatiron hardcover. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

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Review by Library Journal Review

Lawson's newest memoir is about her determination to embrace life-to be "furiously happy"-despite her lifelong struggles with anxiety and depression. (There's also a surprising number of stories about taxidermied animals.) It's enthusiastically profane, consistently hilarious, and often surprisingly heartfelt and vulnerable. Between (and in the midst of) stories about her quest to hug koalas while wearing a koala costume in Australia and her plans to laminate her cats to prevent shedding, Lawson talks frankly about how mental illness hurts the quality of her life but also how it's taught her to value and take joy in new and unexpected aspects of living. After listening to the book it would be hard to imagine anyone other than Lawson herself reading such a personal work; her narration is as sincere, funny, and touching as her words. Verdict Recommended for readers looking for idiosyncratic memoirs, frank accounts of depression, and possibly also fans of taxidermy.-Jason Puckett, Georgia State Univ. Lib., Atlanta © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

Lawson (Let's Pretend This Never Happened, 2012), "The Bloggess," pokes fun at herself as she addresses the serious nature of her mental and physical illnesses. "I've struggled with many forms of mental illness since I was a kid," writes the author, "but clinical depression is a semi-regular visitor and anxiety disorder is my long-term abusive boyfriend." Rather than hiding the facts, she openly divulges, in a darkly humorous way, how she copes with rheumatoid arthritis, depression, panic attacks, anxiety, and the days when she is driven to pull her hair out or cut herself. Along with discussions about taxidermic giraffes and raccoons, whether cats yawn, and mobs of swans attacking her, readers learn the particular ways Lawson has learned to cope with those moments that threaten to overwhelm here.g., readings that send her cowering behind the podium or fleeing to the bathroom, passing out during a gynecological exam because she's afraid of medical coats, or trying to find a solution to her sleep problems by attending a sleep clinic. The details are sometimes graphic"I always tell gynecologists that if I pass out when they're in my vagina they should just take that opportunity to get everything out of the way while I'm out"but always honest and usually funny. Lawson's goal is not to offend, although that might happen to some readers, but to lay bare the truth about her struggles in life so that others can benefit. She does a solid job exposing the hidden nature of mental illness by putting a direct spotlight on her own issues, thereby illuminating an often taboo subject. Her amusing essays open up a not-so-funny topic: mental illness in its many guises. Kudos to Lawson for being a flagrant and witty spokesperson for this dark subject matter. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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