The Happiness Project

Colette once said, "What a wonderful life I've had! I only wish I'd realized it sooner." Gretchen Rubin knows she's fortunate, but she wants to appreciate her life even more. First, she reads for weeks, works ranging from Plato to Oprah, Virginia Woolf to the Dalai Lama. Then she develops a systematic resolutions chart, broken into month-long segments based on themes such as work, marriage, parenthood, and money. And it works--she IS happier by year's end. It's easy to relate to the down-to-earth Rubin, and her slightly raspy voice and enthusiastic delivery enhance that connection. She's not afraid to share personal foibles or admit failure. Will you be inspired to create your own happiness project? You will, at least, clean your closet. A.B. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

Starred review from January 4, 2010
Rubin is not an unhappy woman: she has a loving husband, two great kids and a writing career in New York City. Still, she could-and, arguably, should-be happier. Thus, her methodical (and bizarre) happiness project: spend one year achieving careful, measurable goals in different areas of life (marriage, work, parenting, self-fulfillment) and build on them cumulatively, using concrete steps (such as, in January, going to bed earlier, exercising better, getting organized, and "acting more energetic"). By December, she's striving bemusedly to keep increasing happiness in every aspect of her life. The outcome is good, not perfect (in accordance with one of her "Secrets of Adulthood": "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good"), but Rubin's funny, perceptive account is both inspirational and forgiving, and sprinkled with just enough wise tips, concrete advice and timely research (including all those other recent books on happiness) to qualify as self-help. Defying self-help expectations, however, Rubin writes with keen senses of self and narrative, balancing the personal and the universal with a light touch. Rubin's project makes curiously compulsive reading, which is enough to make any reader happy.

November 15, 2009
For this chatty and intriguing little book, Rubin, a lawyer-turned-writer ("Forty Ways To Look at Winston Churchill"), undertook a yearlong quest for happiness. A "Resolution Chart" with specific activities for each month (e.g., "Ask for help") helped her define happiness and become happier with her very good life, as did interesting facts from her scholarly research (though there are no footnotes or formal bibliography). Peppering the text are quotes from a vast array of people who have considered happiness, including Aristotle, St. Thr]se, and Viktor Frankl. VERDICT This whole process might have come off as frivolously self-centered but for the excellent points Rubin highlights. Although the excerpts from her blog (www.happinessprojecttoolbox.com) begin to feel like filler, librarians will particularly like how she loves her local library, and self-helpers will be fascinated by her process.Margaret Cardwell, Memphis, TN

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.