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Sep 02, 2010

Bells rated it:

Author Gretchen Rubin dives into the stunt genre (where the author does something for a year and then writes a clever book about it) with a project on living happy for a year. Sitting on the bus one day, she realizes her life is zipping along and wonders if she can't make her days happier, and write a book about it and make some money. She devises a plan for happiness, reading all sorts of books on happiness, from a wide variety of authors.

I would have liked to have been more enthusi More...

13 comments like (40 people liked it)

Dec 31, 2010

Michele rated it:

I couldn't finish it. In fact, I couldn't get past page 49, and that really hurt, because I BOUGHT this book in HARDBACK. Sigh. And I wanted to like it, I swear, but it just wasn't happening for me.

I picked this book up because I have an interest in how others achieve happiness, enjoy getting a glimpse into how others conduct their lives on a daily basis (I even find grocery selections interesting, and what goes into them), and have gotten a kick out of several stunt journalism pr More...

6 comments like (33 people liked it)

Jun 27, 2011

Kate rated it:

Wow, when did I become so cynical and not even realize it?

Just like Julia from Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen I too am in danger of becoming nothing but a secretary on a road to nowhere, drifting toward frosted hair and menthol addiction.

However, this book helped me get out of my funk and become more creative. I didn't want to review this book until I tried my own "happiness project" because to be honest I was very sceptical a More...

2 comments like (14 people liked it)

Jul 28, 2010

sleeps9hours rated it:

This was an inspiring book in some ways, but also annoying. The author admits that she is part of a new trend in books in which the author takes a year for self improvement. I liked that she seems fairly normal and doesn’t escape her regular routine to make some changes. Over time the book dragged though. I was quite impressed with the plethora of quotes throughout (she collects them), and tons of little ideas and research results I found interesting. I had to get past the fact that her per More...

2 comments like (11 people liked it)

Jun 05, 2010

Alea rated it:

I have no idea how to properly convey how I feel about this book. I felt so much for it and because of it and it's kind of crazy. I saw so much of myself in the author and some of the examples she explained, half the time I was sitting there dumbstruck. She breaks down her resolutions in such a way it's very easy to follow along and she is so specific in how they work out you really can't ask for much more.

Rubin writes in a way that it was very easy for me to relate to and understand More...

0 comments like (16 people liked it)

Sep 07, 2010

Jamie rated it:

I won this advance copy book through the Goodreads Giveaway and could not have been more stoked! I am always creating lists and goals and things to improve my life. I feel like books, songs, movies always have a way of finding me when I need them most. I just quit my job because I was way too miserable and I have been home for the past few weeks feeling extremely unhappy and like my life was just miserable. This book was just the inspiration to want to change my situation and bring about more ha More...

5 comments like (10 people liked it)

Jul 06, 2011

Laura rated it:

I don’t know which is stranger – that people like this book, or that it was written in the first place. It came into being because Gretchen Rubin, a woman with a bizarrely charmed life, decided to spend a year devoting each month to a “theme” designed to make herself happier and then write a book about it. The whole thing smacks not only of a calculated stunt, but also of the sort of “list” approach she used for her breathtakingly trite book on Churchill. Regardless, any reasonable person would More...

21 comments like (36 people liked it)

Aug 04, 2010

Erin rated it:

Inspiring! Loved it! Totally want to start my Happiness Project. Gretchen Rubin, happily married mother of 2, had a realization while sitting on a bus that she was letting her life pass her by without fully appreciating it. Being a writer, she decided to research the origins, psychology and elements of happiness and develop her own Happiness Project, a 12-month experiment (each month around a theme like "love", "work" "energy", etc) with carefully measured goals More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Sep 20, 2011

Rachel rated it:

I can't remember how I stumbled across The Happiness Project, but I'm glad I did. I'm guessing somewhere in the hype of all these one-year personal goal memoirs. Gretchen Rubin's is a little more self-help than the others in this genre I've read recently, but I found it a pleasant read. Rubin spends the year working to become a happier person by making twelve broad goals and specific resolutions to go along with each one. Her montly items of focus include things like "Boost Energy" and More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 29, 2011

Lori rated it:

I really liked this book because there were a lot of traits I ascribe to myself that I saw in Gretchen and her writing. I was especially able to relate to her love of reading and how that affects the rest of her life. This book provided me with the inspiration and the determination to plan out a happiness project of my own, a lot of which focuses on better living habits, not necessarily happiness. However, I'm going to make myself sleep on it before I dive into planning. I think it takes qui More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jul 29, 2011

Elyse rated it:

I'm only reading this because our book club picked it for our 'non-fiction' month ---I'm bored stiff--but I'll finish it. (we read non-fiction every other month) Most of the time we choose better books to read.

I have now finished this book....and I was wrong! I laughed --smiled ---and have respect for the author for the difference she is making with "The Happiness Project".

7 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 21, 2012

Janssen rated it:

I loved this book. I couldn't stop talking about it and I feel like it has greatly influenced me. This is one I'm actually purchasing my own copy of because I plan to reread it often. Really, one of the best books I've read in a very long while. Full review here: http://everydayreading.blogspot.com/2012...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 29, 2011

Tasha rated it:

All the navel-gazing of "Eat, Pray, Love" with none of the interesting commentary provided by other characters. Gretchen is the only actual being in her world; everyone else, including her husband and children, is merely a mirror reflecting who she thinks she should appear to be. I'm convinced that the author wants to be happy only because someone else told her she should.

I'm all for fluff reading, but this took it to a new level. The chapter on cleaning her closets (yes, an More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 22, 2012

Erin rated it:

More irritating than Eat Pray Love. Read it like it's a magazine and it's almost tolerable.

I will point out that she's got a lot of great ideas.

But she's always dropping studies without citing sources, which makes her sound like a know-it-all. She's always tailoring good ideas so that they suit her better (ie I don't like meditation so I'm just going to think about koans for a few weeks and get all the benefits).
Another criticism I have is that she kind of assumes the More...

1 comment like

Feb 11, 2012

Teena rated it:

Like Rubin, I'm not unhappy ... but we can all be happier.

She has twelve commandments which help her which she expands on and goes back to again and again:

Be Gretchen.
Let it go.
Act the way I want to feel.
Do it now.
Be polite and be fair.
Enjoy the process.
Spend out.
Identify the problem.
Lighten up.
Do what ought to be done.
No calculation.
There is only love.
More...

0 comments like

Feb 10, 2012

Kirstin rated it:

I was surprised at how much I liked this book. Generally speaking I don’t really enjoy reading “self-help” type books. I also am kind of over what the author of this book calls “stunt non-fiction method journalism” where an author does something for a year and then writes a book about it (The Year of Living Biblically, Animal Vegetable Miracle, The Wilder Life, etc.). Too often it seems the authors of these types of books get more focused on writing a book about their project than actually doing More...

0 comments like

Jan 30, 2012

Christina rated it:

You would think this book might be a bit redundant (after all, how many authors out there are conducting one year experiments?, I've lost count), but this book is noteworthy for several reasons. For one, I would re-name this book "The Be More Purposeful About My Life" project. The author sets out a series of goals, supposedly leading to happiness, but I think they are more about life improvement and character development. Some of her goals are great ideas, some of which I might impl More...

0 comments like

Jan 15, 2012

Sherry rated it:

Gretchen Rubin is another author who joins the fad of undertaking a cute project for a year, but she is totally without the charm of A. J. Jacobs or even Julie Powell. I kept hoping for something, anything, that would make me root for her. She did seem to try to be self-deprecating, but she clearly has no practice at it. This is a woman who is full of herself, and has no sense of how fortunate she is. The only likeable person here is Gretchen's husband, and she treats him so poorly that I want t More...

0 comments like

Jan 09, 2012

leah rated it:

I really enjoyed this book. I picked it up at a whim while at someone else's house. The idea of being happy is one I keep coming back to, and I really enjoyed Gretchen's willingness to pursue happiness. I also thought it was very smart of her to list her resolutions by month and have concrete actions she could make a "check" mark next to when she accomplished something.

This is one of those books where a lot of the discoveries seem mundane because they're things you already More...

0 comments like

Jan 09, 2012

Kris rated it:

Overall, I think there are some good ideas here, and following her through her year of schedules and plans is actually interesting. I appreciate that she doesn't shy away from the truth (admitting to setbacks, failures, and even bringing to light less-admirable personality traits). That being said, I think this book is really a study of her and her stage of life/personality. And since I don't know her, I find it hard to connect or care (and that is also why I didn't like the blog responses. More...

0 comments like

Dec 13, 2011

Jennifer rated it:

Ok, so the writing quality in this book didn't knock my socks off. It was clear that the author had done a fair bit of research, both psychological and philosophical on the topic of happiness, but other than the insertion of direct quotes from noted philosophers or psychologists, there really isn't much extra to be gained from her personal text. Furthermore, much of the book is composed of comments and or emails Rubin received from others on the topic of happiness and some just seemed like spac More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 05, 2011

Susan L. rated it:

I've read many similar books and some of the inforamtion was inspiring or perhaps not inspiring but reminders of things I've done in the past and let slip. Perhaps the best point I took was an affirmation from one of the readers of her blog and that is make computer passwords based on what is going on in her life--this has been my practice for a number of years and I've found it a great way to focus on something that I'm working on.

I do think Gretchen has a point about the differen More...

0 comments like

Dec 04, 2011

Laura rated it:

Maybe I'll change it to five stars some day. For now, it's a four-star book. (Although, part of me wants to buy a copy -- I borrowed it from the library -- so I can have all the ideas close at hand.)

To me, Gretchen Rubin is an admirable, over-achieving big sister: I want to be more like her, then part of me realizes I'lll never be like her and so I hate her. Just a little.

The Yale law school graduate/former Sandra Day O'Connor law clerk/best-selling author/upper East Side Ma More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Nov 04, 2011

Alexys rated it:

As a person with a limited amount of free time on her hands, and not exactly the biggest fan of this new "stunt genre," I had to admit that this was worth the ticket price.

As a doctor, I see a lot of people who seem not happy with their lives, from my patients to my peers even to myself and my family. The reasons are multifactorial, from health to money to relationships to that intangible "I don't know what" factor.

I really liked this book because it s More...

0 comments like

Oct 31, 2011

Kalie rated it:

There are a number of memoirs about “finding happiness”. Whether it’s “finding happiness” after a divorce and travelling the world or travelling the world to find which countries are the “happiest”, they all seem to revolve around the same concept of the author picking up everything and leaving their comfort zone for the search of a better well-being. While The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin copies the same “happiness” idea, it does stand out from its counterparts.

I enjoyed The More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 23, 2011

Laura rated it:

This book is gimmicky and I wouldn't recommend it to everyone I know, but I really enjoyed about 75% of it. Basically, it's a one-year stunt book. The author, who is happily married with two kids and has a good freelance career, wants to be happier--or at least remember to recognize that she is happy so that she is not so snappy and negative. Yes, it's not the most lofty of goals, but it's one that I think many could benefit from. It's easy to forget that life is good in the face of everyday irr More...

2 comments like

Oct 10, 2011

nicole rated it:

Like Gretchen, I'm not unhappy. I have a job in the field I love, am with a man that I adore, surrounded by wonderful family and friends, have great health and a roof over my head. But I don't appreciate this apparent happiness either -- I'm easily annoyed, have a tendency to focus on the negative and can be sort of bitchy. The day before I started reading this book, I learned that someone I know had something amazing happen to them. I listened to the whole story and then was like, OF COURS More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 16, 2011

Angie rated it:

Lately, I have been reading a lot of books centered on a one year project. The author takes on a project and mindfully does it for one year. Topics have included: living biblically, not buying anything made in China, or following all of Oprah’s advice. This book centered on being happy. I found it to be an interesting concept.

Rubin takes on this with a singular focus. She researches the idea of happiness through literature, ancient texts and modern studies. She lays out More...

0 comments like

Sep 10, 2011

Colleen rated it:

First, it’s not a self-help book. This is a Ben Franklin-inspired project taken on by a woman who wants to increase her overall well-being in small daily ways (rather than a major life change). The book chronicles her project to tackle 12 issues (one a month for a year) that she wants to change/improve to see if she can increase daily contentedness. I think the idea is great, and importantly, she notes that her 12 things are specific to her and may not apply to anyone else. Overall, she’s d More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 20, 2011

Joëlle rated it:

This was a great read. Not just useful ideas, but I was really drawn in. I'm going to create my own happiness project as a result of reading it. I'll use some of her ideas and some of my own. I like that she did so much research because honestly, I'm kind of lazy in that respect and she passed on some great tidbits. Probably everyone thinks, "Oh, me and Gretchen are so much alike!" I think that too about certain things, but not everything.

A funny thing happened while reading More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

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