Authentic Happiness is an important introduction to Positive Psychology-- the science of understanding and furthering what's right rather than what's wrong with us. If you are disenchanted with mainstream psychology's emphasis on disorder and prescribed solutions, and if you want to enhance and make permanent the good things in life, you will find this book instructive and encouraging. Seligman simplifies a budding but complicated scientific discipline into an approachable read. He has a companion website for additional resources, including supplements to the surveys scattered throughout the book, but, although the website complements the text and is easy to use, you will not miss much by neglecting it. Finally, I imagine it would be very difficult to write a self-improvement book without injecting some of the author's personal life lessons or values into it; Seligman's anecdotes are relevant and illuminating and never sanctimonious.

My only objection to Authentic Happiness was Dr. Seligman's attempt to unify theism with modern science. It was an admirable, interesting, and, I think, necessary step to take, but it was neither novel nor resolute, and many will prefer either the wisdom of the past or the empiricism of the present to respond to this enduring problem.