2 stars
An examination of happiness that had some interesting moments but was otherwise repetitive and not very applicable to most people’s lives.
Rubin sets out to dedicate one year to increasing her happiness, taking one month to focus on a different aspect of her life such as work, leisure, energy, marriage, and parenthood. Each month she sets resolutions and tracks how well she keeps them.
It’s a very specific strategy that may work well for those who enjoy goal tracking and resolutions, but probably isn’t very applicable to most people.
At times it was interesting to read how she applied the project but it’s not really that helpful for putting together your own because, as she points out, everyone’s will be so unique and different.
As far as the writing, since Rubin doesn’t necessarily have a typical life, it was difficult to relate to her, which didn’t make me connect with her anecdotes. Because of that I found a lot of them rather dull.
Rubin pulls from various sources including literature, scientific research, spirituality, and philosophy. Her constant quoting of sources did get really irritating to me. By the end I was really sick of hearing about Samuel Johnson.
The marriage chapter was definitely a struggle. Rubin worries so much about how she feels she is perceived by others (nagging, needs too much affirmation) and changes her behavior in an attempt to change their view of her. This means she often does what she can to keep her resolution and ends up not getting what she wanted anyway when an open conversation would probably have been a more effective solution.
Overall, this seems like more of a blog than a book. I think it would work for people already following her, but doesn’t have much mass appeal.
While there were some interesting moments, I don’t think it’s a necessary read. Those interested in starting a Happiness Project of their own can find what they need on her website without reading the whole book.