The Happiness Project

The Happiness Project: or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun

Well, well, well--it's another gimmicky memoir about trying something new for one year! For Rubin the goal is happiness. For all its contrived sweetness, though, much of the book was quite interesting because Rubin included her own research on happiness. Little insights like whether or not money can buy happiness keep it interesting, and her anecdotes are some times funny. It was a little hard to take her seriously when she (admittedly) has a pretty great life with a loving husband, two kids, a nice apartment in Manhattan (which means she obviously has money), a close-knit family, and a career as a writer (seriously, she talks about quitting a career in law for a career in writing as if it's perfectly normal to pursue writing as a career). However, in a way that made it all the more interesting to see how a seemingly happy person can actually create a life even more fulfilled. She encourages everyone to start their own "happiness project," and provides some tools on getting started.