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Book Review of Happier at Home: Kiss More, Jump More, Abandon a Project, Read Samuel Johnson, and My Other Experiments in the Practice of Everyday Life

njmom3 avatar reviewed on + 1389 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2


Review first published on my blog: http://memoriesfrombooks.blogspot.com/2012/10/happier-at-home.html

Happier at Home is a follow up to Gretchen Rubin's book, The Happiness Project. The Happiness Project works on the premise that although Gretchen is content in her life, the prospect for being happier exists if she makes a conscious effort. This seems necessary because she feels her focus is not on the things in her life that make her happy.

Happier at Home applies the same principle to her home and home life including the people in it. Taking a school year as her time span, she focuses on a topic month by month - possessions, marriage
parenthood, interior design, time, body, family, neighborhood, and now.

I agree with a lot of ideas presented in this book. Most are not new, but we need reminding to focus on them. The idea of making time for those important to us. The idea of community. The idea of self care. The idea of living in the moment.

My biggest concern with this book is the references to her first happiness project. I have read the first book and really liked it. However, I read it a while ago. I remember the general themes of the book but not the specifics. In reading this one, I feel like I should re-read the first book to really get the most out of this one. It makes me wonder if I should have just read the original again.