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

I actually really enjoyed reading this because it gave me a chance to think of what I might do if I had the same goals as the author and what I might do with my own different goals for increasing happiness. I don't have the time to spend writing a book about my own happiness project but I think it was really eye-opening to see how someone can learn a lot about many different things and then take the best of that and implement it in her life in order to make her life more fulfilling. As someone who has dealt with depression, I felt like this was something that resonated with me. There are a lot of things I could be doing to be happier, I just need to look for them and DO them in order to be ME. I'm looking forward to her next book, due out next month.

Not what I expected. Very disappointed. Would not recommend.

While Gretchen Rubins clearly did a lot of background work for this book, I found it superficial. Every month, Ms. Rubins picks a handful of projects designed to bring happiness -- cleaning her closest, being nicer to her husband, etc. -- but I felt that the projects could have been more thoroughly researched and implemented. My biggest complaint is that while Ms. Rubin's briefly describes the research that leads her to pick her projects (hugs that last at least 6 seconds raise endorphins), she does not cite any references for her research. Also, some of her attempts (like the mindfulness month), blatantly disregard important components of a discipline that she didn't seem to spend much time trying to understand. This is a quick read, but it felt unfulfilling.