book review :: happier at home

Quick book review for you.

As part of my 30 by 30 list, I wanted to read 12 nonfiction books this year.

The main reason is to broaden my horizons.

More often than not (like 90% of the time), I'm going to choose something fictional to read.

The first nonfiction book of my 29th year was Happier at Home by Gretchen Rubin.

I read her previous book, The Happiness Project, a few months back, and while I thought it was good overall, I have to admit that it was very slow going to get through it.

I felt that Happier at Home was MUCH easier to get through.

It didn't feel as much like an essay to me.

In it she does a shorter and more focused version of her first Happiness Project.

Every resolution in this book is based off of being happier at home, but I bet you guessed that just by the title. ;)

There are definitely some physical attributes in her resolutions, such as, in the 'Possessions' section of the book she resolves to 'go shelf by shelf' and also to 'read the manual' to better learn how to operate her belongings.

But I feel like this had more to do with cultivating relationships.

Of course there's a month where she focused on parenting and one where her marriage was front and center, but there was also plenty of resolutions where learning about herself was key.

Over and over we hear her top personal commandment, to 'Be Gretchen'. 

I personally found this interesting because, so often, we resolve to do things or become people that  just don't interest us.

We should all resolve to be ourselves and cultivate ourselves in a realistic manner that betters who we actually are.

All in all I was really pleased with this book, rated it 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads and would definitely recommend it to people to read.

peace, love, and all things sparkly.