by Lisa Grunwald
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Product Description
What does it take to be happy? How happy is happy enough? And what does “happy” mean, anyway? So asks Sally Farber–wife, mother, daughter, friend, working woman, and lover–in this wise and funny novel about a woman’s search for happiness in some of the right, and a few of the wrong, places.
Summer in the city looms long for Sally Farber when she sends her two daughters off to camp for the first time. Suddenly freed of her usual patterns in a city that becomes a grown-up’s playground,, she embarks on a journey unlike any she’s ever had–filled with guilty pleasures and guilty pains.
Caught between the past (cleaning out her childhood apartment as her demanding mother offers edicts from South Carolina) and the future (facing her first semi-empty nest), Sally finds herself unexpectedly involved with a powerful, unpredictable man.
And as she researches a book whose very topic is happiness, she must weigh the relative merits of prescriptions for its attainment offered by Aristotle and the Dalai Lama, Freud and Charles Schulz, scented candles and Zoloft, her mother and her best friend. The answer comes, in the end, from a surprising discovery, in this rich and original novel about how we can find, and ultimately embrace, both happiness and love.
From the Hardcover edition.
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Average Customer Review:
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
 Happiness is a Good Book, 2006-02-10
Books are our friends. We all know that or we wouldn't be here, reading reviews written by strangers, wandering around amazon.com looking for something new and interesting to read. This book is like it's written by a friend. I read an earlier book by Lisa Grunwald many years ago and never forgot how much I liked it. When I discovered WHATEVER MAKES YOU HAPPY, I was excited by the prospect of it and was not disappointed.
A simple concept - the main character, Sally, is an author writing a book about happiness. This came into my life at a good time because I've been trying to understand the people who I am getting to know in this strange state I moved to a few years ago (New Jersey). "Are these people happy?" I was wondering. "Are they just moody?" The quotes found scattered throughout this book and the story of what Sally goes through didn't actually answer any questions for me, but it did make me believe that happiness really is found inside of us and if it isn't there, it won't be anywhere. OR maybe that's too simple, in and of itself.
This is a book that you will probably enjoy if you like reading about people's lives as I do. I don't need everything to be deep and moving, but I do like things that are honest and reflective of what's inside many of us and this book fits the bill on that.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
 Had to have my own copy!, 2005-08-30
I originally checked this book out from the library, because of an intriguing magazine review I had read. As another reviewer has said, the story is deceptively simple, but the author sneaks in the most moving profundities regarding what constitutes happiness. I was so enthralled that after returning the book to the library, I hurried to purchase my own copy, so I could refer to all the wisdom whenever I needed to be reminded what might make me happy!
Then I proceeded to read others of Lisa Grunwald's books, and each one has it's own profound message. I am amazed that a woman so young has so much insight into the human condition. Needless to say, she writes about it incredibly well. And one comes to truly love her characters and root for their quests for meaning in life.
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
 This didn't make me happy, 2005-08-21
- Its hard to be emphathetic towards a protagonist who's depressed and decides to have an affair when she already has a great husband, two healthy children and no financial worries.
Two stars because the addition of the "history of happiness" (research for a book she is writing) was interesting.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
This book makes you feel like it's an old friend talking to you..., 2005-08-15
This book is very real and compelling. It's like it's an old friend sitting with you telling you a poignant tale while you both sip tea. Anyone who has ever struggled with what it means for you to be personally happy, what happiness means to you, will enjoy this book. I've had some of the same thoughts and feelings that the fictional Sally Farber has, but this is the first book I've seen to detail these issues in such a tangible, creative way. You won't want to put the book down and the reading is effortless. You also will learn about recent scientific studies on happiness, as Sally researches her book on happiness, which is great but doesn't at all feel like you're reading anything close to a textbook. It's a book about an author struggling to write a book on happiness as she struggles with the issue in her own life. This book is a true gem.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
The title makes you think this is a lightweight summer book..., 2005-08-10
but in actuality, this book is deceptively deep and insightful! Wrapped in a captivating story (which i won't reiterate as others before me have written good synopses of it) , with a truly interesting main character, are hidden gems, universal messages about the nature of happiness and the human search for "it".
I have struggled with this for years, trying to find, keep, hold, manage, control my own happiness and it was so special to find these fictional characters were going through the same issues. The people in the book were so real to me! I not only had 2 days of enjoyment ( happiness!) reading the book, but I felt so reassured and comforted , this search is part of the human condition. Lisa Grunwald is an amazing writer who can not only tell a great story with such vivid characters, but she can convey our human desires for happiness ,often looked for in places that aren't healthy...till we learn... This is a wonderful book and I can not recommend it enough,
one I want to buy for friends and family.
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