Member Reviews
Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I typically love Jenny Lawson. Her first book especially made me laugh until it hurt with her family tales and random tangents. I also love how she can be so honest and raw about her own chronic illnesses.
I wish she had chosen one of those things for this book and stuck with it.
While there were certain sections that were riveting, funny, and honest, other parts felt like she was trying to be all things to all readers. It’s as if she was worried we wouldn’t like her if she didn’t play new versions of her greatest hits.
Maybe it’s that I’ve changed and don’t enjoy her madcap thoughts on life as much now. Or maybe she has changed and that’s why she doesn’t capture the humor as effortlessly anymore.
Whatever the case, I wish I had enjoyed this book more than I did.
Jenny Lawson is one of my favorite writers. Her books never fail to make me laugh out loud, sometimes to the point of tears.
Her works also bring me comfort and make me feel less alone - I'm not the only one living with mental health issues.
I was SO excited to receive an ARC of Broken from NetGalley. Jenny Lawson is one of my favorite authors/bloggers, and I couldn't wait to get started reading Broken. It was SO FANTASTIC. I laughed so hard I cried practically every chapter. Her chairs about anxiety and depression are incredibly well written and I was all "girl, same." We aren't alone out here. Every other chapter was just hysterical! I seriously laughed my way through the book and was sad only when it ended. A MUST READ! Put this on your list to get for everyone you know (ok, mostly those over 18 for swears and private talk).
Thank you #Netgalley for the advanced copy!
I was so excited to get my hands on this one! I have enjoyed Jenny Lawsons writing for years and when this became available, I had to get a copy! I always appreciate Jenny's honesty, especially around her mental health, so many people deal with these struggles and hide them. Jenny has shared her experiences, both the good and bad, along with how her family copes with these dynamics. There were so many moments during this read that made me laugh out loud and a few that made me sad for her. Overall, as always with her books and blog, I highly recommend to everyone!
One story line I greatly appreciated was her documentation of her experience with a a new treatment plan. She was advised to keep a diary to be able to recall the change she may experience. I love how she shared how it felt, how her brain changed and how it impacted her day to day life, all for the better.
Oh my goodness but Jenny Lawson has the most amazing way of telling a story... Whether you're reading her deeply personal thoughts on her struggles with physical and mental illness, her righteous indignation at the behavior in of insurance companies, or the hysterical interactions between her and her long-suffering husband Victor you can't help but be drawn to this woman... She is a brilliant storyteller, and manages to capture the pathos of whatever she's talking about in a way that is so distinctly her own that it makes everything she writes a marvel to read. I laughed so hard reading so many of the stories that I literally started crying and couldn't catch my breath. Then on the flip side I would read her depictions of depression and anxiety and my heart would start to pound with the tension in the room. This one offered a lot more introspection than her previous collections, but I found the balance between dark and light in this to still make for a very enjoyable - even if occasionally difficult (in the best possible way) - read. It's another phenomenal collection and not one to be missed!
As always, Jenny makes me laugh until tears stream down my face. I can not read her books in public. I read half of this one out loud to my husband. She also gets pretty serious about depression and auto-immune issues in this book. I appreciate that.
I love Jenny Lawson. I am pretty sure I screamed when I found out that she was coming out with a new book; and I know I screamed when I got the email with my digital review copy. Compared to her other books I would say Broken sits between Let's Pretend This Never Happened and Furiously Happy on the funny and serious topic scale. Broken is written in Lawson's classic "blog post" like chapters where we tend to have a couple of light hearted chapters bookended with serious discussions of mental health. Broken specifically does touch on mental health with a bit more discussions on Lawson's chronic pain and more physical ailments. There was a particularly scathing letter to her insurance company and an essay titled "I Feel it in My Bones" that really hit home for me. As with all Lawson books, I was stoping every chapter to fold over laughing and on the other chapters stop to curl up in a ball and cry.
I am a huge fan of Jenny Lawson! I follow her on IG and I've recommended her book "Furiously Happy" to so many friends who also loved it! In "Broken", Jenny once again shows her vulnerability due to illnesses while being that quirky, fun character that we have all come to love. There were moments where I wanted to be her friend and take her for a margarita to tell her to get it together. But most of the time, like while reading her letter to the health insurance industry, I wanted to stand up and give her an Academy Award.
Ms. Lawson is once again the best at being Broken... in the best possible way.
While I'm a fan of the Bloggess (Blogess?), I'm not a regular reader so I don't know if these essays were previously published on her blog. They felt quite a lot like a compilation of random blog posts, though, and many of them really didn't seem to have to do with the supposed topic, Lawson's lifelong battles with mental illness. Some were funny, some were serious. There was always a bit of funny with the serious and vice versa. I enjoyed some chapters much more than others. One chapter was composed of very NSFW product suggestions for Shark Tank or something like that, and those were kinda terrible even for me. I really enjoyed her sections that dealt with her anxiety and depression, but so much of the book felt like filler of just random silly stuff.
I read in the blurb or the intro about the experimental procedures she's been going though and expected a lot more about that, but she just kind of describes it in one chapter and says that it seems to have helped a bit and she acknowledges that since insurance doesn't cover it and it's expensive, she knows how lucky she is to have been able to do it (and it may need to be repeated). I've read her first book and also have purchased two of her adult coloring books (one for me and one for my oldest child), and I enjoy everything she puts out. I certainly love her as a person and relate to many of her struggles. A few parts of this book did have me really laughing out loud, and a few were really touching and relatable. A lot of other parts just felt like skimming through old blog posts, some of which were more successful than others. This was a 3 star book for me -- liked it. I can't say I loved it but I love her and do recommend the book.
I read a digital ARC of this book via Net Galley.
I appreciate netgalley giving me this book for a fair and honest review.
I give this book a scant 4 stars. I enjoy the perspective of Jenny as she relates herself to us and I’ll try not to compare them. This one deserves to be observed on its own. There is as much light as there is dark here. Mental illness and chronic pain and family life. It could be one of those progressive TV dramas where you get amazed that both happy and sad can endure in the same character. In the end, this is about family and how we can get there together.
There was one chapter on Shark Tank that I could have done without almost entirely, but that’s entirely a sense of humor thing.
There are two things you can count on with a Jenny Lawson book: deeply relatable stories about mental health, and at least three stories that make you cackle fucking laughing. This is all of these, with a fun new addition: dealing with the fucking hellscape that is the American healthcare system. She appears to have found a more extreme form of therapy (electroshock therapy, but actually backed with science and not just some fucking misogynist ass shooting electricity into your brain for being socially nonconforming) that works well for her more extreme comorbidities. But that means looking at what happens when your brain actually cooperates with you for more than five hours and big things like “what if my mental health issues were all that were keeping my marriage together and I don’t need my husband?” She does really well at pacing these deeper, harder chapters with lighter, funnier chapters, and is just an excellent storyteller, period. Definitely pick this up when you have the chance.
I really enjoyed Broken by Jenny Lawson. In the book she shares stories that are entertaining, heart-warming, and genuine. She strikes a great balance between the humorous and serious.
I, unfortunately, did not finish this one. I loved Furiously Happy, but this one just fell a little flat for me. It felt like Jenny as trying too hard to be funny, and I found myself skimming trying to push past "bits" that just weren't working.
This is a wonderful collection that makes you feel the feels of anxiety but also genuinely makes you laugh out loud. We all need a lot of Jenny in our world.
Jenny Lawson has done it again. She has written a book for people who need a voice, people suffering from mental illness and those who love them. She is open and honest and hilarious. She lets you know how she has been broken and what she is doing to pick up her own pieces. I will always recommend her books to just about anyone, and they are one of the first books I choose to buy for friends.
Free copy received through NetGalley for my honest review.
Jenny Lawson has a gift for balancing humor and rawness in a way I've never seen done outside of her books. Broken (In the Best Possible Way) is a series of extremely readable chapters ranging from post-office catastrophes to transcranial magnetic stimulation.
I want to be Jenny's friend, I want to tell her what she says makes a difference, and thank her for sharing her stories. I laughed out loud so many times. I thought to myself, yep, I feel that so many times too. I learned some new things too This is more than a humor book, a self help book, a memoir, and I'm already looking forward to whatever she writes next.
If you loved her other books, you'll love this. If you're looking to read something that'll make you laugh and give you hope, you'll love this too. If you've ever done or said something embarrassing, you'll definitely love and relate to this book!
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. One word- HILARIOUS!! I think this may be her best book yet. She is so funny, but also lays out her real-world problems too. She is so real and raw and each chapter is great. Must read!
I was so excited to see this book available for review. I’ve loved Jenny Lawson’s writing for a while, and have read some of her previous books. I may also follow her on Twitter. This newest book Broken (In the Best Possible Way) made me laugh in the right places, feel all the feels, and made me feel that someone somewhere relates to the struggles so many people suffer through in silence.
Approximately one chapter in, I was already mentally listing who I was pre-ordering this book for (from a local independent book store of course). Lawson ties in difficult subject matter with humor in the best possible ways. It can be really hard to talk about mental health without feeling drained and hopeless, but Lawson manages to bring hope and light to counterbalance the seesaw of emotions. I can’t imagine how difficult it was to write this book with the issues the author struggles through, and the fact that it captures the reader and is so immersive is incredible. This book makes me want to sit down and talk with the author because she put so much into words that I don’t think many people even have the tools to express (but I mean… I know how difficult it can be for someone to go out and interact with people and this book discusses that, so totally not asking).
There were a few moments that I was mildly in a discomfort zone (definitely pre-screen for your kids if you don’t want to be answering some awkward questions), but Lawson always brought me back around. When I read this book, I was mentally noting – I want to share this, because it is so important to help people understand silent mental and chronic illnesses. For those that don’t have mental or chronic illness, living with or having relationships with people who do can be a whole new world to navigate. Lawson acknowledges this and in shedding light on her own health, she helps others navigate and learn to understand what it’s like to have these struggles. She also always seems to find hope, and hope is so important. Lawson acknowledges how difficult the struggle can be, but shares her own coping mechanisms that in the pit of the despair, there will be brighter days. Maybe not perfectly blissful days, but there will be better days. With being in the midst of a pandemic, in which so many are struggling, I feel like Lawson is adding to an important body of work in how to get through the fogs and sadness and depression and anxiety. I really recommend this book, and can’t wait until it’s released so that I can share it with friends and family. Maybe I’ll do some pre-orders from a certain Nowhere Bookshop.
Please be advised that I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Jenny Lawson does it again! I love how she speaks of her life experiences and struggles with mental health and general health with such humor and honesty. I saw myself in so much of this book - I laughed, I cried, I nodded in agreement, and overall, I loved every word.
Thanks Jenny, for being such a bright light.
Thanks to NetGalley and Henry Holt and Co. for an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.
I am always impressed with how I go from laughing to being sad within the same paragraph in Jenny Lawson’s writing. I love how honest she is about her physical and mental health. Everyone, especially all health insurance employees, should read her “An Open Letter to My Insurance Company” chapter.
I was banished from my family room as my giggling annoyed the football watchers and I finished reading in a safe laugh out loud zone upstairs.