My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Penguin Group- Penguin Books for an advance copy of this book that is part memoir and part a guide to allowing something many us are not feeling much of right now, which is joy, into our lives, and how joy can make so many changes in ourselves, allowing us to help others, and maybe make a better place for all.

America for all its talk of freedoms, doesn't like people to be to free. There are limits, from peer pressure, religious and government pressure, soon to be the same thing, even family pressures. To be proud of something, to take joy in something is frowned on by many people. Call it the puritan influence, or maybe just jealousy, but Americans don't like happy joyful people. Oh that Taylor Swift, she doesn't have kids, or a husband she can't be happy. I have heard this a lot, usually from trolls, but this seems to be a big thing. If you don't fit the box that society had decided one must fit into, you must be unhappy. And lack the joy that comes from living in that box. There is also a feeling with so much misery in the world, how can one take joy from anything. Again, the puritan aspect of not bragging. Some people love to make everyone miserable, like as the author once called himself and Eeyore, from Winnie the Pooh. It wasn't till the world showed how bad it could be did the author see the beauty and he wonder that was all around. And found the joy that was always there. The Joy You Make: Find the Silver Linings--Even on Your Darkest Days by writer and journalist Steven Petrow, is a new way of looking at things, and finding ways of getting through the day, and more importantly , helping others feel better too.

Steven Petrow was having a heck of a year. Within a short period of time Petrow lost his father, his mother, found himself first separated and divorced from his husband. And his sister was diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer. Petrow had never been of the sunniest of dispositions, as I wrote earlier he considered himself a curmudgeon of the Eeyore persuasion, the character from Winnie the Pooh, who always assumed the worst would happen. Until by chance, something inside of him had enough and Petrow began to notice small things, that didn't make him happy, but gave him a feeling he was unfamiliar with, joy. A church Nativity scene, a nice flower, a dog. Soon Petrow was sharing photos of these moments, sharing his joy and making others happy. A writing assignment of the Washington Post led him to study joy, and how we give it, leading him to studies, interviews and places which gave him more and more insight into the subject. Soon he was looking at parts of his life, parts that people assumed he would be unhappy with, being alone, being gay, and finding that these negatives, also had positives. And of course joy in time with his sister and family.

Steven Petrow is a very good writer, and his time thinking about joy, and the events he went through, with the addition of Covid, gave him a lot of time to make joy a part of his life. This is a self improvement book that doesn't make one feel guilty if one doesn't follow it all the way, or seem lost in a world of it's own. One of the first, and to this reader one of the biggest sections is that we ourselves happy, we bring others joy. That is something that is lost. I'm happy when an author I like comes out with a new book. I feel joy when my nephews do something new and different, especially if I am there to experience it.

Petrow looks for the brighter side, and is successful, though I am sure many of the Puritans in power and Debbie Downers who vote to control house colors in Homeowner Associations won't feel joy about this book. However maybe that is what the world needs. Someone sharing a story, a picture of something going right. It sure beats Doomscrolling Twitter.