What to Read: Book Reviews From Real Simple Readers

Happier at Home, by Gretchen Rubin

Reviewer: Molly Antos Morey; age 27; married; Chicago.

Molly’s assessment: Part memoir, part self-help manual, this sequel to Rubin’s 2009 best seller, The Happiness Project, explores how we can change our parental and spousal responsibilities—as well as our possessions and physical spaces—to build a more joyful life. Reading it certainly heightened my awareness of my own life. It’s fairly remarkable: Despite the fact that Rubin writes only about herself, I found everything she wrote perfectly applicable to me. I also appreciated when she admitted that, at times, trying to be happy doesn’t make her happy, because it’s such hard work. This paradox plagues me constantly, too.

To buy: $26, amazon.com.