Book Review

Happier At Home: Book review

Sitting happy on a library shelf, “Happier At Home” looked like that perfect take-me-home kind of a book. What further sold me on the book was what was written right next to the title.

Kiss More, jump More, Abandon a Project, Read Samuel Johnson, and My Other Experiments in the Practice of Everyday Life.

I had not read Gretchen Rubin’s earlier books and so I turned the pages of this book without knowing what to expect.

Book Blurb:

One Sunday afternoon, as she unloaded the dishwasher, Gretchen Rubin felt hit by a wave of homesickness. Homesick—why? She was standing right in her own kitchen. She felt homesick, she realized, with love for home itself. “Of all the elements of a happy life,” she thought, “my home is the most important.” In a flash, she decided to undertake a new happiness project, and this time, to focus on home.

And what did she want from her home? A place that calmed her, and energized her. A place that, by making her feel safe, would free her to take risks. Also, while Rubin wanted to be happier at home, she wanted to appreciate how much happiness was there already.

So, starting in September (the new January), Rubin dedicated a school year—September through May—to making her home a place of greater simplicity, comfort, and love.

Each month, Rubin tackles a different theme as she experiments with concrete, manageable resolutions.

I like the concept of experimenting different resolutions as projects with specific timelines. Hence, I enjoyed reading about most of the projects that she undertook. Especially the ones related to parenthood, family and neighborhood. However, I was not very impressed with the projects related to interior design, time, body etc. Probably because I did not connect with them and hence, did not enjoy reading the details of those projects.

I have made a note of a couple of my favorite projects. The ones that I would like to experiment with, in my own life.

The project that she undertakes with her 12 year old daughter: She called it ‘Wednesday Weekly Adventure’ where every wednesday, she would go out with her daughter for a couple of hours. Just the two of them, exploring a place.
The project with her sister: Since both of them are writers, they decided to collaborate on a book together. I believe starting a small project together is a beautiful way to strengthen a bond.
Being a Tourist Without Leaving Home: This was one of my resolutions when I moved into a new place. The complacency built in by feeling settled in a place can be broken only by wearing a tourist’s hat from time to time. Like she mentions in the book, Being a tourist is a state of mind.
‘Finding My Own Calcutta’: This is another beautiful project that she undertakes. (When anyone begged Mother Teresa to join her work or asked how to imitate the example of her life, she’d admonished “Find Your Own Calcutta.” meaning: people should follow their own causes. Just like she discovered Calcutta as a place of her calling, people should find a place where their skills could be useful and find meaning.)

I had a lot of takeaways from this book. In addition to the projects mentioned above, I loved the eight splendid truths that she talks about during the course of the book. These are words of wisdom to ponder upon:

To be happy, i need to think about feeling good, feeling bad, and feeling right, in an atmosphere of growth.
One of the best ways to make myself happy is to make other people happy. One of the best ways to make other people happy is to be happy myself.
The days are long, but the years are short.
I’m not happy unless I think I am happy.
I can build a happy life only on the foundation of my own nature.
The only person I can change os myself.
Happy people make people happy, but I can’t make someone be happy, and No one else can make me happy.
Now is now.