Available:*
Material Type | Library | Call Number | Suggested Age | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Audio Disc | Searching... Cabell County Public Library | 070.92 LAW | Adult | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
"Jenny Lawson returns to narrate her third installment in a disheveled saga of finding the light at the end of a long, winding, ludicrous tunnel...Another treasure in the Lawson collection, this audiobook shines with a powerful message: Depression and anxiety suck, but we can rise above them." -- AudioFile Magazine, Earphones Award winner
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Furiously Happy and Let's Pretend This Never Happened comes a deeply relatable audiobook filled with humor and honesty about depression and anxiety.
*This program includes an audio-exclusive bonus chapter*
As Jenny Lawson's hundreds of thousands of fans know, she suffers from depression. In Broken (in the bests possible way) , Jenny brings listeners along on her mental and physical health journey, offering heartbreaking and hilarious anecdotes along the way.
With people experiencing anxiety and depression now more than ever, Jenny humanizes what we all face in an all-too-real way, reassuring us that we're not alone and making us laugh while doing it. From the business ideas that she wants to pitch to Shark Tank to the reason why Jenny can never go back to the post office, Broken leaves nothing to the imagination in the most satisfying way. And of course, Jenny's long-suffering husband Victor--the Ricky to Jenny's Lucille Ball--is present throughout.
A treat for Jenny Lawson's already existing fans, and destined to convert new ones, Broken is a beacon of hope and a wellspring of laughter when we all need it most.
A Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt and Company
Author Notes
Jenny Lawson , the Bloggess, is a humor writer known for her candor in addressing her struggle with depression and mental illness. She has over 468,000 Twitter followers, 122,000 Instagram followers, and over 192,000 Facebook fans; her blog gets 4-5 million page views per year; and her social media presence continues to grow. Her first book, Let's Pretend This Never Happened , debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list and sold over 400,000 copies. Her second book, Furiously Happy , spent five months on the New York Times bestseller list and has sold well over half a million copies.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Lawson (You Are Here) returns with a wry and entertaining take on her battle with depression, anxiety, and rheumatoid arthritis. As always, the author is unrivaled in her ability to use piercing humor and insight to take on heavy subjects. In the poignant "I Already Forgot I Wrote This," Lawson shares moving reflections on her family's history of dementia ("My mother jokes about it now and I do too, because you either laugh or you cry"). In "The Things We Do to Quiet the Monsters," she details the transcranial magnetic stimulation treatment she underwent to cure her medication-resistant mental health issues ("It feels like an invisible chisel drilling holes into your head while you have an ice-cream headache and also you're paying for it to happen to you"), and she excoriates her insurance provider in "An Open Letter to My Insurance Company": "you decided that it 'wasn't medically necessary' that I have the drug that had kept me away from suicide." In "Six Times I've Lost My Shoes While Wearing Them," she chronicles the strange places she's lost her left shoe after "walking out of it" due to fluctuating ankle swelling from chronic arthritis. The beauty of these essays lies in Lawson's unfailing hopefulness amid her trials. "After all," she notes, "we are changed by life... it puts its teeth in us... makes us who we are." Lawson's fans are in for a treat. (Apr.)
Kirkus Review
The Bloggess is back to survey the hazards and hilarity of imperfection. Lawson is a wanderer. Whether on her award-winning blog or in the pages of her bestselling books, she reliably takes readers to places they weren't even aware they wanted to go--e.g., shopping for dog condoms or witnessing what appears to be a satanic ritual. Longtime fans of the author's prose know that the destinations really aren't the point; it's the laugh-out-loud, tears-streaming-down-your-face journeys that make her writing so irresistible. This book is another solid collection of humorous musings on everyday life, or at least the life of a self-described "super introvert" who has a fantastic imagination and dozens of chosen spirit animals. While Furiously Happy centered on the idea of making good mental health days exceptionally good, her latest celebrates the notion that being broken is beautiful--or at least nothing to be ashamed of. "I have managed to fuck shit up in shockingly impressive ways and still be considered a fairly acceptable person," writes Lawson, who has made something of an art form out of awkward confessionals. For example, she chronicles a mix-up at the post office that left her with a "big ol' sack filled with a dozen small squishy penises [with] smiley faces painted on them." It's not all laughs, though, as the author addresses her ongoing battle with both physical and mental illness, including a trial of transcranial magnetic stimulation, a relatively new therapy for people who suffer from treatment-resistant depression. The author's colloquial narrative style may not suit the linear-narrative crowd, but this isn't for them. "What we really want," she writes, "is to know we're not alone in our terribleness….Human foibles are what make us us, and the art of mortification is what brings us all together." The material is fresh, but the scaffolding is the same. Fans will find comfort in Lawson's dependably winning mix of shameless irreverence, wicked humor, and vulnerability. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Whether she's writing about buying condoms she'll use to cover her dog's paws, applying to the Vampire Brotherhood, or hiding in her bathroom, best-selling humorist Lawson (Furiously Happy, 2015) openly describes a variety of ailments. She's losing her memory (and her shoes); she's anemic (she suspects blood-sucking bats in the night); she suffers from depression (and fears that it may lead to suicide); she has a host of autoimmune disorders. She sums it all up with, "I make others feel okay by being a barometer of awkwardness and self-doubt." She also makes others laugh. Her delivery is zany, clever, and raunchy. Her conversations with party guests, her long-suffering husband, her sister, and even herself are flat-out hilarious. And the situations she finds herself in are comic gold. Beneath the banter, however, is a heartbreaking chronicle of what goes on in the mind of a person dealing with anxiety and depression. Lawson is willing to try new drugs and procedures but ends up battling the insurance company at every turn. Lawson experiences some successes, and she's grateful as she glories in feeling normal even though her anxiety can return at any moment. Her insights are eye-opening as she gives readers a first-hand view of the struggles caused by mental illness.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Stock up for Lawson's millions of readers, who cherish her candor and have been eagerly awaiting her new book.
Library Journal Review
Lawson follows Furiously Happy, her best-selling book of humorous essays, with this hilarious and poignant look at her mental and physical challenges. The author discusses her anxiety, depression, rheumatoid arthritis, and other illnesses, so listeners might expect to hear a sobering story of challenges and defeat. But that's not Lawson's style. She has her low moments, to be sure, but she combats them with a wonderful sense of humor about life and herself. Lawson narrates the audiobook and sometimes laughs aloud at the absurdity of the situations in which she finds herself. The chapter in which readers of Lawson's blog share their most embarrassing moments will leave listeners in tears of laughter and rueful acknowledgment of their own faux pas. Throughout, Lawson is truthful about her difficult moments and maintains an admirable sense of hope for herself and her family. No one could have done a better job narrating. VERDICT This is a must-have for all public libraries.--B. Allison Gray, Goleta Valley Lib., CA
