Yesterday morning I began reading Dave Barry’s Lessons from Lucy: The Simple Joys of an Old, Happy Dog and laughed out loud and was glad that, for me, it was a dog-oriented day, and happy that these two coincided by happenstance.

With a few exceptions, I’ve had a dog (or two) most of the years of my life. When I was an infant, my mother used to put me down for my naps on our Irish Setter, and he would watch over me, like “Nana” in Peter Pan. When I began to try to walk, he would knock me back down on all fours, so certain was he that I belonged on all fours, as I belonged to him. As I write this, I have two dogs sleeping beside me.

Inside this collection of Barry’s musings are seven chapters, each one a “Lesson from Lucy,” all of which are based on struggles that Dave Barry might have, and the wisdom he gains, the perspective he receives when he sees how Lucy responds when faced with challenges.

From topics like the 1954-1973 TV show“Lassie,” to how routine oriented dogs can be, to some of the things they seem to have conquered – the state of being happy seems to be what dogs do best. And so he examines their methods of achieving happiness (or avoiding unhappiness), by observing how they deal with life, in general.

There are also stories that include friends of his, both here and gone, that are incredibly touching stories. His stories of his years with The Rock Bottom Remainders,a band comprised of Barry and other authors, including Amy Tan, Stephen King, Roy Blount, Jr. Robert Fulghum, Ridley Pearson, Barbara Kingsolver, Matt Groening and others, a band that was meant to disband after a single performance, but as time went by added more as others left, including occasionally actual “big-time”musicians such as Judy Collins, Springsteen and Warren Zevon.

Sweet and humorous, this made me (and Stephen King) laugh out loud. His observations on our need for such platforms as Facebook, the frustrations of dealing with Comcast, AARP, and preparing for a hurricane is not something I’d associate with humour, but even this one had me laughing.

While this may not have answers to the larger questions of life, and reading it will not cure any major health issues, it is full of the medicine of laughter, and as they say – laughter is the best medicine. I say, laughter - and a dog - are the best medicine.


Pub Date: 02 Apr 2019

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Simon & Schuster

It’s all in the delivery! If you shudder at the thought of another self-help book, relax, Dave Barry has made it fairly painless, thanks to Lucy, his life-lessons guru and aging dog.

LESSONS FROM LUCY is filled with humorous one-liners, chuckle-worthy scenarios and heart-felt reasons to embrace life just for the joy of it! If readers take nothing else away from this humorous look at life and its many foibles, it is the simple joy in living for the moment, loving with all you have, unconditionally and taking time for those around you without ulterior motives.

Fresh, fun reading with a ton of heart and beautiful lessons that are so often far easier to act on than holding a grudge or getting caught up in “society’s acceptables,” live, love and give of yourself! Dog lovers can relate to Lucy's attitude about life, maybe dogs are smarter than we give them credit for!

I received a complimentary ARC edition from Simon & Schuster!

Publisher: Simon & Schuster (April 2, 2019)
Publication Date: April 2, 2019
Genre: Humor | Self-help
Print Length: 208 pages
Available from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
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Lessons from Lucy is both a very different book than Dave Barry's usual fare and one that falls directly in line with it. I enjoyed it for being standard Barry - laugh-out-loud funny and at points truly ridiculous - as well as for its gentler moments of compassion and depth. Highly recommended!

Funny, poignant and educational book about a man and his dog. LOVED IT! I laughed, I cried and I learned things. I would recommend this book to anyone.

Dave Barry has not disappointed with this book. He has given us another few hours of great entertainment.

This is my first Dave Barry book but it won't be my last. I have to admit, I wanted to read this based on the fact that I have an older black lab so that title immediately drew me in. What I was surprised about, however, is that this isn't entirely a book about a dog which came as a pleasant surprise. Barry uses Lucy and his relationship with her in her aging years...and his as well as he just turned 70....to lay out many pieces of advice and rules for living he'd like to accomplish in his remaining years. He has a chapter about anger that's absolutely hysterical because it's so true. I was laughing out loud while reading at a restaurant waiting on a friend. The story is played out as if he's a friend talking to you, it's very conversational, tongue in cheek , and sarcastic in the best possible way. What he does say about dogs and living with them is so spot on, funny, and sentimental that I loved those parts as well. Overall, this was a wonderful feel good book that made me laugh and appreciate by best furry friend.

In Lessons from Lucy, Dave Barry looks to his dog for ways to be a happier human. Lucy loves everyone and adjusts to whatever circumstances come her way. She’s friends with everyone, and so Dave puts more efforts into existing friendships and develop new ones.

I chuckled out loud many times over the course of this book. In the course of laughing, he also reminds you of stuff like pay less attention to your phone and more to the people you love. Yes, every self-help book ever written talks about that, but it’s an important reminder nonetheless.
As self-help books go, this one is more fun than most.

Thank you NetGalley for providing this book in return for an honest review. Dave Barry made me LOL! Not many books do that anymore. He introduced us to his dog Lucy and explains the life lessons she has taught him - like meeting new friends, having fun, living in the moment. At age 70 Dave tries a few personality changes to follow Lucy’s example.

How do I love thee? One of the ways is making me laugh. And nobody does that better than this author, who has been a favorite of mine ever since somewhere in the early 1980s (if memory serves me well) when I began reading - and giggling my way through - his syndicated newspaper columns. Several books have crossed my reading path as well, the latest being this one. It's a bit more introspective than others have been - after all, he's getting older like the rest of us (for the record, he's about seven years younger than I am). Nonetheless I chuckled, chortled and, on occasion, belly laughed my way from beginning to end.

Subtitled "The Simple Joys of an Old, Happy Dog," the center of attention here is Barry's aging dog Lucy. From watching (and clearly loving) her, he has derived seven "lessons" that everyone - not just those of us for whom the years ahead are far fewer than those we've left behind - would do well to consider. That's largely because Lucy has always known how to be happy; if we follow her examples, we, too, can live out the rest of our years as happier individuals with fewer regrets. Each chapter presents a new lesson (No. 1: Make New Friends (And Keep the Ones You Have), followed by his observations of Lucy's behavior and his conclusions as to why we humans would do well to be copycats.

Did I mention cats? That reminds me to mention Barry's often wry humor runs rampant throughout the book, including a reference to cats, who he claims "have the morals of Hannibal Lecter." My personal favorite is his take on the burden of Social Security costs that is being passed to younger generations: "I view this as payback for what the younger generations have done to music."

Both amusing, yes; but the "no spleen" story had me - quite literally - doubled over and in tears (you'll just have to read it for yourself).

Now that I've finished the book, I'll offer one of my own life lessons: Never underestimate the importance of laughter. It will - trust me on this - serve you well through the best of times and the worst of times. This book provides a wonderful reminder of that - and I thank the publisher (via NetGalley) for the opportunity to read and review an advance copy. It's rare that I say this, but I really, really didn't want this one to end.

Thoroughly delightful and I could not agree more with all of the Lessons From Lucy. Everyone needs to be reminded of how civilized humans should be behaving. And dogs are the best humans to teach us these lessons. My only criticism- I would have enjoyed more Lucy stories. Thank you for rescuing Lucy!

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: I have a material connection because I received a review copy for free from Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Dave Barry is a well-known humorist. He has authored many books, both fiction and non-fiction. His accolades are sung throughout the land and rightly so. He has a Pulitzer Prize, is a NYT Best Selling Author, and even had a sitcom based on a couple of his books. As a columnist his funny takes on life and whatever else was in his head at the time have appeared in over 500 newspapers. Suffice it to be said lots and lots of people think he is funny, and I am certainly one of them.

Lessons from Lucy is a self-help book. Normally I look at self-help books as though the pages are laced with arsenic and leave them on the shelves in the bookstores to die a slow and painful death sad and alone. But I have finally found a self-help book full of useful information that should be read by anyone and everyone. Especially if you are in what poets call the “sunset years”, but Lucy and Barry refer to as getting old. Everyone gets old and this book gives us all great insights to navigate old age with a lot more fun than you might think.

Dogs are basically happy creatures. Barry captures the essence of happiness by studying Lucy’s reactions to situations such as meeting new people (or dogs). Lucy has an open mind about it once she sniffs them out. So should people. Not the sniffing part, but new friends and experiences are so much better than sitting around watching reruns all afternoon. So make some new friends and stay in touch with those you have. It will make you happy.

Be present in the moment is another gem of wisdom. Be happy with who you are with and what you are doing and for goodness sakes put down that cell phone and actually have a conversation. See? Lucy is brilliant and she has a happy life because of her willingness to be happy where she is and with whom she is with.

Each lesson is relatable and will stick with you, such as dealing with anger. Lucy gets mad at the garbage man, and then lets it go. People get mad and let it simmer all day, telling everyone about the horrible thing someone else did or did not do. Who doesn’t yell at the guy on his phone in front of you texting at the green light? Does it do any good? Nope, that guy is gonna do what he’s gonna do. Why get your blood pressure to the top of the chart over something you can’t do anything about? Be like Lucy and let it go.

Barry might be a grumpy old man (his assessment, not mine) but he is still one of the funniest writers I have ever read. His take on life will leave you thinking about it long after you have stopped laughing at the hysterical delivery of his message. As he states, “getting old sucks” but goes on to tell the reader how to make it fun. Really, really fun.

I recommend you grab this book and read it at least once, maybe twice because we all get old and you are going to need this info at some point. I am going to try and not be so grumpy, so opinionated and get out meeting more people and doing more things. I’ll stay connected with my friends and make new ones. Laughing more and living more sounds like the best advice I’ve ever read in a self-help book. I should have known a dog would make me a better human, but it took Dave Barry pointing it out for me to see it.

Copyright © 2018 Laura Hartman

Lessons from Lucy is life advice from Dave Barry through the perspective of his dog. Dave is 70, the same as Lucy in dog years, and he realizes that Lucy has figured out the key to a happy life while Dave himself might be a bit of a curmudgeon! Dave's humor is sweet, refreshing, and family-friendly. I enjoyed the first half of the book and really liked getting to know more about Dave, his upbringing, and his family adventures. But I quickly tired of the stories and halfway in I was looking for more stories about Lucy. The life advice is largely what you'd expect, but the book is a quick read and enjoyable especially on a flight or lazy afternoon.

Are you a dog lover? Do you have a dog? Do you know anyone that has a dog? If so, you will recognize some of the scenarios that Dave Barry describes in his book Lessons From Lucy. In typical Dave Barry fashion, he takes ordinary observations and tells stories in ways that are so familiar but yet you had never thought about in that way. In this book, Dave takes lessons from his dog Lucy and how she handles things in contrast to how he has handled those situations in the past. He vows to become a better person by taking his cues from Lucy. I felt the book started off slow but I was soon laughing out loud as I read each story. After Dave goes through the seven lessons of living better and how he is going to work to be more like Lucy, he grades himself report card style. I won't spoil it and tell you how he did but let's just say that he is a work in progress. This book was a quick read, offered rambling stories in Dave Barry fashion, made me laugh, and made me nod my head that I could use some work in these areas as well. This ACR was provided to me by NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion of the book.

I grew up reading Dave Barry's newspaper columns and always found him funny. So I knew his book about his beloved dog Lucy was going to be good.  He talks about how  later in life, Lucy has taught him how to be a better person.  For example, he talks about how Lucy loves and befriends everyone and doesn't hold a grudge.  Barry realizes that as he has aged, he isn't that way and strives to finish out his years striving to be more like Lucy.  I highly recommend this light-hearted read.  I promise, it has a happy ending.

Good advice, Lucy! Presented in typically humorous Dave Barry fashion. My favorite is at the end when he grades himself on how well he is following the advice. This book is one that I will give as gifts.

Dave Barry will be the first to tell you he doesn’t think he’s a funny guy. That’s his opinion. He is certainly adept at writing funny books, wry commentaries on the relatively ordinariness of life.

In Lessons from Lucy, he describes the lessons he’s learned about life from his dog, Lucy - have fun, make new friends, be in the moment. And lest you think he’s joking, he’s not. Certainly this latest book is amusing, but the lessons he learns from Lucy, and how he’s chosen to act as a result, are lessons we can all learn from.

This is a sweet book, not only about a man and his dog, but about a man and his life. An easy but profound read. Highly recommended..

I received this book as an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

What could be better than combing Dave Barry's humor and the love of a dog? Lessons from Lucy: The Simple Joys of an Old, Happy Dog was a perfect read to refresh my mental health and adjust my attitude. I laughed out loud and I felt warm and squishy inside.

Barry admits he's always been a 'dog person,' as have I. My childhood mutt Pepper and I loved each other. She followed me to school, sometimes even got into the school to show up at my classroom door. I would lay on the floor to color and Pepper would place her chin on the small of my back. I loved to stroke her long, soft, floppy ears. For Barry, his childhood dog surpassed Lassie in heroism, for Mistral would eat the Brussels Sprouts Barry slipped to him during dinner!

Barry shares his dog stories and stories from his family life to illustrate the lessons Lucy has taught him about how to live.

I cracked up over so many things. He takes on Facebook and electronic devices, the horror of shellfish as "Phlegms of the Sea," white lies, hurricane preparation, teenage angst over appearance, and the difference between dogs and cats. Dogs feel guilt, even if they haven't done anything wrong; cats "have the morals of Hannibal Lecter."

The seven lessons are not profound or unexpected, but essential and wise. Barry even scores himself on how he has been progressing in trying to put the lessons into practice!

It's worth a try. I sure envy the happiness of old dogs. Our Shibas in their golden years impressed me with the smiles on their faces just enjoying the comfort of a thick foam bed.

I received a free ebook from the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

I love Dave Barry. I enjoy his columns as well as his hilarious novels. In Lessons From Lucy Barry gives some humor but has overall feel-good feelings. He blends stories of his life with lessons from his dog Lucy. As he states in his ending, these are mostly not new ideas. In fact, I just read it for the humor. (I'm not a dog person.)
I was glad I read it as it did get me looking at life a little differently but unfortunately, I don't think it will change my life.

Combine Dave Barry's humor with talking about dogs... how can you go wrong? Thoroughly enjoyed this book.

It took me a little time to write this review as I wanted to do it justice. Everyone and I really mean EVERYONE should read this book. The world would be a better place if everyone experienced the unconditional love and sense of humor of a dog and took them to heart. There is nothing like it. If you haven't than this wonderful, honest, funny, snarky, sarcastic endearing book will give you an inkling of the love, joy and humor the rest of us wouldn't trade for anything in the world. Clearly dogs have it so much more together than we humans do!!

I often say I prefer dogs to humans and this book exemplifies why. Dave Barry has managed to take any thought and emotion that I have ever thought about my dogs and articulate them in a way I never could. This book is funny, sweet, poignant, amusing and so incredibly true. I think that Mr. Barry has somehow managed to get inside the head and brain of a dog and been kind enough to share all he has discovered with us.

We should all learn to live by Lucys life lessons. They are smart, funny and so very true. Your time will be well spent if you take the time to read this wonderfully charming sweet tale.