Cover Image: Broken (in the best possible way)

Broken (in the best possible way)

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Member Reviews

I love Jenny Lawson's books and this was no exception. She brings humor and a voice to mental health that people need to hear. She makes you want to be her friend and just hang out thru all her good times and bad. Plus there is almost always 1 story that makes you say, oh yeah! that happened to me too!!

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I love Jenny Lawson so much and I can't say enough good things about her writing. She somehow manages to be actually-laugh-out-loud funny one moment and real-tears-crying the next. She gets it. The pieces that stick most in my memory a few months after reading this collection are her story about all the different times and ways she has lost a single shoe (I cackled), and her open letter to her insurance company (I raged). If you have mental and/or chronic illness, you will likely feel very seen. I highly, highly recommend this book, along with Lawson's previous two, if you haven't read them: Let's Pretend This Never Happened and Furiously Happy.

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I’ve been familiar with Jenny (aka The Bloggess) since WAY back in the day… I think we were in the 20-Something Bloggers group together? As with any book of essays, some are laugh-out-loud funny, some are poignant, some aren’t particularly memorable. I enjoyed the mix of off-the-wall stories and more serious ones, like her experience getting a magnetic brain stimulation treatment for depression. Reading a few of her blog posts should give you a good idea of if you’ll enjoy the book or not, since it’s basically the same writing style.

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Jenny Lawson is back at her absurd antics in Broken. This time around she opens the curtain a bit more on her brokenness, the depths of her depression and anxiety and her everyday struggles to control them including imaginary fights with insurance companies, experimental brain treatments, and the waxing/waning nature of recovery. You'll cringe, you'll feel intense empathy, you'll awkwardly guffaw, and under it all, you'll feel an intense empathy and you'll be thankful that neither you nor Lawson is alone in the struggle.

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Another fantastic title from the amazing Jenny Lawson. Same sardonic wit, clever turn of phrases and bitingly kind insights into the human experience.

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Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for sharing this book. All opinions are my own.
Recommended for fans of David Sedaris.
Jenny Lawson is well known to be hilarious. Her personal life includes wild occurances on a regular basis that would put the rest of us on hospital bed rest for exhaustion. Highly recommended for anyone looking for solidarity with their mental health struggles, or who have a strong interest in taxidermied animals.

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Another perfect book by Jenny! I think she is such a fun person and her worting is simply en pointe! I will be gifting this one to my friends!

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I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you NetGalley!

I love the cover art and coloring!

The book is well-written. Jenny Lawson has a great talent with words, that's for sure. She's able to put a humerous spin on difficult topics.

I'd definitely recommend this to my friends.

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Jenny Lawson has the wonderful talent of being able to talk about mental and physical struggles with refreshing humor. It didn't always work for me, but that's okay! It's nice to see another woman, who is an introvert, speak her story.

I also really enjoyed the story about the cover art!

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If you are familiar with The Bloggess (Jenny Lawson’s online presence), you know what to expect with her book “Broken (in the best possible way).”

Shenanigans, crazy situations, lots of humor, a fun outlook on life, and the hilarious way she says “Victor” at the end of a sentence.

You also get a large dose of kindness from Lawson. She talks about her physical and mental health in such a vulnerable, authentic way, that I see how it goes toward helping to banish the stigma that is associated with mental health, wellness and chronic illness.

Reading and/or listening to Lawson’s books is like listening to a friend during a really great gab session. She is a champion of waving your freak flag high and loving one’s self, even though it’s hard to sometimes.

Her heart and compassion really shines through in this book. Five stars. I believe this book will help people and that’s beautiful.

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Did I cry when I received this book? Yes, yes I did. Did I then cry again once I started reading it? Yes, yes I did.

Jenny Lawson is such an important author for me. In reading her books and stories, I find pieces of myself that I've never been able to quite vocalize to those around me. The way she describes her brain and processing of events and ideas and thoughts just hits me right in the heart and funny bone.

Broken was no exception to this. I read and highlighted and tried to stifle my laughter while my husband slept besides me as I read it.

My favs are "Awkwarding Brings Us Together", "All the Reasons I'm Not Coming to Your Party", and "No One Wnats Your Handwritten 'Good for One Free Massage' Coupons, Darryl".
and the ones I felt most in my anxious heart are "Rainbow Fire", and "Anxiety Is a Lost Watch I Never Saw".

I so appreciate that Jenny allows us into her battle with her insurance company and trying TMS treatments.

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I love Jenny Lawson and was excited for this book. Her others seemed much more playful and maybe dramatic. This one, I would consider much darker and I had to step away from it a few times for my own very anxious/depressive self. But, I still loved it and recommended it to others because of how realistic it was to how battles with mental illness can be.

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Jenny is an author where every book she writes I will listen! (I will be a hearer of her words in my ear holes and my mind will piece all those words together in a way that will alight my face and eyes so that others driving next to me will wonder why I am so happy or wiping away tears from laughing so very hard.) I appreciate her so very much for being a wonderful advocate for mental health and sharing her experiences with all issues dealing with insurance and that headache. She brings me such joy so every book will be an automatic much enjoy as soon as possible!

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Jenny Lawson is back with a new collection of stories to tell everyone.

If you've read Jenny before and liked her style, you'll love this one as well. Jenny is a solid, if a little off the wall, storyteller, and I always have fun coming along for the ride. My only suggestion to people who maybe can't get into her writing style--get the audiobook. For me, audio is her medium.

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Jenny Lawson has done it again. Just like in her book Furiously Happy, Lawson talks openly about her quirks and her mental illnesses in a way that people can easily relate.

When I read/listen to her books I no longer feel ashamed or disappointed in my self as I did before reading her books. She talks about the silly things that she does to keep herself happy and how its okay to acknowledge your feelings whether it be anxiety or depression or really anything.

I hope she continues to write books like these because I will happily read them all.

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Laugh out Loud funny and heartbreaking at the same time, Jenny Lawson has done it again with Broken (in the best possible way) I was laughing, with tears rolling down my face and my kids came in and asked what was going on so we read aloud from Jenny's book and all had the best evening of our entire quarantine. Thank you Ms. Lawson for continuing to be so real and raw and amazing and hilarious.

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Jenny Lawson does it again. Her look at her less than perfect life with the honesty and authenticity that is often missing in memoirs makes this a must read. The way she describes her struggles while leaning on her sense of humor helps the reader better understand mental illness and the toll it takes not just on the individual, but the family of those individuals as well. This unflinching look at her life was a great read.

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I was provided an advanced copy of this book by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is the third book of essays by Jenny Lawson, and if you enjoyed the first two, this one follows the same feel.

She writes about her experience with mental illness with a sense of incomparable humor that makes you feel like you could instantly be best friends if you were just given a chance. She writes as if someone gave her notes about all of the secrets and insecurities about yourself that you don't tell anyone, and she does it endearingly.

Mostly, she writes so you don't feel so alone. I can't recommend any of her books highly enough.

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I received a complimentary copy of this title from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed are my own.

I love Jenny. I loved Jenny when she was "just" The Bloggess--i.e. on the actual blog. She's always been amazing and real and funny and honest and I have so much respect for her that it's just unreal. When I first found Jenny's blog (it's still kind of unreal to just call her "Jenny" now), it was lots of funny. The lists of conversations with her husband and weird things (often taxidermy) that she bought or wanted to buy. I remember the chronic illness being there in the background, but it was kind of more of an undercurrent.

Jenny's first book--Let's Pretend This Never Happened--was laugh city. When she talked about the chronic illness, it was light and funny. I ended up buying the audiobook to hear her reading it and it was like listening to someone you wanted to be friends with *so hard* but weren't cool enough for her to notice you tell all these awesome stories.

Her second book--Furiously Happy--was an evolution. It was like she didn't feel the need to couch everything in humor anymore. Don't get me wrong, I still laughed out loud *a lot*. But it was so nice to see Jenny being more open. It felt like she was being more honest with us (which we are not owed as fans/an audience, of course), but herself. Yes, she deals with these debilitating conditions every day. Yes, it is very hard. But it's her life and she deals with it like a champ. She helps you realize--it seems like as she accepts it herself--that life isn't always going to be funny or easy and it's okay to ask for help or take a day off.

Broken (In the Best Possible Way) is full circle. The title itself lets you know that you're going to be dealing with some difficulties. And then you see the cover and it inevitably makes you smile, because Jenny's just like that. Of course there is funny, because I don't think Jenny could read a take-out menu without it being hilarious, but it's so much more about her and her wonderful family (which we see a lot of in Furiously Happy, for sure!) and her struggles. But that's okay. She's been there, she's come out the other side, lived to tell about it, and it's just part of who she is now. And this is how she's dealt with it and continues to. She is honest and unashamed and *embraces* it.

Jenny has been through hell in so many ways and I'm so proud of her for coming out the other side and being funny and successful and living her dream of owning a bookstore and making miniatures and doing embroidery and making automatons. She's a goddess, y'all. Read this book, read her others. Buy the coloring book that is so magical and inspiring that I had to buy two. And then go to her blog and laugh some more and watch silly videos with her and give her a giant internet hug.

(I swear that I don't actually know Jenny for real. This probably sounds like a best friend/sister/mom review. But she's been so important to me for a very long time that it's been wonderful to follow her journey and see her make BOOKS and conquer so many things. She helps you embrace your weird. [Which might be a Felicia Day saying, but it still applies.])

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I received an advanced reading copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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