"Happy: Simple Steps to Get the Most Out of Life" by Ian K. Smith

256 pages

I tend to be skeptical of those "here's how to get happy" books, but for some reason I sometimes end up reading them anyway. Not because I necessarily don't feel happy, but I guess I feel like you can never be too happy, you know? This one has several good points, but I'd heard a lot of the material before. On the other hand, I liked that the author cites the research to support his claims and provides practical suggestions for putting the ideas to use. For instance, I already knew that exercise and doing nice things for others makes people feel happy, but he lists some specific ways to do each of those things and uses research to demonstrate how much these things help and why they make us feel good. "Happy" is less cheesy than most similar books are, though it does have a few parts that made groan. Overall, I think this book was worth reading for the few things I got out of it, but it's not going to change my life or anything.