Containing your anger and not letting things get to you. Basically it's 100 strategies to get you to think more positively, in turn making you happier more of the time.

I liked how the author didn't pretend to be "hip" or something, since this is a book for teens. He was just his usual self. He didn't go "Wazzup!!!" after every other line or use any modern

lingo. He just gave advice. Period. Also, he didn't make you feel inferior. Usually I can't stand people telling me what to do/what I'm doing wrong, but there was something about this author that made me listen. He gently gave me advice in the book, and provided realistic and easy ways to do accomplish my goals.

The book was repetitive. I found the author repeating the same thing over and over again, and often having to re-read passages because I found myself spacing out. That's why I read this book every night, and not all in one day like I usually do. You need to take breaks. Something else that irked me was that he overused the exclamation mark. That may just be a thing with me, but it really annoys me when a large percentage of the sentences end with

an exclamation mark. It seems to be forcing happiness to me. But this is pretty trivial.

Instead of being defensive about taking advice, I found myself listening. I relaxed, and really felt this guy was just trying to help and wasn't putting on an act. I felt very comfortable reading this, and as corny as it sounds, thought he was talking especially to me.

Used experiences from his own life some of the time, but other times just gave his own advice. I liked this approach because I don't always appreciate "When I was young" stories. Whenever I read them, I always think "Yeah, well it's different now...". He used just the right amount of experiences so that we could somewhat relate to him, but not so much that we were just reading an autobiography.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants advice, but doesn't always follow it. This is just a gentle, helpful book that is designed to help you be less stressed. This makes it easier to start practicing these strategies, and you as a reader feel more motivated to start following them.

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Created Sep 07, 2002 at 1:56am • Submit your own review...