Book #32: Happier at Home by Gretchen Rubin

I read Rubin's The Happiness Project a few years ago and really enjoyed it. It really stuck with me as she methodically set resolutions to improve her life and make herself happier. When I heard she'd written a sequel I decided definitely not to read it, since how different could it be? But enough time has passed that I picked this one up and decided to read it. I liked all the same things about this one that I liked about the first one--it seems like such a follow-able method that anyone could implement, and it's inspiring to read about the things she decided to change. However, this book really did strike me as exactly the same as the original. This book was a happiness project focused on her life at home--but at least half of the themes for each month were the same as her original book (even if the resolutions were different) and it just didn't seem like a distinct enough concept from the first happiness project. Rubin's personality kind of annoys me, after reading this book--she comes across as VERY Type-A and always having to have the last word (at least in her conversations that she transcribes into the book, where she's always contradicting people with her happiness research advice), and she has all these weird opinions and neuroses that seem to be all-consuming for her, because she talks about them ALL THE TIME, like she hates errands and she has an overwhelming dread/fear of driving and she hates traveling or basically doing anything new.

However, even considering all of that, I did come away feeling inspired and motivated to do some sort of resolutions myself. I feel like I am in a really good frame of mind considering that we have a newborn in the house--and having some sort of resolution project might help me to maintain that.