Broken (in the best possible way)

by Jenny Lawson, Jenny Lawson (Read by)

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

Jenny Lawson fans rejoice! This new collection of essays on depression and mental health, physical health, family, insurance companies, or shoes that go missing is often raw and hard, but incisive and original. Lawson’s generosity in sharing her darkest moment is matched by an equal capacity to find the absurd, the ridiculous, the sweet and tender, and to serve it up with a deliciously skewering, wicked sense of wry humor.

"Jenny Lawson returns to narrate her third installment in a disheveled saga of finding the light at the end of a long, winding, ludicrous tunnel...Another treasure in the Lawson collection, this audiobook shines with a powerful message: Depression and anxiety suck, but we can rise above them." — AudioFile Magazine, Earphones Award winner

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Furiously Happy and Let’s Pretend This Never Happened comes a deeply relatable audiobook filled with humor and honesty about depression and anxiety.

*This program includes an audio-exclusive bonus chapter*

As Jenny Lawson’s hundreds of thousands of fans know, she suffers from depression. In Broken (in the bests possible way), Jenny brings listeners along on her mental and physical health journey, offering heartbreaking and hilarious anecdotes along the way.

With people experiencing anxiety and depression now more than ever, Jenny humanizes what we all face in an all-too-real way, reassuring us that we’re not alone and making us laugh while doing it. From the business ideas that she wants to pitch to Shark Tank to the reason why Jenny can never go back to the post office, Broken leaves nothing to the imagination in the most satisfying way. And of course, Jenny’s long-suffering husband Victor—the Ricky to Jenny’s Lucille Ball—is present throughout.

A treat for Jenny Lawson’s already existing fans, and destined to convert new ones, Broken is a beacon of hope and a wellspring of laughter when we all need it most.

A Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt and Company

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250790941
Publisher:	Macmillan Audio
Publication date:	04/06/2021
Sales rank:	1,068,428
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 5.99(h) x 0.85(d)

About the Author

Jenny Lawson, the Bloggess, is a humor writer known for her candor in addressing her struggle with depression and mental illness. She has over 468,000 Twitter followers, 122,000 Instagram followers, and over 192,000 Facebook fans; her blog gets 4–5 million page views per year; and her social media presence continues to grow. Her first book, Let's Pretend This Never Happened, debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list and sold over 400,000 copies. Her second book, Furiously Happy, spent five months on the New York Times bestseller list and has sold well over half a million copies.

Table of Contents

Jenny Lawson, Full-Grown Mammal: An Introduction 1

Already Forgot I Wrote This 5

Six Times I've Lost My Shoes While Wearing Them: A List that Shouldn't Exist 13

And Then I Bought Condoms for My Dog 22

Rainbow Fire 27

All of the Reasons Why I'm Not Coming to Your Party 33

Samuel L. Jackson Is Trying to Kill Me 44

How Do Dogs Know They Have Penises? 59

These Truisms Leave Out a Lot of the Truth 66

An Open Letter to My Health Insurance Company 72

Pm Not Going Outside Anymore. 79

The Things We Do to Quiet the Monsters 85

The Golden (Shower) Years 111

Awkwarding Brings Us Together 116

That Time I Got Haunted by Lizards with Bike Horns 131

We Are Who We Are Until We Aren't Anymore 142

Introverts Unite! (But Sweet Baby Jesus, Not in Real Life.) 150

My Dentist Hates Me 156

Am I Even Still Alive? 161

The Secret to a Long Marriage 168

So I'm Paying to Beat the Shit Out of Myself? 175

Anxiety Is a Lost Watch I Never Saw 183

The Eight Billionth Argument I Had with Victor This Week 188

Sometimes There Is Beauty in Breaking 190

No One Wants Tour Handwritten "Good for One Free Massage" Coupons, Darryl 197

I Feel It in My Bones 204

Editing Is Hell. Mostly for Editors. 206

The First Satanic Ritual I Ever Saw 218

Damaged Good(s) 225

My House Is a Garbage Fire Because I Clean It 230

And That's Why I Can Never Go Back to the Post Office Again 233

I Am a Magpie 240

Up Divorce Creek Without a Paddle (Because the Guide Didn't Trust Me Not to Push Victor Overboard with It) 244

Eclipse (Not the Twilight Book. The Other Kind.) 249

Business Ideas to Pitch on Shark Tank 261

Strange New Weather Patterns 271

Souls 275

Acknowledgments 283

Editorial Reviews

★ 06/01/2021

Lawson follows Furiously Happy, her best-selling book of humorous essays, with this hilarious and poignant look at her mental and physical challenges. The author discusses her anxiety, depression, rheumatoid arthritis, and other illnesses, so listeners might expect to hear a sobering story of challenges and defeat. But that's not Lawson's style. She has her low moments, to be sure, but she combats them with a wonderful sense of humor about life and herself. Lawson narrates the audiobook and sometimes laughs aloud at the absurdity of the situations in which she finds herself. The chapter in which readers of Lawson's blog share their most embarrassing moments will leave listeners in tears of laughter and rueful acknowledgment of their own faux pas. Throughout, Lawson is truthful about her difficult moments and maintains an admirable sense of hope for herself and her family. No one could have done a better job narrating. VERDICT This is a must-have for all public libraries.—B. Allison Gray, Goleta Valley Lib., CA

Library Journal - Audio

Jenny Lawson returns to narrate her third installment in a disheveled saga of finding the light at the end of a long, winding, ludicrous tunnel. Lawson—journalist, blogger, and ambassador of disarray—has rewarded fans with previous memoirs on sobering yet hilarious aspects of her life and deepest thoughts. The author recounts her incredibly relatable, awkward social interactions and worst fears all the while crediting her steadfast husband, Victor, for being her rock. With vigorous pacing, every frantic thought and wacky scenario is presented in an authentic voice that each listener will not only understand but also recognize as being within their own mental capacity. Another treasure in the Lawson collection, this audiobook shines with a powerful message: Depression and anxiety suck, but we can rise above them. G.M. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

MAY 2021 - AudioFile

01/11/2021

Lawson (You Are Here) returns with a wry and entertaining take on her battle with depression, anxiety, and rheumatoid arthritis. As always, the author is unrivaled in her ability to use piercing humor and insight to take on heavy subjects. In the poignant “I Already Forgot I Wrote This,” Lawson shares moving reflections on her family’s history of dementia (“My mother jokes about it now and I do too, because you either laugh or you cry”). In “The Things We Do to Quiet the Monsters,” she details the transcranial magnetic stimulation treatment she underwent to cure her medication-resistant mental health issues (“It feels like an invisible chisel drilling holes into your head while you have an ice-cream headache and also you’re paying for it to happen to you“), and she excoriates her insurance provider in “An Open Letter to My Insurance Company”: “you decided that it ‘wasn’t medically necessary’ that I have the drug that had kept me away from suicide.” In “Six Times I’ve Lost My Shoes While Wearing Them,” she chronicles the strange places she’s lost her left shoe after “walking out of it” due to fluctuating ankle swelling from chronic arthritis. The beauty of these essays lies in Lawson’s unfailing hopefulness amid her trials. “After all,” she notes, “we are changed by life... it puts its teeth in us... makes us who we are.” Lawson’s fans are in for a treat. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

An Instant New York Times Bestseller
Indie Next Pick

Praise for Jenny Lawson

“Jenny Lawson is extremely funny because she is extremely honest. Lawson’s relentless pursuit of authenticity is the source of the darkly hilarious prose found within this memoir of depression—a memoir that is unexpectedly inspiring and comforting but not unexpectedly endearing. Because to read Jenny Lawson is to love Jenny Lawson.” —Augusten Burroughs, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Running with Scissors

“A new book from Jenny Lawson is always cause for celebration, and Broken is the party of the year. Even better: it’s a party that socially-anxious introverts can enjoy from the solitary comfort of their own couches, beds, cars, or closet floors buried under a pile of blankets and/or cats. HOW AWESOME IS THAT? I loved it. And if you like laughing and weirdness and honesty and—most of all—feeling seen, you will love it too.” —Sarah Knight, author of The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F**k

“[Lawson]...makes others laugh. Her delivery is zany, clever, and raunchy. Her conversations with party guests, her long-suffering husband, her sister, and even herself are flat-out hilarious. And the situations she finds herself in are comic gold. Beneath the banter, however, is a heartbreaking chronicle of what goes on in the mind of a person dealing with anxiety and depression.” —Booklist (starred review)

“Longtime fans of the author’s prose know that the destinations really aren’t the point; it’s the laugh-out-loud, tears-streaming-down-your-face journeys that make her writing so irresistible....[A] winning mix of shameless irreverence, wicked humor, and vulnerability.” —Kirkus Reviews

“I consider Jenny Lawson to be a therapist colleague—not because she’s a fellow clinician, but because in courageously sharing the truth of her story, she makes us feel instantly seen and fully understood in all of our alternately painful and hilarious humanity.” —Lori Gottlieb, New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone

“Jenny Lawson’s Broken is an adventure in courage. The vulnerability, the heart, and the candor is a gift to anyone who has ever felt too different. Life is sometimes not kind to us and Jenny uses such fierce humor. Thankful for it.”
—Luvvie Ajayi Jones, author of New York Times bestseller I’m Judging You and Professional Troublemaker: The Fear-Fighter Manual

“Lawson’s self-deprecating humor is not only gaspingly funny and wonderfully inappropriate; it allows her to speak…in a real and raw way.” —O, The Oprah Magazine

“[Lawson] writes with a rambling irreverence that makes you wish she were your best friend.” —Entertainment Weekly

“The Bloggess writes stuff that actually is laugh out loud, but you know that really you shouldn’t be laughing and probably you’ll go to hell for laughing, so maybe you shouldn’t read it. That would be safer and wiser.” —Neil Gaiman

“Jenny made me laugh so hard I feared for my safety!” —Allie Brosh, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Hyperbole and a Half

“You’ll laugh, wince, writhe in discomfort, cry, then laugh again….But the two things you’ll never do is doubt Jenny’s brilliance or her fearlessness when it comes to having honest discussions about mental illness, shame, and the power of human resilience.” —Brené Brown

“Take one part David Sedaris and two parts Chelsea Handler and you’ll have some inkling of the cockeyed humor of Jenny Lawson.” —Parade

“The comic queen of the broken toys has risen, and her name is Jenny Lawson.” —Christopher Moore, New York Times bestselling author of Lamb, A Dirty Job, and Fool

“A loop-de-loop of an emotional roller coaster that swoops from poetic to profane, madcap to moving and back again…a thing of hilarious beauty.” —BookPage

“Lawson returns with a wry and entertaining take on her battle with depression, anxiety, and rheumatoid arthritis. As always, the author is unrivaled in her ability to use piercing humor and insight to take on heavy subjects....The beauty of these essays lies in Lawson's unfailing hopefulness amid her trials....Lawson's fans are in for a treat.” —Publishers Weekly

“Impossible to read without howling with laughter…But Broken isn’t just about the funny. It’s incredibly moving when [Lawson] shares details about being submerged in the deep end of depression and writing notes to remind herself the dark days will pass.” —Shelf Awareness

“Jenny Lawson is hilarious, snarky, witty, totally inappropriate, and ‘Like Mother Teresa, Only Better.’” —Marie Claire

From the Publisher

02/01/2021

Lawson returns with her signature mix of humorous antics and heartfelt self-reflection in this follow-up to 2015's Furiously Happy. She shares with raw honesty her experiences living with mental illness, including depression and anxiety, as well as rheumatoid arthritis and other physical conditions. She openly discusses her suicidal thoughts, detailing her transcranial magnetic stimulation treatment and its results, and shares her frustration with her health insurance company. Being Lawson, it's not all gloomy subjects; she also includes an uncomfortable exchange at the post office, a list of awkward moments shared by her fans, unusual encounters with animals, pitches for Shark Tank, and marriage advice. Lawson describes her book as "probably horribly offensive," and those who don't mind profanity will enjoy her frank sense of humor. She excels at advocating for self-acceptance, embracing and sharing failures, and laughing at the difficulties and absurdities of life. Her ability to blend poignant self-reflection and candid humor allows for the darkness of life to become less alienating, which makes her stories about failing and flourishing to be both engaging and relatable. VERDICT Lawson already has thousands of fans, and she's bound to pick up more with this latest memoir. Recommended for all public libraries.—Anitra Gates, Erie Cty. P.L., PA

Library Journal

2021-01-27
The Bloggess is back to survey the hazards and hilarity of imperfection.

Lawson is a wanderer. Whether on her award-winning blog or in the pages of her bestselling books, she reliably takes readers to places they weren’t even aware they wanted to go—e.g., shopping for dog condoms or witnessing what appears to be a satanic ritual. Longtime fans of the author’s prose know that the destinations really aren’t the point; it’s the laugh-out-loud, tears-streaming-down-your-face journeys that make her writing so irresistible. This book is another solid collection of humorous musings on everyday life, or at least the life of a self-described “super introvert” who has a fantastic imagination and dozens of chosen spirit animals. While Furiously Happy centered on the idea of making good mental health days exceptionallygood, her latest celebrates the notion that being broken is beautiful—or at least nothing to be ashamed of. “I have managed to fuck shit up in shockingly impressive ways and still be considered a fairly acceptable person,” writes Lawson, who has made something of an art form out of awkward confessionals. For example, she chronicles a mix-up at the post office that left her with a “big ol’ sack filled with a dozen small squishy penises [with] smiley faces painted on them.” It’s not all laughs, though, as the author addresses her ongoing battle with both physical and mental illness, including a trial of transcranial magnetic stimulation, a relatively new therapy for people who suffer from treatment-resistant depression. The author’s colloquial narrative style may not suit the linear-narrative crowd, but this isn’t for them. “What we really want,” she writes, “is to know we’re not alone in our terribleness….Human foibles are what make us us, and the art of mortification is what brings us all together.” The material is fresh, but the scaffolding is the same.

Fans will find comfort in Lawson’s dependably winning mix of shameless irreverence, wicked humor, and vulnerability.

Kirkus Reviews