HOW TO BE OKAY WHEN NOTHING IS OKAY

Self-help with a twist of humor.

Blogger and memoirist Lawson (Furiously Happy, 2015) assembles dozens of brief chapters, often less than a page long, of recommendations that have worked for her as she has dealt with depression, anxiety, and ADHD, based on “a lifetime learning to operate a brain that vacillates between overthinking and total shutdown.” Addressing the reader directly, affectionately (“You have to take care of yourself, little bunny”), and often mildly profanely, she suggests that “this book is equally designed to be read through in a single sitting or opened as needed.” She divides it into sections designed to be used at various crisis points—for example, “Read this when you need to attract and grow kindness in your life so you can snuggle deep into it like the soft, fragile creature that you are.” Lawson generally comes across as gently self-deprecating and eager to share in sisterly fashion what she has learned to be helpful over the years. Often, what she has learned will strike readers as familiar: “Make sleep a priority” or “Whatever makes you happy…do more of that.” But parts of it will strike any reader as new: Who knew that besides white-noise machines, there are those that produce pink, green, gray, brown, blue, and violet noise, each of which she defines with gusto. The book includes line-drawn illustrations by the author and quotes she has found useful—from Cheryl Strayed, Rainer Maria Rilke, and many more authors. At her best, Lawson’s quirky sense of humor will make you laugh out loud, which might be the best possible form of self-help, as when she advises her readers to consider that “we’re doing way better than moles. They’re just rearranging dirt underground their whole lives. What a bunch of weirdos.”

Comforting and amusing, if not wildly original.