How To Be Happy (udgave 2014)

"Write a story
A story about yourself
A story about your life
Now, believe it

Now write another story, same subject
A better story
More interesting
Stronger characters.

Now, believe that.

Just keep writing.

You have plenty of time" ( )

Profound and truly moving. Beautiful and sad. ( )

Each story in this collection is lovely. Not happy or easy: drawn softly but difficult, with edges you have to ponder. ( )

This book had been on my TBR so long I'd forgotten why, but I finally decided to pick it up at the library.

I love that this book starts with a little intro/disclaimer that this book is not actually about "how to be happy," and gives a few non-fiction recommendations of books that helped the author when she was struggling. What it is is a collection of graphic short stories, many with science fiction and/or fantasy elements, many about loneliness, meaning, and emotions.

There is a little interstitial here, one page between longer stories, a series of sketches of one woman, that ends with "Find the stories that help you comprehend the incomprehensible. Find the stories that make you stronger." It is a good bit of advice. For this collection and for life. ( )

I'm not a big fan of short story collections, but I'm warming up to Davis as a creator, and she indeed made this compilation more tolerable than I would have thought. I'm just a little weirded out that the best part was the documentation of the skinning of a fox. That's gonna leave a mark in my mind, even more deeply than the actual skinning of rabbits that I've witnessed. ( )