Review: Happiness and Other Small Things of Absolute Importance by Haim Shapira, PhD

Title: Happiness and Other Small Things of Absolute Importance

Author: Haim Shapira, PhD

Genre: Philosophy, Psychology, Self-Help

Cover Artist: Francesca Corsini

Page Count: 192

Publisher: Watkins Publishing

Release Date: August 16th 2016

My Rating: ★★★★☆

       When thinking about the genre of this book I hesitated to put self-help, because it's a lot more than that. This book offers the reader tools through enlightening stories, quotes, questions, and knowledge. There's no steps or rules to gaining happiness , in fact the author Haim Shapira, offers profound truths for the reader to contemplate. The material is presented as if he were speaking directly to you, a "TED talk" so to speak in book format. Given the authors background in academic teaching it's hard to not envision this book being presented in a lecture hall to the masses. This is the college course I wish I had taken.  

Highlights and Thoughts:

• The font in this book is a little smaller than I would prefer when reading.

• He uses controversial writers, philosophers, poets, biblical verse, and psychologists quotes and teachings, to provoke question. Questions that make the mind ponder what happiness means to the reader as an individual. Some of the people you can expect to be quoted and reflected on are William Blake, Albert Einstein, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Oscar Wilde, Plato, and Mark Twain (to name just a few of my favorites who made it into this read).

• I like how when Haim Shapira discusses a topic he comes at it from all angles.

• There's no right or wrong to finding happiness, unless you're a sociopath but this book doesn't talk about that.

 I received this book through a giveaway on Goodreads.com, in return this is my honest opinion and review of the reading.

RAD MOUTH