Review: The Joy Document by Jennifer McGaha

The Joy Document
by Jennifer McGaha

My Rating: 4 stars
Genre: Non-fiction Memoir

Blurb:
Once you begin looking for joy, you can find it pretty much anywhere.

When Jennifer McGaha’s grandmother was in her late eighties, Jennifer asked her what her favorite age so far had been. “Fifty-five,” her grandmother answered, as though there were something magical about this stage of life, some deeper way of knowing from this vantage point. So, in her own fifty-fifth year, Jennifer began to take note. She jotted down her impressions of simple, everyday things that struck her as beautiful or humorous or intriguing and kept a list of all the accomplishments, large and small, that actually mattered to her.

These observations became Jennifer’s Joy Document, a radical act of reclaiming joy and an exercise in paying attention. When you are determined to find joy, almost anything can becomerevelatory–an Earth Day Whole Foods errand, Claire Saffitz’s fruitcake recipe, a harrowing ride in Twinkly Taxi, an evening picnic at Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8, or cartwheels in the driveway. While many of us at midlife have found all the things we’ve strived for (the career, the better life, the organization tools), those things only go so far. And the search for something greater, something truer, begins. Through this lens, life after fifty becomes not the end or even the middle of life, but a new beginning, another grand adventure with endless opportunities to find joy. The Joy Document includes fifty rollicking and often humorous essays exploring the art of joy and inspiring the rest of us to do the same.

My Review

I received a free copy from the publisher through Netgalley and voluntarily reviewed it.

I wanted to read more non-fiction and when I saw this one on Netgalley it made me curious and I requested it. I just loved the idea of a book about joy. I am glad I gave this book a try as I had a great time reading it.

The Joy Document is a collection of essays about the authors life and each of these essays is about joy or another deep emotion or feeling. I feel like not all of them are about joy exactly, but they definitely all were impactful moments in the authors life. Some could be a bit sad or reflective, while others were more uplifting or fun and others were more about surprise or things that made the author think.

I felt like I got to know the author through reading it and I liked getting a glimpse into her life and the way she thought and approached things. It feels deeply personal and also very relatable. It’s like this book condenses what makes us human, those moments that really shape our lives and I thought it was a beautiful read. Not all essays I enjoyed reading as much as others, but I really enjoyed the book overall and the way this book gave a glimpse into the author’s life and those moments that really matter.

Some days I read just one essay or a few and other times I just read a whole bunch of them in a row. Either way works great. It’s a book you can easily pick up and read just one essay or sit down with for a longer while and read a bunch of them. This book made me think and feel. It did feel more heavy and impactful than I had expected at first, but I liked that.

To summarize: The Joy Document offers a deep and personal look into the author’s life. The book contains a lot of shorter essays that all depict a moment that made an impact on the author, made her feel or think. Not all of them are quite about joy in my opinion, but they all are about deep emotions, reflections and thoughts. I liked getting a glimpse in the author’s life and the way she approached things and thought about things. It could feel quite heavy and impactful, but in a good way and I enjoyed the intense vibe. I feel like this is a book about those moments that really matter, the moments that shape us, moments that make us think and feel. I hadn’t read a non-fiction book like this before and I am glad I picked it up.

Links:
– Goodreads
– Bookbub
– Amazon
– B&N
– Kobo

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.