A Furiously Happy Giveaway, aka FREE STUFF! FREE STUFF!

Did I get your attention?

So, apparently old age has not only sneaked up on me, but also clubbed me over the head a few dozen times — when Jenny Lawson’s second book Furiously Happy went on pre-sale, I pre-ordered. Twice. I was THAT excited about it. Of course, that made the day the book was released twice as nice in my household … or something like that.

Jenny Lawson, as many of you know, is The Bloggess on the internets — the irreverent, inappropriate, snort-laughing funny blogger whose site makes all sorts of “best of” lists. If you’ve never visited there, you should plan a vacation — go there and stay awhile, make yourself at home and read up all of her wonderfulness.

Now, the book itself? To say that it’s outstanding would be selling it short. Let’s make a list of all the awesome things about it, shall we?

1. It’s one of the few books that will make you quite literally LOL (that’s Laugh Out Loud for those who are new to The Internet).
2. There are lots of taxidermy animals in it doing funny thing.
3. She talks honestly, openly and hilariously about depression and mental illness.
4. Her fight to erase the stigma from mental illness is extraordinary. And hilarious. And makes us feel like we’re not alone.
5. She’s absolutely hilarious. Have I mentioned that?
6. She can make you laugh, cry, and shake your head in an “oh my god you should get out of my head because that’s exactly what I was thinking” all within one paragraph.

To sum it up:  it’s an important book in the fight to make mental illness a normal out-in-the-open and talked about disease like diabetes or asthma and it’s so humorous that you’ll wake the neighbors with your over-the-top guffawing. If you’re still weirdly not convinced that you need to read it, here’s a great review of the book to make you reconsider your (wrong) opinion.

I suppose y’all out there are reading this and wondering, “I wonder what Laura’s going to do with the second copy of that New York Times bestseller? Do you think she’d just give it away for free?” and to that I would reply, “Hell, NO!” Of course I wouldn’t. Do you think my Mom raised a damn fool?

But what I am prepared to do: for anyone who leaves a comment here on the blog, you’ll get your name put into a drawing for the book. If you share my post on Facebook? I’ll not only love you forever, but also give you a second entry! What a deal!

“But wait – is there a catch?”, you might be thinking and you’d be right. The catch is this — whoever receives the book, after you are done reading it, you should think about passing it on to someone else who needs to hear or learn the message that mental illness isn’t something to be ashamed of and we’re not alone in this world. It can be your friend, your Grandma, the guy at the corner shop, a co-worker, your partner, the bus driver, your kid’s teacher, your preacher or basically anyone, really. I won’t make it hard for you. Just share.

The details:  just leave a comment here — it can be just “Hey! I want to win the book!” — it doesn’t need to be anything more profound than that. If you share on Facebook, leave a comment here telling me so and I’ll put your name in twice. I’ll do the drawing on October 31st at the witching hour (not that I have any idea when the witching hour is… it just sounded like a cool Halloween thing to say). The book might even be signed by Jenny Lawson herself if I can get my butt to her book signing next weekend (no promises!). Once the winner is announced and I’m able to make contact, I’ll drop it in the mail.

Paying it forward, y’all. That’s what this is all about. The Bloggess has helped me overcome some of my fear about sharing the details of my depression — last week’s post was a show of her influence on me — and with all the support everyone showed me, I want to make sure the message keeps getting pushed along. Every voice matters.