The Bounce Back BookDo you know How to Be Happy, Dammit?  If not, maybe you need The Bounce Back Book by Karen Salmansohn.  Both of these are witty takes on self-improvement offering quality advice for people who don't normally read self-help books. 

The Bounce Back Book was written after a particularly traumatic time period for the author - what she calls the Vortex.  Everyone has one, a time in your life where everything seems to go wrong.  It can last any length of time, but for Karen it was about a year. 

She finally came to the realization that there is always a choice:

• Be weak
• Be strong

Karen chose Be Strong and wrote a short but powerful book on the subject.  She includes 75 tips for climbing out of the Vortex with a few Bounce Back Assignments sprinkled throughout.  I'm not currently in a Vortex situation, but I could relate to many of the points based on past experience.  The advice is surprisingly universal, and I am happy to have this on my bookshelf to guard against a future Vortex or to loan to a friend who needs help.  It is pretty cheap therapy for $12.95.

 A few of my favorite tips:

• #4:  Feeling means you're dealing means you're healing
• #9:  It's not only the event itself, but the way we explain the event to ourselves that causes depression
• #11:  If you ask depressing questions, you will 100% get depressing answers
• #20:  If you can drive yourself crazy, you can drive yourself happy
• #51:  Anger is a boomerang