A review by scarlet_begonia21
The Art of Taking It Easy: How to Cope with Bears, Traffic, and the Rest of Life's Stressors by Brian King

3.0

This is a quaint and funny book about stress, and I really wish goodreads had 0.5 stats available because this is a solid 3.5 (aka, it was good but not 4-star great). Brian King is a PhD psychologist and comedian, so this book was smart as well as funny! I picked this up as part of OverDrive’s April 2021 Big Read. Yes, I did like it and learned a lot about how our happiness is tied to reducing stress, and the ways in which we can reduce stress/worry/anxiety. However, I felt like a lot of what the author was saying basically boiled down to 1) recognize your stressors and then 2) “don’t worry about it.” I did like the stories and analogies about how to recognize our sources of stress and combat them. But, it was a lot of advice that I felt could be categorized as “easier said than done” for someone struggling with anxiety or depression. Still worth a quick read if you’re interested in this type of self-help/stress reduction.