Review of Fireproof Happiness

[Gina Rupert]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Fireproof Happiness" by Dr. Randy Ross.]

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2 out of 5 stars

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I rate Fireproof Happiness: Extinguishing Anxiety & Igniting Hope 2 out of 5 stars.

Although this book has some interesting and relevant points on how to cultivate happiness, the book is largely repetitive and dull to read. The author could easily have summarized all the salient information in 15 pages. He generally makes his point in the first sentence or two of a section and then continues to repeat the information in new but not unique ways. This book is largely made up of filler material consisting of anecdotes and metaphors used to expand on already simple concepts.

The author’s writing style is quite informal but not particularly engaging. There is little variation in sentence structure, which combined with the repetition of ideas themselves makes the book dull and hard to stay interested in. There were few actual errors in spelling and grammar, but the author did embrace informal usage of commas, dashes, and sentence structure that would not be well suited to formal or academic writing. For the context of a self-help book, informal is fine if you are trying to connect with the audience conversationally rather than dictate information to them.

The book includes italicized excerpts between paragraphs that are pulled directly from the main body of the text. While I understand the author’s intent — to highlight parts of the text that he deems most relevant — the excerpts were direct quotes from the paragraph directly above or below and therefore did not add anything to the content or meaning of the book. The quotes included at the beginning of each chapter by other authors were fine.

Above all, the author stretches and portrays data in a way that I don’t feel is necessarily accurate or helpful to the audience. The author cites several studies throughout the book that look at the relationship between hope and happiness, productivity, health, and more. While the data does find correlations between hope and happiness, etc., correlation does not equal causation, which the author implies heavily in his writing.

This book got two stars because there are some useful ideas here, such as embracing resiliency and community as a way to buffer oneself against the stress and hardships of life. Overall, though, the information is repetitive and the quality of writing is poor. I would not recommend this book to others.

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Fireproof Happiness
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