Pursuing the Good Life by Christopher Peterson

I was enthusiastic when I started reading this book. Truthfully, it got to be a bit of a slog in the middle - even a little annoying at times. It often seemed the author just rambled on (like professors sometimes do) from one odd topic to another. I was looking for something concrete, and I didn't see it all that often. BUT,

when I got near the end, I got some of what I'd hope to get from the book. Probably the best chapter was second to last - it was on separating the ends from the means and having a vision as the ends. The very last chapter was pretty good as well - Scrabble as a metaphor for good living - yes, that one was interesting. There may have been a few others earlier on in the book that were pretty good, but I can't recall any of these specifically. I give the book 4 out of 5 stars, instead of 3 out of 5, since the last few chapters were very well done.

In any case, the subtitle of this book is a clue that it will be a bit different: 100 Reflections on Positive Psychology. Not your usual psychology book where you'd look at the dark side - phobias, anxiety, depression etc. Instead, this book focuses on positives. Questions considered here include: What makes life most worth living? and How can we pursue a good life? I didn't see very many clear answers to those questions in the book, with the exceptions noted above.

This book gives readers one hundred short readings. I have to admit that the title of one more than anything convinced me that I had to read this book: "How Can You Tell If Someone from France is Happy?" I just had to know - most of my ancestors came from France and even I wasn't sure. To be honest, I'm not sure the answer I got was all that definite. Maybe it was just me.

The book is OK overall. I had hoped for much more.