Customer Reviews

Breaking Murphy's Law: How Optimists Get What They Want from Life - and Pessimists Can Too

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I was at first hesitant to purchase this book with its title seemingly dreamed-up by a marketing department that hadn't read the book, an unfortunate mismatch for the academic credentials and soon-to-discovered depth of the author. Being an optimist myself, I took a chance on the book and am I glad that I did. Admittedly at first, some of the cited studies and findings seemed familiar from the media. But gratefully that turned out to be just the tip of the iceberg for what in every way is an in-depth, thorough review of this all-important topic. The author's tone is both professional and personable, and especially in the footnotes, funny. Cover to cover the author's a great reading companion and this is especially a perfect end-of-summer/autumn read that will help you to see the brighter, sunny side of life even if optimism doesn't come naturally to you. The message of the book is ultimately encouraging for those who aren't born optimists. Without making frequent reference to it, this book is a fine addition to the growing literature of Happiness and Positive Psychology.

I absolutely loved this book. It covers positive psychology (happiness/optimism/goal setting/motivation) in great depth and over a broad range of applications. The author stresses that the rewards of optimism are attained by "doing" optimism rather than just thinking optimistically. Based on this premise, the book is very pragmatic and can actually be applied to improve the quality of your experience..

The tone of the book was fairly scientific and included many case studies to support the author's conclusions. The only thing that prevents me from awarding five stars, is the fact that, at times, the writing style felt more like I was reading a doctoral dissertation instead of a book for the general population. I actually enjoyed the scientific nature of the book; however it just gets a bit dense/dry in certain parts with a bit of unecessary repetition. This, however, does not tarnish the overall message and I would recommend it wholeheartedly.

The bottom line . . . if you want a book that explores positive psychology in greater depth than some of the platitude-filled feel good books in this genre than this is the book for you!

This book is very, very good.

It's the best one I have come across so far for HOW to become more optimistic.

I found it more helpful than the Martin Seligman books, which favours changing your thinking.

This book made me feel like there was so much more I could do about my pessimism, even when the trying to think positive wasn't working so well.

This book is about doing as optimists do, and your thoughts and feelings will follow behind.

Examples are once a week for 5 min, for a problem you have, writing 3 things in a journal that can help you make the problem easier and help you fix it.

The following week you review if your suggestions are working and then change or modify it if it's not working, or continue if it's working well. That's it for 5 mins a week!

This small exercise made people feel increasingly happier over the weeks in studies, leads to an upwards spiral of optimism and was extremely powerful. This book is full of suggestions like this, and has many studies on what actually worked to make people feel more optimistic and get into an upward spiral.

A goldmine of advice, really valuble. Brilliant!!

I respect the author's intelligence and research on the subject of optimism. The book is mainly a compilation of statistics from studies performed to show how optimists and pessimists approach life differently. If you are interested, as a psychologist perhaps, in the phenomenon of optimism, then this will be an enjoyable read. However, if you are a pessimist looking for ways to change your nature, you will have to read a very long time in this book before anything close to advice is given.

Loved the book.

Solid information delivered with a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor! Easy to understand for those of us who are not psychologists, yet had depth of content, historical perspective about optimism, and description of research the author has been involved in. Worth reading and discussing.

Good information...but..it's what I like to call a "thesis" book, which reads like this: stats, studies, interpretation, justification, defence of study methods. Not much practical, useful information for the average reader who has an interest in "Breaking Murphy's Law" I dont even remember any mention of "Murphy's Law". I do remember a bunch of studies, statistics, recommendations for the psychology field, and falling asleep. She would make an "A" if this was a thesis, probably was.

I am shocked by the negative reviews. I wondered if they bothered to read the book for comprehension or simply scanned it. The author has a thorough handle on optimism: what it is, how to test your range and how to develop it. I can't believe we read the same book.

Optimism is based on beliefs, not emotions. This book is based on her research and she goes into reasonable depth in explaining how optimism and pessimism is formed in our mindset and what we can do to cultivate an optimistic dispostion. If you don't need this foundation or see its importance in creating a healthy and happy life, then this is not the book for you.

Hum. I find it interesting that so many people enjoyed this book. I wouldn't necessarily classify this as a "self help book". I think it's more an interesting look at the mind of the optimist, who according to the author lives a more fulfilling life. I thought the research was very interesting...but I found the book to be fairly redundant and dry at times. I also found it to be some what of a downer. (But then again...I am a pessimist thus the reason for purchasing the book.) It seems to be more of a pat on the head for optimists...then goes on to say that this is really a nature you're born with and it's pretty difficult to change. She keeps this up throughout the book, then towards the end throws one or two things you can do to change this.
Journal 3 positive things a day. I'm pretty sure I could have come up with that myself.
It really just left me feeling that I was born this way and there's not much I can do to change it.

I'm typically a lover of self help books, so I wouldn't classify myself as a lost cause...but I guess I just didn't mesh well with this one.

Two stars for for researching a psychological term paper. Negative 3 for being classified as a Self Help book.

Reading this book is a total waste of time. You will learn nothing, and you will be bored.