Crappy to Happy: Small Steps to Big Happiness NOW! [Paperback]

Randy Peyser (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2002

What if your happiness has nothing to do with the outer circumstances of your life? What if it was something you just started feeling more and more in each moment regardless of your daily drama?" Author and performer Randy Peyser poses these questions in her first book, Crappy to Happy. With bold storytelling, transformative humor, and her signature "comic interventions", Peyser offers a selection of personal stories about how she created greater happiness in her own life. She shares clues for achieving a place of authenticity, "a happier Now." Arranged in five parts, Crappy to Happy helps us learn to be true to ourselves, manage life's challenges, heal relationships, develop a spiritual life, and give to others. Each story ends with a zinger of a quote, plus pages of numbered steps that encourage action or introspection. Learn how to be silly, cultivate personal integrity, transform from victim to victor, be courageous and outrageous. And much more, including: • The New Age Flake Test • If You Hate Someone, Imagine They Are an Angel • God is a Potato

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Taking a spunky approach to self-help, Randy Peyser, the former editor-in-chief of the New Age magazine Catalyst, has written Crappy to Happy: Small Steps to Big Happiness Now. Using humor, parables and personal anecdotes, Peyser explains how readers can learn to be true to themselves, develop spirituality in their lives and cultivate personal integrity. Her advice is straightforward and jargon-free, and her emphasis is on the present. Asking for support doesn't mean you're a wimp, she says. Get all the support you need. Those with a sense of humor or those in need of one will relish Peyser's quirky book.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Randy Peyser is the former editor-in-chief of Catalyst, a national new-age magazine. She has a one-woman show in San Francisco called Crappy to Happy, formerly From Worrier to Warrior, during which she conducts a "New Age Flake Test," spins "The Wheel of Faulting," and dances the "Chakra-Chanting-Cha-Cha." Randy is gearing up to take her show on a nation-wide tour. This is her first book.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Red Wheel (May 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590030257
• ISBN-13: 978-1590030257
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 4.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,262,376 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You gotta read this book!, December 30, 2002

By 

A. Alexander "dismissedlawstudent" (Los Angeles. CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Crappy to Happy: Small Steps to Big Happiness NOW! (Paperback)

I read this book a few months after getting academically dismissed from law school. I was broke, dejected and many of my former classmates stopped associating with me. I was at a low point in my life.
After reading "Crappy to Happy", my attitude improved a lot. Ms. Peyser's heartfelt tales of woe and redemption are perfect for anyone who is going through a rough patch in their life.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Happy Happy Happy to have found this book, July 5, 2002

By 

susan schwartz (San Mateo, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Crappy to Happy: Small Steps to Big Happiness NOW! (Paperback)

I literally have not put this book down since I got it! I'm taking it with me everywhere -- just to have the opportunity to get another laugh, insight, inpsiration throughout the day.

Randy is inspiring w/o being sappy -- funny w/o being sarcastic -genuine, brilliant.

What can I say? I love this book and if you've ever felt the slightest bit [bad], so will you!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Precious Contribution to the Self Help Genre, May 11, 2002

By 

Liane Gentry Skye, (Florida, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Crappy to Happy: Small Steps to Big Happiness NOW! (Paperback)

Author Randy Peyser gets my nomination as the New Age Erma Bombeck.

Randy's honest, funny, and vulnerable self-assessment of the baby steps she took (not always willingly) towards finding her own personal claim to happiness offers an imminently doable blueprint for other "struggling souls" to follow.

Randy's humor is infectious, her voice is precious, and her sense of humor is absolutely wicked. Her ability to simultaneously poke fun at herself while offering valid advice to the stuggling soul makes "From Crappy to Happy" a double edged read--informative, yes, but also wildly entertaining.

The stories Randy opens her chapters with will leave you rolling on the floor with laughter at the same time you gasp with a sense of personal comraderie as you discover a bit of "everywoman" in the author's personal struggles.

Then, just as you are drying your tears, this talented author stuns you with universal insights into what really constitutes "happiness", and how anyone can achieve it.

If you feel that you're floundering in your personal quest for happiness, read this book.

If you're already happy, read this book for the sheer enjoyment of the author's insightful wit.

Even if you don't want to be happy, and rather enjoy wallowing in your own misery, read this book for the unique, raucous humor that Randy brings to every page.