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Jason Gay

Little Victories: Perfect Rules for Imperfect Living Hardcover – November 3, 2015

by Jason Gay (Author)

160 ratings

Editors' pick Best Nonfiction

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The Wall Street Journal's popular columnist Jason Gay delivers a hilarious and heartfelt guide to modern living.

“The book you hold in your hand is a rule book. There have been rule books before—stacks upon stacks of them—but this book is unlike any other rule book you have ever read. It will not make you rich in twenty-four hours, or even seventy-two hours. It will not cause you to lose eighty pounds in a week. This book has no abdominal exercises. I have been doing abdominal exercises for most of my adult life, and my abdomen looks like it’s always looked. It looks like flan. Syrupy flan. So we can just limit those expectations. This book does not offer a crash diet or a plan for maximizing your best self. I don’t know a thing about your best self. It may be embarrassing. Your best self might be sprinkling peanut M&M’s onto rest-stop pizza as we speak. I cannot promise that this book is a road map to success. And we should probably set aside the goal of total happiness. There’s no such thing.

I would, however, like for it to make you laugh. Maybe think. I believe it is possible to find, at any age, a new appreciation for what you have—and what you don’t have—as well as for the people closest to you. There’s a way to experience life that does not involve a phone, a tablet, a television screen. There’s also a way to experience life that does not involve eating seafood at the airport, because you should really never eat seafood at the airport.

Like the title says, I want us all to achieve little victories. I believe that happiness is derived less from a significant single accomplishment than it is from a series of successful daily maneuvers. Maybe it’s the way you feel when you walk out the door after drinking six cups of coffee, or surviving a family vacation, or playing the rowdy family Thanksgiving touch football game, or just learning to embrace that music at the gym. Accomplishments do not have to be large to be meaningful. I think little victories are the most important ones in life.”

— From the Introduction

Print length

224 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Doubleday
Publication date

November 3, 2015
Dimensions

5.3 x 0.9 x 7.6 inches
ISBN-10

0385539460
ISBN-13

978-0385539463
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

An Amazon Best Book of November 2015: Jason Gay, a popular and funny columnist for the Wall Street Journal, was driven to write Little Victories after his father’s diagnosis of cancer. But Little Victories isn’t just another treacly exhortation to enjoy this precious existence or else. It’s a curation of snapshots of Gay’s “many life mistakes,” demonstrating that life’s little victories are made up of “small, perfect moments,” even—or perhaps especially—when we ourselves are not perfect. Anxious parents in particular will benefit from Gay’s philosophy, whether it’s his thoughts on youth sports to how to set limits on kids’ usage of digital devices: “If it means a peaceful cross-country flight without dirty stares from every other passenger, I will let a two-year-old watch Scarface.” Some chapters are laugh-out-loud funny (the family Thanksgiving chapter should be required reading at this time of year); some are poignant. All are self-deprecating and wry. There are a lot of books out there on how to stop and smell the roses. This is a crowning addition to that genre, making us laugh at our ridiculous human self-importance and showing us how to savor the everyday little victories. —Adrian Liang

Review

“[H]ilarious.... [A] tasty collection of advice about, for instance, mastering the office Christmas party or how to dress a slightly exhausted hipster dad.”
—People

"Gay makes his debut with a hilarious, heartwarming set of essays covering such mundane topics as parenthood, exercise, office life, travel, and the holidays. He presents the book as a riff on his popular Wall Street Journal sports column, organizing the entries around his rules for life (which include 'don’t serve soup at a dinner party,' 'spend a little more money on flowers,' and 'you really should listen to more Stevie Wonder'). He frames these rules with two key events: the birth of his children, Jessie and Josie, via in vitro fertilization, and the shockingly swift death of his father from pancreatic cancer. Along the way, readers will alternately feel the urge to laugh and cry at Gay’s irreverent, witty writing. His insights on each topic are spot-on yet gentle. Any readers who pick up this book will finish it convinced that following Gay’s rules will make their lives more enjoyable, and perhaps even make them better people."
—Publishers Weekly

"A title for everyone, not just sports fans, and all will root for Gay and his “little victories” and feel inspired, too."
—Booklist

"Gay...balances insights with a droll, self-deprecating outlook....no small feat given the difficulty in providing guidance that is at once relevant--neither too specific nor too vauge--and also genuinely funny.... [A] rollicking good read."
—Kirkus Reviews

“I loved this book. Jason Gay's Little Victories is funny, wise, direct, deceptively straight-forward and incredibly moving. As soon as I was finished reading it, I put it in the mail to my father, along with a reminder of my love. Such reminders, after all, are what we are here for, as this story—well—reminds us."
—Elizabeth Gilbert, bestselling author of Eat, Pray, Love and Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

“Jason Gay’s rules for living will make you laugh out loud, and also make a whole lot of sense. This is an advice book that doesn’t take itself too seriously and is all the more valuable for it.”
—Charles Duhigg, bestselling author of The Power of Habit

“The thought of leaning in makes my neck ache, and taking seven steps to accomplish things only makes me want to lie down. Thankfully, Jason Gay has written a life guide for people like me—and you. He can't get the hang of grilling corn—and he's okay with that. He's faced cancer, unemployment, the death of a loved one, and fathered two kids after many setbacks—I think pretty much all at the same time—and has written a unique, heartfelt book about what he's learned from it all. Thanks to Jason, I've crossed trekking to the South Pole off my to-do list. Instead I'll focus on something that'll really make me happy: eating brownies while listening to some pre-1978 Stevie Wonder. See? You can do this! We all can!”
—Diane Muldrow, bestselling author of Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Little Golden Book

“Little Victories manages to be hilarious, helpful, and profound, in one unpredictable mix. It made me happy."
—Gretchen Rubin, bestselling author of The Happiness Project and Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Doubleday (November 3, 2015)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 224 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0385539460
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0385539463
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.3 x 0.9 x 7.6 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #309,495 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #536 in Self-Help & Psychology Humor
- #805 in Humor Essays (Books)
- #1,806 in Fiction Satire

Customer Reviews:
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Jason Gay

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Jason Gay is The Wall Street Journal’s sports columnist and a humor columnist for its Review section. He was named Sports Columnist of the Year by Society of Professional Journalists in 2010, 2016 and 2019. He is author of the book of humor essays, "I Wouldn't Do That If I Were Me" (Nov. 1), and the 2015 bestseller “Little Victories,” which was a finalist for the Thurber Prize for American Humor.

Customer reviews

5 star		69%
4 star		17%
3 star		8%
2 star		4%
1 star		2%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Andy Orrock

Jason Gay's writing reminds me of what's good about sports; here, he mixes it with tales from his life

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 14, 2016

Verified Purchase

I enjoy Jason Gay's writing in the Wall Street Journal and his appearances on 'Men In Blazers.' He reminds me of what's good about sports. In these days of meldonium cheats, spousal batterings by our heroes, fixed football matches and other depressing realities, Jason connects me to why I loved sports growing up and to the joy that hasn't yet been sucked out of big time sports today.

"Little Victories" combines that passion for sports with stories from Jason's personal life, notably his battle with testicular cancer and his father's death from pancreatic cancer. In the wrong hands, these could make from excruciatingly uncomfortable reading. In Jason's hands, the tone is pitch-perfect -- celebrating his Dad's life while mourning his passing, and taking the good away from his own battle.

Lest you get the wrong idea, "Little Victories" is most of all a very funny read. Here's one passage I pulled that is representative of Jason's humorous take on an aspect of parenting:

"If you have young children, you know it is impossible for them not to be drawn to and completely fascinated by a smartphone. And yet if you hand a child a phone in a public setting, people look at you like you’ve just given your kid a sack of enriched uranium. You are lazy, you are ceding parenthood to the machines, you are not actively building organic fun. The parenting magazines and blogs tell you to set limits, and this is useful advice, but I am not setting limits on, say, an airplane. If it means a peaceful cross-country flight without dirty stares from every other passenger, I will let a two-year-old watch Scarface."

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Loyal Customer

Great book!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 11, 2021

Verified Purchase

If you like Jason Gay's sports column, you'll love his book. You'll laugh, and maybe even cry. He is honest and mostly .... so funny. A great escape with some wisdom along the way. Quick read.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 6, 2015

Verified Purchase

Jason Gay is my favorite person. Ok, maybe there are some family members who are higher on the list, but he comes close. I don't even know the guy and he's my favorite! I have followed him in The Wall Street Journal and other publications, and while he's a sports writer, he really has always written about life. His writing makes me laugh (the good kind where it's out loud and I snort) and cry (the good kind where I'm laughing and snorting and then tears are rolling down my cheeks). If I was thirty years younger, I'd like to hang out with Jason. He seems like a throw-back kind of guy; all about his family and making a good life for them. Do yourself a favor and buy multiple copies of this book ( before the publisher runs out because the sales are through the roof and you can't get more copies before the holidays). It will help you win "Little Victories".

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

Humorous review of what is important, and what is not

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 27, 2016

Verified Purchase

This book is a delightful read. Personally, I discovered Jason Gay through the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). Some of his articles were a hoot - one that I especially laughed at was his review of the deflated ball controversy and Tom Brady's news conference on this. I still smile when I remember it.

This book is also humorous, but in the process, the author provides some wisdom to reader on what is really important and what is not. For example, what is important are friends, loved ones, travel, etc. Many of the reasons for stress are focusing on what is not important (which can be deadly). Laughter is certainly a good way to deal with stress and the author has this down pat.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants a humorous read. And, if you can afford it, try to read his WSJ articles.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

TD

I bought this book because I greatly enjoy the author's columns in the Wall Street Journal

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 19, 2015

Verified Purchase

I bought this book because I greatly enjoy the author's columns in the Wall Street Journal. The book is in the same style as the columns - witty and well written. In book form, I have to say that the style becomes a bit tiresome, but it's a short read. I like how the book incorporates small life lessons into each chapter. Not poignant, exactly, but entertaining. I'm a decade or so older than the author, so I may not have appreciated some of the stories as much as a younger dad might (e.g., the Little League stuff).

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Jason B

Even better than you think it's going to be...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 4, 2017

Verified Purchase

You are probably familiar with Jason's column at the WSJ so you think you know what you're going to get, but be prepared, this book is even better.
On his way to writing a humorous book, he came up with a pretty handy primer on how to deal with what life throws at you. I wish I could go back in time and give it to my 25 year old self, but at least I can order some copies for those younger guys I know. I'll still be able to apply it now, except for the soup deal, I'm still too Type-A for that.

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

Jay Hamilton

Very enjoyable!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 30, 2017

Verified Purchase

I like Jason Gay's column in the WSJ, definitely one of my favorites. This book is consistent with his style. My only criticism would be that there are times when he tries a little too hard to force a witty metaphor or two when it's a bit too much. Highly recommend this book as it a light, humorous read which touches upon life experiences that we all can relate to.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Kyle Bennett

Jason Gay: As funny and insightful as his column in the WSJ

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 23, 2020

Verified Purchase

Jason deals with real-life issues in this book. I found myself laughing out loud many times. This is a fun, quick read.

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

itesh dodhi

Another reason for disappointment was that after the chapter starts the author starts ...

Reviewed in India 🇮🇳 on August 3, 2018

Verified Purchase

There is nothing this book has to tell which an average person doesn't know - have friends, take care of your health, it is not necessary to join a gym you can be active otherwise too etc. etc. Another reason for disappointment was that after the chapter starts the author starts to elaborate on unnecessary details, maybe that's the American way of writing. Don't Recommend at all.

N. R.

Four Stars

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on February 1, 2016

Verified Purchase

really a fun quick read, relatable everyday advice if you will...

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