REVIEW:

An ode to social media (by Matt Haig):

When anger trolls the internet
looking for a hook
it’s time to disconnect
and go and read a book

Can I get an amen on that?! Surely my lit-loving peeps felt that in the feels as much as I did.

My 2021 mission to conquer Matt Haig’s backlist led me to his second nonfiction book that deals with his mental illnesses (anxiety, depression, and panic disorders). Notes on a Nervous Planet was written in 2019, and if the planet was nervous then it must be rocking back and forth in the fetal position now. More than ever, we need books like this to remind us that we’re not alone in dealing with the stresses of modern life. Read a healing sentence - breath in - read an insightful sentence - breath out. Repeat.

Try it again. Deep breath in. Deep breath out. If you feel just a wee bit better now, then I have no doubt you’ll feel a whole lot better after reading this book.

PUBLISHER SYNOPSIS:

A follow-up to Matt Haig's internationally bestselling memoir, Reasons to Stay Alive, a broader look at how modern life feeds our anxiety, and how to live a better life.

The societies we live in are increasingly making our minds ill, making it feel as though the way we live is engineered to make us unhappy. When Matt Haig developed panic disorder, anxiety, and depression as an adult, it took him a long time to work out the ways the external world could impact his mental health in both positive and negative ways. Notes on a Nervous Planet collects his observations, taking a look at how the various social, commercial and technological "advancements" that have created the world we now live in can actually hinder our happiness. Haig examines everything from broader phenomena like inequality, social media, and the news; to things closer to our daily lives, like how we sleep, how we exercise, and even the distinction we draw between our minds and our bodies.