Book Reviews by Jodi Shelly, MLIS, MBA: Insights and Recommendations from the Director of Felician University Library Services!

Published in 1989, this is a classic that I confess I overlooked at the time it was originally published. I discovered this book when I took up The Great American Read Challenge. In it, I found a true gem. This book took me well out of my usual reading fare and introduced my mind to a whole new set of literary spices.

The book opens, “I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice-not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother’s death, but because he is the reason I believe in God; I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.”

The narrator of this story is Johnny Wheelwright. In 1953, during a Little League game, Johnny’s mother is tragically and instantaneously killed by an errant foul ball from off the bat of his best-friend old Owen Meany, when the boys are 11-years old. The book chronicles the events of their adolescenthood and young adulthood – all that seemingly confirm Owen’s belief that he is the center of a divine plan, one in which he is predestined for martyrdom. To learn if Johnny can thwart Owen’s perceived fate, you must read it through to the end.

I devoured this exceptional book.

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Happiness is an Inside Job by John Powell, S.J.
(156 pgs.)

Published in 2017, this book explains that happiness is something that we all can obtain, but only if we go about the right way.

The author, a professor at Loyola University, begins with the hypothesis that humans are naturally designed to be happy. Happiness is not something that we can get from outside sources, but rather from within ourselves. He indicates that “something is wrong” if we fail to be happy. The book is based on the notion that H=IJ, or Happiness is an Inside Job.

It offers ten chapters, or practices, filled with ways to build our Happiness muscles. Chapters/Practices include topics such as: Acceptance, Responsibility, Growth not Perfection, Nourishment, and Enjoyment of the Good Things. I particularly relished the Chapter/Practice entitled, “We Must Stretch by Stepping Out of Our Comfort Zones.” Each chapter concludes with self-testing exercises.

Though an “easy-read,” this book offers much to think about.