Friday Linkups: Furiously Happy

It's Friday linkup time!  I'm linking up with the Book Blogger Hop hosted by Coffee Addicted Writer, Book Beginnings of Fridays hosted by Rose City Reader, and the Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice.

This Week's Book Blogger Hop Question:
Which character in a book do you most likely see yourself?  If none, who would you think would be your bff in real life?

My Answer:
This has definitely changed over the years.  These days I definitely find myself identifying more with mother type characters.  I really identified with Ellison Russell in Guaranteed to Bleed by Julie Mulhern and Stella Rothchild from Nora Roberts' Blue Dahilia most recently.  They're both tough get it done mothers with a sense of humor.  So I'm not sure if I'm actually like them but I do know I'd definitely like to be like them.

This week's book is one I'm super excited about!  I adored Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson and I absolutely love her blog so I was thrilled when I was able to get a copy of her newest book Furiously Happy from the library.  I'm about halfway through and so far I'm really enjoying it though maybe not quite as much as the last book.  Hopefully the review will be up Monday!

The Beginning:
This is where I was going to put a simple Mary Oliver quote but instead I decided to replace it with the idea I had for the cover of this book because I'm pretty sure it'll never get accepted and I don't want it to go to waste.  The great thing about this cover is that when you're holding the book up to read it, it will look like the bottom of your face has been replaced with an ecstatic raccoon smile.  That way you look friendly and also terrifying to anyone passing by, which is nice because then people won't bother you while you're reading.

My Thoughts:
So if you can't tell this is a memoir-y type book and this one so far has been written in essay type chapters some of which are really moving discussions of her struggles with mental illness and others are off the wall zaniness about renting kangaroos and ethically taxidermied animals and sometimes it's a bit of both.

The 56:
He sent back a single line that has never left me:
"Pretend you're good at it"

My Thoughts:
I love this little bit of advice and it's one I've put into play though I've never phrased it quite so simply yet so thoroughly.

So what do you think?  Keep reading?  Who do you identify with in books?