what is a good life book review

The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness

What makes for a happy life, a fulfilling life? A  good  life? According to the directors of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, the longest scientific study of happiness ever conducted, the answer to these questions may be closer than you realize.

What makes a life fulfilling and meaningful? The simple but surprising answer is: relationships. The stronger our relationships, the more likely we are to live happy, satisfying, and overall healthier lives. In fact, the Harvard Study of Adult Development reveals that the strength of our connections with others can predict the health of both our bodies and our brains as we go through life. The invaluable insights in this book emerge from the revealing personal stories of hundreds of participants in the Harvard Study as they were followed year after year for their entire adult lives, and this wisdom is bolstered by research findings from this and many other studies. Relationships in all their forms—friendships, romantic partnerships, families, coworkers, tennis partners, book club members, Bible study groups—all contribute to a happier, healthier life. And as  The Good Life  shows us, it’s never too late to strengthen the relationships you have, and never too late to build new ones. Dr. Waldinger’s TED Talk about the Harvard Study, “What Makes a Good Life,” has been viewed more than 42 million times and is one of the ten most-watched TED talks ever.  The Good Life  has been praised by bestselling authors Jay Shetty (“Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz lead us on an empowering quest towards our greatest need: meaningful human connection”), Angela Duckworth (“In a crowded field of life advice and even life advice based on scientific research, Schulz and Waldinger stand apart”), and happiness expert Laurie Santos (“Waldinger and Schulz are world experts on the counterintuitive things that make life meaningful”). With warmth, wisdom, and compelling life stories,  The Good Life  shows us how we can make our lives happier and more meaningful through our connections to others.

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The Good Life: Lessons from the World's Longest Scientific Study of Happiness

By Marc Schulz Ph.D and Robert Waldinger M.D.

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Summary: The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness by Marc Schulz and Robert J. Waldinger

By: Author Nina Norman

Posted on Published: August 29, 2023  - Last updated: November 3, 2023

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Home » Summary: The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness by Marc Schulz and Robert J. Waldinger

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About the authors.

Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz direct the world’s most enduring longitudinal survey of happiness — the Harvard Study of Adult Development, which has been closely following individuals from the same 724 families for more than 85 years. They draw on research from two generations of participants in the Harvard Study and glean insights from the latest research from other studies in psychology and neuroscience as well as the wisdom of ancient philosophers. They conclude that relationships are your pathway to contentment. The authors offer strategies for improving the quality of your connections, for making new connections, and for bolstering your overall well-being and life satisfaction.

The quality of your relationships shapes your well-being and happiness.

People continue to grow and develop throughout adulthood, particularly as a result of their relationships and life transitions., show others you care by giving them your time and attention., be proactive about nurturing your relationships; begin by taking stock of your relationships and prioritizing your most important connections., you can take steps to strengthen the health of your relationships and improve your mastery of your emotions., create more satisfying and beneficial relationships by communicating and listening with empathy..

• You spend most of your waking hours at work. Make the most of them; especially heed your connections with others.

Human relationships are important on a collective level as humanity navigates global challenges.

Most people say they want to be happy, but what does a happy life look like? The term “happiness” itself is a bit vague. The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle differentiated between “hedonic” happiness and “eudaimonic” happiness. Hedonic happiness is a temporary sensation in response to moment-to-moment experiences. Eudaimonic happiness is more long-term and longer-lasting, coming from a sense of purpose and meaning. That enduring sense of well-being you feel when you’re flourishing and thriving is related to Aristotle’s notion of eudaimonia.

“Relationships are not just essential as stepping-stones to other things, and they are not simply a functional route to health and happiness. They are ends in themselves.”

As the lead researchers of the longest survey of human happiness – the Harvard Study of Adult Development – authors Dr. Robert J. Waldinger and Dr. Marc Schulz examined data collected on thousands of people from two generations. They found that the most consistent predictor of well-being isn’t money or career success.It’s relationships. Positive relationships not only make you happier, they also keep you healthier. When you experience a positive interaction – whether a small one (waving to your mail carrier) or a bigger one (knowing a friend deeply loves you) – that interaction signals safety to your body. This signal is the opposite of the message that stress hormones (cortisol and adrenalin) send to your body when a negative interaction triggers a “fight or flight” reaction. Relationships help people manage stress and navigate challenges. Since prehistoric times, humans have evolved to seek safety in relationships, so healthy ones are vital to your well-being.

Adulthood isn’t stagnant. It’s a period of flux, bearing the marks of relationship changes. Psychologists used to focus only on childhood development, harboring the false assumption that once you reach adulthood, development halts. Today, thanks in part to research findings from the Harvard Study and new insights into neuroplasticity, scientists understand that adulthood is a period of tremendous growth and change.

“In the end, it’s about gaining some perspective on the roads we’ve taken and the roads still to come, so that we can help each other anticipate and prepare for the hard curves ahead.”

To be open to growth and change, it is helpful to take time to reflect on your life, considering your journey as a whole and the ways that your circumstances and views have changed over the years. For example, how have your priorities, hopes, goals and self-concept shifted since you were half as old as you are now?

The human life cycle tends to unfold in the following stages:

• Adolescence, age 12-19 – During this period, people form their identity, focusing on the type of person they’re becoming, who they hope to be in the future and what they want to do in life. During this stage, they learn how to navigate new types of intimacy.
• Young adulthood, age 20-40 – Young adults build their own safety nets as they separate from their parents and create new social connections and intimate attachments. They often wonder whether they’re on the right path, if they’re living life consistent with their values and if they’ll find love.
• Midlife, age 41-65 – When people realize their younger years are behind them, they begin to assess whether there are things they should do differently. They entertain existential questions such as, “Is this all there is?” They may reflect on whether they’ve truly connected with others and have a sense of meaning and purpose in their life.
• Late life, 66 and older – As people start to view time as more precious and grapple with their own mortality, they develop a deeper appreciation for their existing relationships. Awareness that life is short leads to a greater emphasis on prioritizing what’s most important, often including having meaningful relationships and making sure they’re leaving a legacy behind.

The quality and frequency of your connections with others are major predictors of your happiness. Many Harvard Study participants who reflected on their lives in their 80s regretted not spending more time with their friends and loved ones. Leading a good life requires nurturing and caring for your relationships. A first step is giving your time and attention to those who are most important to you; it is the simplest way of showing people you value them. Zen master John Tarrant calls attention “the most basic form of love.” Both meanings of “attention” are important. One refers to prioritizing people by spending time with them. The other refers to being present and attentive when you spend time with people rather than allowing your mind to wander.

“Attention is your most important asset, and deciding how to invest it is one of the most important decisions you can make.”

Research in neuroscience shows that multitasking is a myth. People actually can’t pay attention to two separate things at the same time. Instead of trying to multitask, work on reducing unnecessary distractions including those coming from your smartphone and other technologies. Work on being more present, asking yourself what you may not be noticing about others in your daily interactions. Show interest in others by trying to understand what they are experiencing and communicating. While you may not always understand exactly what someone is thinking or feeling, Waldinger and Schulz’s research shows that simply showing that you’re trying to understand someone helps improve the relationship. People reported feeling more positively about partners whom they believed were making an effort to understand them.

Relationships need to be cultivated and tended. Otherwise, connections with others wither. A good place to begin is to reflect on the quality of your current relationships and how frequently you interact with the people who are important to you. In good quality relationships, attention, care and support are reciprocal, so reflect on how others are showing up for you and you for them. Identify relationships that energize you and those that you experience as depleting in some way. If you frequently spend time in a relationship that depletes you, can you identify opportunities to improve the health of the relationship or to reduce the time you spend with that individual? Can you find ways to spend more time with those you find enlivening?

“A few adjustments to our most treasured relationships can have real effects on how we feel and on how we feel about our lives.”

Do an inventory of your connections with others using the following elements of good relationships. (Not every relationship will provide all of them.)

• Security and safety – Do you have someone you can rely on and turn to during a challenge?
• Growth and learning – Who inspires you to pursue your goals and encourages you to try new things?
• Emotional closeness – Is there one person you confide in most? Whose advice do you trust?
• Shared experience and identity affirmation – Do you have siblings or old friends with whom you’ve shared identity-forming life experiences?
• Romantic intimacy – Do you feel satisfied with the degree of intimacy and sexual connection in your life? Who fulfills these needs?
• Help and assistance – Who helps you solve practical problems (for example, getting a ride to a medical appointment)?
• Relaxation and fun – Think about the people you enjoy being with and laughing with. Who contributes to your sense of joy and feeling of being connected?

Former Harvard Study director George Vaillant described two “pillars of happiness” – love and “finding a way of coping with life that does not push love away.” Habitual negative reactions to stress (such as responding with defensiveness to a concerned family member) can harm your relationships. Everyone has habitual ways of coping when stressful events occur. Those who “lean in,” facing their difficulties head on, tend to navigate stressful challenges better than those who try to ignore problems, hoping they’ll go away. By breaking down stressful emotional encounters into stages, people can learn to navigate challenges in more adaptive ways.

“Our emotions need not be our masters; what we think, and how we approach each event in our lives, matters.”

Use the WISER model to respond better to emotionally challenging events and to enhance your relationships:

• Watch – Take a moment to observe the situation closely and consider as many aspects of it as possible. Have you missed something important?
• Interpret – Identify what’s at stake and strive to gain greater insight into why you’re feeling strong emotions. Have you made any false assumptions?
• Select – Carefully identify and weigh your options, reflecting on what you hope to accomplish and your best means of doing so.
• Engage – Respond, executing your chosen strategy with skill.
• Reflect – Learn from the incident, reflecting on what went well and what you might do differently next time.

Improve your connections to others, including in an intimate relationship, by striving to understand the other person and his or her experience. You can increase and demonstrate your empathy with three practices. The first is “reflective listening,” that is, listening to another person without commenting or judging what he or she is saying and then attempting to repeat back what you’ve heard. (“What I’m hearing you say is ___. Is that right?”)

The second practice is letting your partner know you understand why he or she feels a certain way. Make it clear you grasp your partner’s reactions. (“It makes sense that you feel so strongly about this since you care so much about being kind.”) A third useful practice is striving to view your experience and reactions from a more distanced perspective, as if you were another person watching yourself. This distanced perspective often lessens the emotional heat of the moment and can lead to new insights and opportunities.

“We each bring our own particular strengths and weaknesses into a relationship, our own fears and desires, enthusiasms and anxieties, and the dance that results will always be unlike any other.”

The Harvard Study and others demonstrate that children first learn how to relate to people and manage their emotions within their families. Those who grow up in families that provide support, consistency and warmth are better able to manage challenges and to elicit support from others when they’re facing stress. These strategies for adaptively coping with challenges and emotions also can be learned later in life with the help of supportive people.

You spend most of your waking hours at work; make the most of them.

You might view your work life as separate from your “real life,” but most people spend a significant amount of time working. By age 80, the average person in the United Kingdom has spent 112,000 hours, or 13 years, of his or her life at work and only 8,800 hours socializing with friends. If you view your job only as a means of getting a paycheck, you may be less likely to see work as a place where you can develop authentic and valuable connections with others.

“What if the value of work – even work we dislike – lies not just in getting paid, but also in the moment-to-moment sensations of being alive in the workplace and the feeling of vitality we get from being connected to others?”

While some managers and workers may view having good friends at work as irrelevant or even a drain on productivity, research shows that people with a “best friend” at work are actually more engaged and do better work than those who don’t have a strong friendship at work. While plenty of understandable reasons exist for disengaging from or avoiding work relationships, doing so can contribute to feelings of loneliness and disconnection. To take full advantage of your waking hours, look for opportunities to maximize meaningful social interactions in your chosen workplace.

The Harvard Study points to the importance of adding a “fourth R” to the “3 Rs” of basic education. Children shouldn’t learn just “reading, writing and arithmetic” in schools; they should also learn about “relationships.” Because human connection is so crucial to well-being, education should include a focus on “social fitness,” or how to cultivate healthy interactions. Schools across the world have begun to catch on, with programs popping up around the globe that teach children how to manage challenging social situations and their accompanying emotions. Research indicates that students who receive this training perform better academically, have fewer conduct problems, use drugs less often and experience less emotional distress. Adults can benefit similarly from such education.

“Week by week, you can prioritize your relationships and choose to be with people who matter. Year by year you can find purpose and meaning through the lives that you enrich and the relationships that you cultivate.”

The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the need for relationships and social connection, as many people experienced firsthand the harmful toll of social isolation on their minds and bodies. In the face of global crises, good relationships help people face challenges together and, in this way, support everyone’s well-being. The good life isn’t a destination. It is “the path itself and the people who are walking it with you.”

Robert Waldinger, MD , is a Harvard Medical School professor of psychiatry and the director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development at Massachusetts General Hospital. Marc Schulz , PhD, is a professor of psychology at Bryn Mawr College and the study’s associate director.

“The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness” is a captivating book written by Marc Schulz and Robert J. Waldinger. Drawing from the extensive research conducted as part of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, the authors explore the factors that contribute to a happy and fulfilling life. This book offers valuable insights and practical advice based on decades of scientific investigation into the secrets of human happiness.

Schulz and Waldinger provide an in-depth overview of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, which is one of the longest-running studies on happiness and well-being. The book delves into the lives of the study participants, who were followed over several decades, and examines the factors that influenced their happiness and overall life satisfaction.

The main sections of the book are as follows:

• The Study of Happiness: The authors introduce the Harvard Study of Adult Development, its purpose, and methodology. They discuss the importance of long-term, comprehensive research in understanding the complexities of human happiness. Schulz and Waldinger highlight the significance of studying both external circumstances and internal factors in determining life satisfaction.
• Relationships and Social Connections: This section explores the impact of relationships and social connections on happiness. The authors present compelling evidence that quality relationships are central to leading a fulfilling life. They discuss the role of close relationships, such as romantic partnerships and friendships, as well as the importance of social support networks. Schulz and Waldinger provide practical advice on cultivating and maintaining meaningful connections.
• Health and Well-being: The authors examine the relationship between physical and mental health and happiness. They discuss the impact of lifestyle choices, such as exercise, nutrition, and sleep, on overall well-being. Schulz and Waldinger also explore the role of positive emotions, resilience, and coping strategies in promoting happiness and longevity.
• Finding Meaning and Purpose: This section delves into the importance of finding meaning and purpose in life. The authors discuss the concept of “eudaimonic well-being,” which involves pursuing activities that align with personal values and contribute to a greater sense of purpose. Schulz and Waldinger provide insights on how to discover and nurture one’s passions, engage in meaningful work , and contribute to the community.

“The Good Life” presents a wealth of knowledge and wisdom derived from the Harvard Study of Adult Development. Schulz and Waldinger’s writing is engaging, accessible, and backed by rigorous scientific research. The book’s strength lies in its ability to translate complex findings into practical advice for readers.

One of the book’s notable aspects is its focus on the importance of relationships. The authors emphasize that the quality of our connections with others is a key determinant of happiness and well-being. By highlighting the significance of empathy, compassion, and social support, Schulz and Waldinger offer valuable insights on how to cultivate and nurture meaningful relationships.

Additionally, the authors explore the interplay between physical and mental health and happiness. They provide evidence-based strategies for maintaining a healthy lifestyle, managing stress, and promoting emotional well-being. By emphasizing the importance of self-care and self-awareness, the book encourages readers to prioritize their overall well-being.

“The Good Life” also delves into the concept of finding meaning and purpose. Schulz and Waldinger emphasize that living a fulfilling life involves aligning one’s actions with personal values and contributing to something greater than oneself. The book offers practical guidance on how to identify and pursue meaningful goals and engage in activities that bring a sense of purpose and fulfillment.

In conclusion, “The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness” is a thought-provoking and insightful book that offers valuable lessons on living a happy and fulfilling life. Through the lens of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, Schulz and Waldinger provide evidence-based strategies for cultivating meaningful relationships, promoting physical and mental well-being, and finding purpose. This book serves as a guide for individuals seeking to enhance their overall happiness and lead a more satisfying life.

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The Good Life: Lessons from the World's Longest Scientific Study of Happiness Hardcover – 10 January 2023

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• Print length 341 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Simon & Schuster
• Publication date 10 January 2023
• Dimensions 15.24 x 3.3 x 22.86 cm
• ISBN-10 198216669X
• ISBN-13 978-1982166694
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About the author, excerpt. © reprinted by permission. all rights reserved., the investment of a lifetime, a treasure in boston’s west end, a lens that can see through time, a lot of questions. really. a lot., what makes a good life, from the data to your daily life, the ancients beat us to it, the bumpy path of discovery, product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Simon & Schuster (10 January 2023)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 341 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 198216669X
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1982166694
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 499 g
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 15.24 x 3.3 x 22.86 cm
• #696 in Sociology (Books)
• #2,187 in Self-Help for Happiness
• #5,852 in Family & Relationships

About the authors

Robert j. waldinger.

Dr. Robert Waldinger is a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development at Massachusetts General Hospital, and cofounder of the Lifespan Research Foundation. Dr. Waldinger received his AB from Harvard College and his MD from Harvard Medical School. He is a practicing psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, and he directs a psychotherapy teaching program for Harvard psychiatry residents. He is also a Zen master (Roshi) and teaches meditation in New England and around the world.

Marc Schulz Ph.D

Marc Schulz, PhD, is the Associate Director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development and an award-winning professor at Bryn Mawr College, where he directs the Data Science Program and is the Sue Kardas PhD 1971 Chair in Psychology. He completed his BA at Amherst College and his Ph.D. at the University of California at Berkeley.

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Morality and Happiness

Plato and Aristotle treated morality as a genre of interpretation. They tried to show the true character of each of the main moral and political virtues (such as honor, civic responsibility, and justice), first by relating each to the others, and then to the broad ethical ideals their translators summarize as personal “happiness.” Here I use the terms “ethical” and “moral” in what might seem a special way. Moral standards prescribe how we ought to treat others; ethical standards, how we ought to live ourselves. The happiness that Plato and Aristotle evoked was to be achieved by living ethically; and this meant living according to independent moral principles.

We can—many people do—use either “ethical” or “moral” or both in a broader sense that erases this distinction, so that morality includes what I call ethics, and vice versa. But we would then have to recognize the distinction I draw in some other form in order to ask whether our ethical desire to lead good lives for ourselves provides a justifying moral reason for our concern with what we owe to others. Any of these different forms of expression would allow us to pursue the interesting idea that moral principles should be interpreted so that being moral makes us happy in the sense Plato and Aristotle meant.

In my book Justice for Hedgehogs —from which this essay is adapted—I try to pursue that interpretive project. We aim to find some ethical standard—some conception of what it is to live well—that will guide us in our interpretation of moral concepts. But there is an apparent obstacle. This strategy seems to suppose that we should understand our moral responsibilities in whatever way is best for us, but that goal seems contrary to the spirit of morality, because morality should not depend on any benefit that being moral might bring. We might try to meet this objection through a familiar philosophical distinction: we might distinguish between the content of moral principles, which must be categorical, and the justification of those principles, which might consistently appeal to the long-term interests of people bound by those principles.

We might argue, for example, that it is in everyone’s long-term interests to accept a principle that forbids lying even in circumstances when lying would be in the liar’s immediate interests. Everyone benefits when people accept a self-denial of that kind rather than each person lying when that is in his immediate interest. However, this maneuver seems unsatisfactory, because we do not believe that our reasons for being moral depend on even our long-term interests. We are, most of us, drawn to the more austere view that the justification and definition of moral principle should both be independent of our interests, even in the long term. Virtue should be its own reward; we need assume no other benefit in doing our duty.

But that austere view would set a severe limit to how far we could press an interpretive account of morality: it would permit the first stage I distinguished in Plato’s and Aristotle’s arguments, but not the second. We could seek integration of the ethical and moral within our distinctly moral convictions. We could list the concrete moral duties, responsibilities, and virtues we recognize and then try to bring these convictions into interpretive order—into a mutually reinforcing network of ideas defining our moral responsibilities. Perhaps we could find very general moral principles, like the utilitarian principle, that justify and are in turn justified by these concrete requirements and ideals. Or we could proceed in the other direction: setting out very general moral principles that we find appealing, and then seeing whether we can match these with the concrete convictions—and actions—we find we can approve. But we could not set the entire interpretive construction into any larger web of value; we could not justify or test our moral convictions by asking how well these serve other, different purposes or ambitions that people including ourselves might or should have.

That would be disappointing, because we need to find authenticity as well as integrity in our morality, and authenticity requires that we break out of distinctly moral considerations to ask what form of moral integrity fits best with the ethical decision about how we want to conceive our personality and our life. The austere view blocks that question. Of course it is unlikely that we will ever achieve a full integration of our moral, political, and ethical values that feels authentic and right. That is why living responsibly is a continuing project and never a completed task. But the wider the network of ideas we can explore, the further we can push that project.

The austere view that virtue should be its own reward is disappointing in another way. Philosophers ask why people should be moral. If we accept the austere view, then we can only answer: because morality requires this. That is not an obviously illegitimate answer. The web of justification is always finally, at its limits, circular, and it is not viciously circular to say that morality provides its own only justification, that we must be moral simply because that is what morality demands. But it is nevertheless sad to be forced to say this. Philosophers have pressed the question “why be moral?” because it seems odd to think that morality, which is often burdensome, has the force it does in our lives just because it is there , like an arduous and unpleasant mountain we must constantly climb but that we might hope wasn’t there or would somehow crumble. We want to think that morality connects with human purposes and ambitions in some less negative way, that it is not all constraint, with no positive value.

I therefore propose a different understanding of the irresistible thought that morality is categorical. We cannot justify a moral principle just by showing that following that principle would promote someone’s or everyone’s desires in either the short or the long term. The fact of desire—even enlightened desire, even a universal desire supposedly embedded in human nature—cannot justify a moral duty. So understood, our sense that morality need not serve our interests is only another application of Hume’s principle that no amount of empirical discovery about the state of the world can establish conclusions about moral obligation. My understanding of a proposal for combining ethics and morality does not rule out tying them together in the way Plato and Aristotle did, and in the way our own project proposes, because that project takes ethics to be, not a matter of psychological fact about what people happen to or even inevitably want or take to be in their own interest, but itself a matter of ideal.

We need, then, a statement of what we should take our personal goals to be that fits with and justifies our sense of what obligations, duties, and responsibilities we have to others. We look for a conception of living well that can guide our interpretation of moral concepts. But we want, as part of the same project, a conception of morality that can guide our interpretation of living well.

True, people confronted with other people’s suffering do not normally ask whether helping those people will create a more ideal life for themselves. They may be moved by the suffering itself or by a sense of duty. Philosophers debate whether this makes a difference. Should people help a child because the child needs help or because it is their duty to help? In fact both motives might well be in play along with hosts of others that a sophisticated psychological analysis might reveal, and it might be difficult or impossible to say which dominates on any particular occasion.

Nothing important, I believe, turns on the answer: doing what you take to be your duty because it is your duty is hardly disreputable. Nor is it culpably self- regarding to worry about the impact of behaving badly on the character of one’s life; it is not narcissistic to think, as people often say, “I couldn’t live with myself if I did that.” In any case, however, these questions of psychology and character are not relevant to the question that I am posing here. Our question is the different one of whether, when we try to fix, criticize, and ground our own moral responsibilities, we can sensibly assume that our ideas about what morality requires and about the best human ambitions for ourselves should reinforce each other.

Hobbes and Hume can each be read as claiming not just a psychological but an ethical basis for familiar moral principles. Hobbes’s putative ethics—that self-interest and therefore survival are the greatest good—is unsatisfactory. At least for most of us, just achieving survival through a morality of self-interest is not a sufficient condition of living well. Hume’s sensibilities, translated into an ethics, are much more agreeable, but experience teaches us that even people who are sensitive to the needs of others cannot resolve moral, or ethical, issues—as Hume’s theory might suggest—simply by asking themselves what they are naturally inclined to feel or do. Nor does it help much to expand Hume’s ethics into a general utilitarian principle. The idea that each of us should treat his own interests as no more important than those of anyone else has seemed an attractive basis for morality to many philosophers. But as I shall shortly argue, it can hardly serve as a strategy for living well oneself.

Religion can provide a justifying ethics for people who are religious in the right way; we have ample illustration of this in the familiar moralizing interpretations of sacred texts. Such people understand living well to mean respecting or pleasing a god, and they can interpret their moral responsibilities by asking which view of those responsibilities would best respect or most please that god. But that structure of thought could be helpful, as a guide to integrating ethics and morality, only for people who treat a sacred text as an explicit and detailed moral rule book. People who think only that their god has commanded love for and charity to others, as I believe many religious people do, cannot find, just in that command, any specific answers to what morality requires. In any case, I shall not rely on the idea of any divine book of detailed moral instruction here.

The Good Life and Living Well

If we reject Hobbesean and Humean views of ethics and are not tempted by religious ones, yet still propose to unite morality and ethics, we must find some other account of what living well means. As I said, it cannot mean simply having whatever one in fact wants: having a good life is a matter of our interests when they are viewed critically—the interests we should have. It is therefore a matter of judgment and controversy to determine what a good life is. But is it plausible to suppose that being moral is the best way to make one’s own life a good one? It is wildly implausible if we hold to popular conceptions of what morality requires and what makes a life good. Morality may require someone to pass up a job in cigarette advertising that would rescue him from poverty. In most people’s view he would lead a better life if he took the job and prospered.

Of course an interpretive account would not be limited by such conventional understandings. We might be able to construct a conception of a good life such that an immoral or base act would always, or almost always, make the agent’s life finally a worse life to lead. But I suspect that any such attempt would fail. Any attractive conception of our moral responsibilities would sometimes demand great sacrifices—it might require us to risk, or perhaps even to sacrifice, our lives. It is hard to believe that someone who has suffered such terrible misfortunes has had a better life than he would have had if he had acted immorally and then prospered in every way, creatively, emotionally, and materially, in a long and peaceful life.

We can, however, pursue a somewhat different, and I believe more promising, idea. This requires a distinction within ethics that is familiar in morals: a distinction between duty and consequence, between the right and the good. We should distinguish between living well and having a good life. These two different achievements are connected and distinguished in this way: living well means striving to create a good life, but only subject to certain constraints essential to human dignity. These two concepts, of living well and of having a good life, are interpretive concepts. Our ethical responsibility includes trying to find appropriate conceptions of both of them.

Each of these fundamental ethical ideals needs the other. We cannot explain the importance of a good life except by noticing how creating a good life contributes to living well. We are self-conscious animals who have drives, instincts, tastes, and preferences. There is no mystery why we should want to satisfy those drives and serve those tastes. But it can seem mysterious why we should want a life that is good in a more critical sense: a life we can take pride in having lived when the drives are slaked or even if they are not. We can explain this ambition only when we recognize that we have a responsibility to live well and believe that living well means creating a life that is not simply pleasurable but good in that critical way.

You might ask: responsibility to whom? It is misleading to answer: responsibility to ourselves. People to whom responsibilities are owed can normally release those who are responsible, but we cannot release ourselves from our responsibility to live well. We must instead acknowledge an idea that I believe we almost all accept in the way we live but that is rarely explicitly formulated or acknowledged. We are charged to live well by the bare fact of our existence as self-conscious creatures with lives to lead. We are charged in the way we are charged by the value of anything entrusted to our care. It is important that we live well; not important just to us or to anyone else, but just important.

We have a responsibility to live well, and the importance of living well accounts for the value of having a critically good life. These are no doubt controversial ethical judgments. I also make controversial ethical judgments in any view I take about which lives are good or well-lived. In my own view, someone who leads a boring, conventional life without close friendships or challenges or achievements, marking time to his grave, has not had a good life, even if he thinks he has and even if he has thoroughly enjoyed the life he has had. If you agree, we cannot explain why he should regret this simply by calling attention to pleasures missed: there may have been no pleasures missed, and in any case there is nothing to miss now. We must suppose that he has failed at something: failed in his responsibilities for living.

What kind of value can living well have? The analogy between art and life has often been drawn and as often ridiculed. We should live our lives, the Romantics said, as a work of art. 1 We distrust the analogy now because it sounds too Wildean, as if the qualities we value in a painting—fine sensibility or a complex formal organization or a subtle interpretation of art’s own history—were the values we should seek in life: the values of the aesthete. These may be poor values to seek in the way we live. But to condemn the analogy for that reason misses its point, which lies in the relation between the value of what is created and the value of the acts of creating it.

We value great art most fundamentally not because the art as product enhances our lives but because it embodies a performance, a rising to artistic challenge. We value human lives well lived not for the completed narrative, as if fiction would do as well, but because they too embody a performance: a rising to the challenge of having a life to lead. The final value of our lives is adverbial, not adjectival—a matter of how we actually lived, not of a label applied to the final result. It is the value of the performance, not anything that is left when the performance is subtracted. It is the value of a brilliant dance or dive when the memories have faded and the ripples died away.

We need another distinction. Something’s “product value” is the value it has just as an object, independently of the process through which it was created or of any other feature of its history. A painting may have product value, and this may be subjective or objective. Its formal arrangements may be beautiful, which gives it objective value, and it may give pleasure to viewers and be prized by collectors, which properties give it subjective value. A perfect mechanical replica of that painting has the same beauty. Whether it has the same subjective value depends largely on whether it is known to be a replica: it has as great subjective value as the original for those who think that it is the original. The original has a kind of objective value that the replica cannot have, however: it has the value of having been manufactured through a creative act that has performance value. It was created by an artist intending to create art. The object—the work of art—is wonderful because it is the upshot of a wonderful performance; it would not be as wonderful if it were a mechanical replica or if it had been created by some freakish accident.

It was once popular to laugh at abstract art by supposing that it could have been painted by a chimpanzee, and people once speculated whether one of billions of apes typing randomly might produce King Lear . If a chimpanzee by accident painted Blue Poles or typed the words of King Lear in the right order, these products would no doubt have very great subjective value. Many people would be desperate to own or anxious to see them. But they would have no value as performance at all. Performance value may exist independently of any object with which that performance value has been fused. There is no product value left when a great painting has been destroyed, but the fact of its creation remains and retains its full performance value. Uccello’s achievements are no less valuable because his paintings were gravely damaged in the Florence flood; Leonardo’s Last Supper might have perished, but the wonder of its creation would not have been diminished. A musical performance or a ballet may have enormous objective value, but if it has not been recorded or filmed, its product value immediately diminishes. Some performances—improvisational theater and unrecorded jazz concerts—find value in their ephemeral singularity: they will never be repeated.

We may count a life’s positive impact—the way the world itself is better because that life was lived—as its product value. Aristotle thought that a good life is one spent in contemplation, exercising reason, and acquiring knowledge; Plato that the good life is a harmonious life achieved through order and balance. Neither of these ancient ideas requires that a wonderful life have any impact at all. Most people’s opinions, so far as these are self-conscious and articulate, ignore impact in the same way. Many of them think that a life devoted to the love of a god or gods is the finest life to lead, and a great many including many who do not share that opinion think the same of a life lived in inherited traditions and steeped in the satisfactions of conviviality, friendship, and family. All these lives have, for most people who want them, subjective value: they bring satisfaction. But so far as we think them objectively good—so far as it would make sense to want to find satisfaction in such lives—it is the performance rather than the product value of living that way that counts.

Philosophers used to speculate about what they called the meaning of life. (That is now the job of mystics and comedians.) It is difficult to find enough product value in most people’s lives to suppose that they have meaning through their impact. Yes, but if it were not for some lives, penicillin would not have been discovered so soon and King Lear would never have been written. Still, if we measure a life’s value by its consequence, all but a few lives would have no value, and the great value of some other lives—of a carpenter who pounded nails into a playhouse on the Thames—would be only accidental. On any plausible view of what is truly wonderful in almost any human life, impact hardly comes into the story at all.

If we want to make sense of a life having meaning, we must take up the Romantics’ analogy. We find it natural to say that an artist gives meaning to his raw materials and that a pianist gives fresh meaning to what he plays. We can think of living well as giving meaning—ethical meaning, if we want a name—to a life. That is the only kind of meaning in life that can stand up to the fact and fear of death. Does all that strike you as silly? Just sentimental? When you do something smaller well—play a tune or a part or a hand, throw a curve or a compliment, make a chair or a sonnet or love—your satisfaction is complete in itself. Those are achievements within life. Why can’t a life also be an achievement complete in itself, with its own value in the art in living it displays?

One qualification. I said that living well includes striving for a good life, but that is not necessarily a matter of minimizing the chances of a bad one. In fact many traits of character we value are not best calculated to produce what we independently judge to be the best available life. We value spontaneity, style, authenticity, and daring: setting oneself difficult or even impossible projects. We might be tempted to collapse the two ideas by saying that developing and exercising these traits and virtues are part of what makes a life good.

But that seems too reductive. If we know that someone now in poverty courted that poverty by choosing an ambitious but risky career, we may well think that he was right to run that risk. He may have done a better job of living by striving for an unlikely but magnificent success. An artist who could be comfortably admired and prosperous—Seurat, if a name helps—strikes out in an entirely new direction that will isolate and impoverish him, requires immersion in his work to the cost of his marriage and friendships, and may well not succeed even artistically. If it does succeed, moreover, the success is unlikely to be recognized, as in Seurat’s case, until after his death. We may want to say: if he pulls it off, he will have had a better life, even taking account of the terrible costs, than if he had not tried, because even an unrecognized great achievement makes a life a good one.

But suppose it doesn’t come off; what he produces, though novel, is of less merit than the more conventional work he would otherwise have painted. We might think, if we value daring very highly as a virtue, that even in retrospect he made the right choice. It didn’t work out, and his life was worse than if he had never tried. But he was right, all things ethically considered, to try. This is, I agree, an outré example: starving geniuses make good philosophical copy, but they are not thick on the ground. We can replicate the example in a hundred more commonplace ways, however—entrepreneurs pursuing risky but dramatic inventions, for instance, or skiers pressing the envelope of danger. But whether we are ourselves drawn to think that living well sometimes means choosing what is likely to be a worse life, we must recognize the possibility that it does. Living well is not the same as maximizing the chance of producing the best possible life. The complexity of ethics matches the complexity of morality.

February 10, 2011

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Oscar Wilde, for example: “It is through Art, and through Art only, that we can realize our perfection; through Art, and through Art only, that we can shield ourselves from the sordid perils of actual existence.” And: “All that I desire to point out is the general principle that Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life.” John Keats: “A man’s life of any worth is a continual allegory.” Friedrich Nietzsche: “Art represents the highest task and the truly metaphysical activity of this life.”  ↩

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What Is the Good Life?

Luc ferry , lydia g. cochrane  ( translator ).

320 pages, Hardcover

First published October 16, 2002

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Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge Adds Snapdragon—And That’s A Good Thing

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Put simply, it has been a long time since the computing space has been this exciting. The TL;DR version of what’s going on is Qualcomm—the company that (most likely) made the processor (and/or modem) in your phone—has officially set its sights on the computing world. It developed the Snapdragon X Elite processor, which claims to bring enormous processing power into a laptop that can run video editing software in a snap while lasting throughout your workday and beyond on battery. And it’s in Samsung’s newest laptop, the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge .

The Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge is one of the first laptops to use the Snapdragon X Elite processor. ... [+] Here's how it performed.

It’s more than just a fancy new chipset, though. The Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge is one of the first laptops to run the Snapdragon X Elite processor available on the market. I’ve been using that laptop to do my job for the past week, and I’m ready to share some thoughts. Read on for my full review.

Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge

Adam has been a leader in the tech media field for over a decade, with bylines at a number of different publications. When he's not hosting the Benefit of the Doud podcast, he's busy getting his hands on as many phones, tablets and laptops as possible. He regularly uses both iOS and Android (six-month rotation for each), and he fully embraces technology. He hasn't carried cash money since 2018, and pays for everything with his phone wherever possible.

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I’m a tech journalist living and working in New York City. As a Midwestern transplant, I worked at the University of Iowa English Department before diving head-first into tech journalism. I have spent over four years learning everything there is to know about consumer technology with a special focus on smart home.

My bylines include ZDNET, PCMag, Decider, Lifewire, NBC, and many more. After hours, you can find me packing my tech and grabbing my boarding passes, reading the latest nonfiction releases, or gaming on my MSI Stealth rig.

CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite X1E-80-100 | RAM: 16GB LPDDR5X | Graphics: Qualcomm Adreno | Storage: 512GB SSD | Display: 14-inch AMOLED 3K or 16-inch AMOLED 3K | Resolution: 2,880 x 1,800 | Refresh rate: 120Hz | Battery: Up to 18 hours | Weight: 2.6 pounds

• Those who value longevity and battery life
• Those looking for a productive machine with a spacious screen
• You absolutely need Google Drive compatibility
• You want to play AAA games

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The best headboards to complement your bedroom’s aesthetic, samsung galaxy book4 edge: design, premium in every way.

The hardware of the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge is top-notch; the aluminum chassis evokes a premium feel that you’d get with any high-quality laptop. Samsung calls the colorway “Sapphire Blue” but it looks silver to me. There’s subtle branding on the otherwise unmarred lid, which passes the one-handed opening test.

The exterior of the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge is sleek and the hardware feels premium.

Once you open the lid you’re treated to a palatial keyboard, including a number pad. The power button doubles as a fingerprint sensor for Windows Hello, and it’s fast and accurate. The touchpad is massive—it feels like you could land a small plane on it. That’s lovely, except when you have the option checked to use the lower right-hand corner of the trackpad as a right click, you have to move quite a bit to the left to not trigger a right click. It can get annoying at times.

But overall, that’s not a bad thing. The trackpad is large enough to move your cursor anywhere you want on the screen. The keyboard is tight and punchy with lovely pitch and travel. There’s a row of function keys across the top of the keyboard with the usual shortcuts—volume, keyboard backlight, brightness, etc. The typing experience is quite good—among my favorite laptop keyboards of all time, but you need to like chiclet-style keyboards.

Meanwhile, on the sides, you get a good amount of I/O. There’s a full sized HDMI 2.1 port, 2 USB-C (4.0) ports, one USB-A (3.2) port and a microSD slot, along with a headphone jack. For a laptop that is only 12.3mm tall closed, that’s an impressive amount of ports. Inside, there’s the aforementioned Snapdragon X Elite E84100 12-core processor, 512GB of storage and 16GB of RAM.

Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge: Display

Simply put: gorgeous.

Samsung is a great display manufacturer, and that remains true here. While there are two options, a 14-inch and a 16-inch, I tested the 16-inch display. The expansive 16-inch AMOLED panel has a 16:10 aspect ratio. It’s a 3K panel with a resolution of 2,880 x 1,800. It’s easily large enough for side-by-side apps if need be. Video looks amazing, with exceptional viewing angles, and is complemented by decent speakers with a fair amount of bass.

The laptop's expansive screen is ideal for using apps side-by-side.

The only oddity I noticed with the screen was when I was working outside. Every now and then, the screen would flicker. It happened inside as well, but not as frequently, and it only happened while I was running the laptop in power efficiency mode (which we will discuss in more detail later). It’s certainly not a dealbreaker, but it seemed odd.

Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge: Software

Most, but not all of the software you need.

One of the big questions leading into buying a laptop like this is whether or not it will run all the software you need. The laptop ships with Windows 11 out of the box, and you can download apps like Slack, Telegram, Discord, Chrome and more. It’s just like picking up an x86 computer and installing all the apps you need. For apps that have been compiled for ARM, you’re good to go. For apps that aren’t, the ARM processor can run them in emulation, and for the most part, you won’t notice the difference. But there’s one key app that I rely on that simply will not work.

I use Google Drive as part of my normal workflow, and that app simply will not run on this laptop. For those not familiar, the Google Drive app automatically syncs files to and from Google Drive. Most of what I do normally, I can do in a browser, but there were some activities I couldn’t. It constituted a minor disruption in my work, but I was able to work around it by manually uploading the files I needed. Of course, this isn’t Samsung’s fault, but it’s something to be aware of.

AI On Board, With Mixed Results

Of course, the headline of the Snapdragon X Elite is the AI-processing NPU. The Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge comes with a copilot button that launches a web app container for Microsoft Copilot. From there, you can generate text, ask questions and the like—all the normal things you can do with Copilot. I’d like to see some tighter integration here so that you’re not just getting a glorified web app, but that’s on Microsoft at the moment, not Samsung.

You can generate AI images with Microsoft Paint, like a tattooed, rocker chicken.

On the laptop, Microsoft Paint also has a Cocreator function, which can generate images based on your text prompts. Image generation is not terribly fast, but it works. It allowed me to create a photo of a chicken with tattoos playing heavy metal music, so really, I can’t complain too much.

Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge: Performance And Battery Life

Some discrepancies to claims.

I have absolutely no complaints performance-wise. When the laptop isn’t plugged in, I set the battery consumption to its most efficient. When it wasn’t, I turned up the performance and ran benchmarking tests to see how strongly the Snapdragon could perform. The most notable test I ran, Geekbench, returned 2,816/13,647 and 2,854/15,312 single and multi-core scores, respectively. Those are not bad.

On the battery side, the results were mixed. I typically work 10-hour shifts, and this laptop got me through a full work day with no problem. My typical workflow involves around a dozen Edge tabs, Slack, Discord, Telegram and occasionally a YouTube music web app playing in the background to the latest pair of wireless earbuds I’m testing. For a couple of those days, I also added the 16-inch Arzopa Z1RC portable monitor that had its own power source, so the computer only needed to handle graphics.

On the days I paired it with the second display, the battery lasted around eight hours, but with just the laptop itself, I made 10 hours—but just barely. All that sounds great, and it is, but the promises made by Qualcomm back at Snapdragon Summit in October involved laptop battery life measured in days , not hours. That is definitely not what’s happening here.

I also should point out that in my week with the laptop, I didn’t have the chance to try any gaming. I’m not much of a gamer to begin with, but either way, if you’re a hard core gamer, you’re going to want to skip Snapdragon X Elite-powered laptops at the moment. It’s not quite there yet for gamers. Once more AAA titles start getting compiled for ARM, that will likely be a different story, but these are very early days for the Snapdragon X Elite. Games should look elsewhere for a great gaming laptop —for now.

Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge: Verdict

The Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge is a very powerful laptop that lasts a long time away from the charger. Software support is coming along very well, with that painful exception of Google Drive. But the Snapdragon X Elite processor represents something of a sea change in the industry. Apple going with its own ARM-based processors started the trends, and Qualcomm further legitimizes the idea that ARM processors are no longer for phones and tablets. Windows on ARM has been around for a while, but for possibly the first time, we finally have some ARM architecture that can really push out some heavy-duty work, and that’s exciting.

It’s still early, but there are a lot of indications that consumers will start having to make the choice between ARM and x86, and if one of those choices is the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge , there will be little to complain about. If Qualcomm is bringing the power, then Samsung is bringing the style, and that’s a potent combination and one that I’m looking forward to exploring further.

How I Tested The Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge

I used the Samsung Galaxy Z Book4 Edge as my main laptop for a week, working on various projects from word processing to photo editing. I cross-tested apps, including Google, Microsoft and more to check its compatibility with a range of features and needs. I also monitored its battery life, noting how much was lost when unplugged from a charger based on my multitasking and YouTube video playback tests.

For the processor, I installed Geekbench and ran multiple tests to check its performance. Additionally, I ran multiple windows and applications, including Microsoft Copilot and Photoshop, to see how the processor handled under heavy multitasking.

My Expertise

I’m a Chicago-based freelance reviewer and have been writing about consumer electronics for over a decade with a particular focus on laptop innovation. In addition to testing some of the latest laptops like the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold , I’ve also tested most smartphones on the market over the last several years, including the Google Pixel 8 Pro . I also have compared top devices, from the Oneplus 12 versus the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra to the iPhone 14 versus iPhone 15 . And, of course, I’ve tested each phone’s software, comparing Android versus iPhone to help you make informed buying decisions.

When I’m not testing the latest and greatest flagship phones, I’m hosting the Benefit of the Doud podcast/YouTube channel with my co-host Clifton M. Thomas and editing technology news articles for SlashGear. In addition to Forbes and SlashGear, I have bylines at Android Central, Reviewed.com, Android Authority, Lifewire and more.

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The Good Life: Life-Changing Lessons from the World's Longest Study of Happiness Audio CD – Unabridged, January 10, 2023

What makes a life fulfilling and meaningful? The simple but surprising answer is: relationships. The stronger our relationships, the more likely we are to live happy, satisfying, and overall healthier lives. In fact, the Harvard Study of Adult Development reveals that the strength of our connections with others can predict the health of both our bodies and our brains as we go through life.

The invaluable insights in this book emerge from the revealing personal stories of hundreds of participants in the Harvard Study as they were followed year after year for their entire adult lives, and this wisdom is bolstered by research findings from this and many other studies. Relationships in all their forms--friendships, romantic partnerships, families, coworkers, tennis partners, book club members, Bible study groups--all contribute to a happier, healthier life. And as The Good Life shows us, it's never too late to strengthen the relationships you have, and never too late to build new ones.

Dr. Waldinger's TED Talk about the Harvard Study, "What Makes a Good Life," has been viewed more than 42 million times and is one of the ten most-watched TED talks ever. The Good Life has been praised by bestselling authors Jay Shetty ("Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz lead us on an empowering quest towards our greatest need: meaningful human connection"), Angela Duckworth ("In a crowded field of life advice and even life advice based on scientific research, Schulz and Waldinger stand apart"), and happiness expert Laurie Santos ("Waldinger and Schulz are world experts on the counterintuitive things that make life meaningful").

With warmth, wisdom, and compelling life stories, The Good Life shows us how we can make our lives happier and more meaningful through our connections to others.

• Print length 1 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Simon & Schuster Audio and Blackstone Publishing
• Publication date January 10, 2023
• Dimensions 5.59 x 1.1 x 5.83 inches
• ISBN-10 1797149334
• ISBN-13 978-1797149332
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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Simon & Schuster Audio and Blackstone Publishing; Unabridged edition (January 10, 2023)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Audio CD ‏ : ‎ 1 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1797149334
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1797149332
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.53 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.59 x 1.1 x 5.83 inches
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About the authors

Robert j. waldinger.

Dr. Robert Waldinger is a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development at Massachusetts General Hospital, and cofounder of the Lifespan Research Foundation. Dr. Waldinger received his AB from Harvard College and his MD from Harvard Medical School. He is a practicing psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, and he directs a psychotherapy teaching program for Harvard psychiatry residents. He is also a Zen master (Roshi) and teaches meditation in New England and around the world.

Marc Schulz Ph.D

Marc Schulz, PhD, is the Associate Director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development and an award-winning professor at Bryn Mawr College, where he directs the Data Science Program and is the Sue Kardas PhD 1971 Chair in Psychology. He completed his BA at Amherst College and his Ph.D. at the University of California at Berkeley.

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‘The Good Life Method’: In new book, Notre Dame philosophers help readers explore what makes life meaningful

Published: December 16, 2021

Author: Carrie Gates

Meghan Sullivan

Department of Philosophy

Many associate philosophy with the study of abstract theories of logic, human nature or the universe. But for University of Notre Dame philosophers Meghan Sullivan and Paul Blaschko it is also a practical approach to the issues of everyday life. 

Philosophy, they say, offers a sustainable, holistic and battle-tested approach to setting goals and finding meaning.

In their new book, “ The Good Life Method: Reasoning Through the Big Questions of Happiness, Faith, and Meaning ,” Blaschko and Sullivan examine how the tenets of philosophy can help readers chart their course and ultimately determine what it means to live a good life.

“Aristotle thought he was teaching his students the most practical subject on earth — how they could become better at being human by learning to direct their lives toward worthy goals,” they write in the book’s introduction. “Following in Aristotle’s path, we’ve dedicated our careers to helping our 21st-century students view their ‘good life’ problems through this philosophical framework, and it resonates with them deeply.”

The book is based on an immensely successful Notre Dame philosophy course created by Sullivan, director of the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study and the Wilsey Family College Professor of Philosophy. God and the Good Life , now in its sixth year, has been offered to more than 3,000 Notre Dame students. Through a partnership between Notre Dame and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the course is also being shared as a curricular model with universities nationwide.

Sullivan and Blaschko, an assistant teaching professor, soon realized that the big questions they grapple with in the class — from how to allocate money to how faith figures into a meaningful life — are not unique to undergraduate students and began working to bring the Good Life methodology to a wider audience.

“There is a tremendous need among people our own age for help reflecting on happiness and meaning,” Sullivan said. “We also started thinking systematically about how we were personally wrestling with these very same questions about happiness and direction, and we thought maybe it was time to try out the exercises we give our students. Working on this book has also helped us start deeper conversations with our loved ones about the good life.”

In “The Good Life Method,” Sullivan and Blaschko seek to help readers develop a philosophical apology — or a reasoned argument — about how they will live a good life in response to questions such as how to manage finances, how to come to terms with suffering in the world and how to love family and friends attentively. Throughout the book, they also share personal examples from their own apologies.

The authors emphasize the importance of contemplation when facing the most complex threats to the good life. Many of our most prized experiences are actually deeply contemplative, they note — whether it is the awe-inspiring recognition of beauty in nature, being absorbed in a favorite song or poem or finding oneself fully present in a conversation or activity with friends and family. All have contemplative elements that are deeply meaningful.

“One of the insights we can take from philosophy, then, is that we need to build up our ability to engage in this kind of contemplative activity,” Blaschko said. “In the face of personal trials, it’s this mode of engagement that we fall back on. Contemplation is a way of resisting quick explanations and making room for a deeper understanding.”

While the book provides a philosophical blueprint, Sullivan and Blaschko emphasize that readers must do the work of actively and continuously writing their own good-life plans. The authors also encourage readers to share that vision with those closest to them.

“Invite them in. Ask them for wisdom and insights. Make the philosophical questions part of how you pass the time waiting together, how you structure conversations at dinner or in the car,” they write. “This drive to find a goal proportionate to life, and to seek to know this goal with others is, for virtue ethicists, what the good life is all about.”

A Guide To The Good Life Summary

1-Sentence-Summary:   A Guide To The Good Life  is a roadmap for aspiring Stoics, revealing why this ancient philosophy is useful today, what Stoicism is truly about, and showing you how to cultivate its powerful principles in your own life.

Favorite quote from the author:

Audio Summary

Listen to the audio of this summary with a free reading.fm account*:

This is how I’ve been trying to live my life for the past two years, and I’ve never been happier. To the contrary, I just seem to get happier over time, because the more I learn, implement and embrace Stoic qualities in my life, the less adversity affects me.

Since adopting a more Stoic mindset, I feel much less distracted, I can always make room for the truly important things in life, I almost never get angry, especially not at things outside of my control, and I’m incredibly grateful for every single day I get to spend here on this beautiful earth.

Ironically, though it’s not aimed towards getting rich at all, I do think a Stoic mindset is a cause of worldly success in many cases, such as  Ryan Holiday , Gary Vaynerchuk  or Tim Ferriss , all of whom have admittedly adopted this mentality.

Here are 3 lessons from William B. Irvine’s   A Guide To The Good Life to help you embrace a Stoic mindset yourself and become more content with your life:

• The two primary values of Stoicism are virtue and tranquility.
• Learn to want what you already have.
• Immediately accept things that are outside of your control and focus on what you can do.

Ready to step up and start practicing Stoicism? Let’s go, I’m super excited to share this with you!

If you want to save this summary for later, download the free PDF and read it whenever you want.

Lesson 1: Virtue and tranquility are the highest values of a Stoic.

There are two central themes in Stoicism, values which all Stoics strive to integrate into their lives as much as possible. Those two goals are:

• Tranquility.

Chances are you don’t really know what these mean, or if you do, you think of the wrong thing.

For example, virtue might be defined as “having high moral standards” and therefore make you think only monks, priests and Mother Theresa are good examples of virtuous people. But virtue in a Stoic sense is more about living a life that’s aligned with your own set of values .

Synonyms of the word are goodness, honesty, righteousness, dignity, integrity, trustworthiness, decency and merit, for example, which all rely on you doing what you say and saying what you do.

In the same vein tranquility is not about napping a lot or being lazy. Tranquility is the art of ridding yourself of negative emotions . A tranquil person shows great self-control  and won’t let her emotions dominate her intellect, for example by staying calm in a traffic jam, because she knows getting angry at traffic is useless.

Lesson 2: Learn to want what you already have to be more grateful by using negative visualization.

One of the worst, yet most common vicious cycle we get stuck in, especially in the Western world, is the hedonic treadmill . Scientifically known as hedonic adaptation , this is a system in which we chase material possessions, only to attain them, quickly get used to and bored by them, to reset and chase the next item.

A tranquil and virtuous person knows she must break out of this cycle and Stoics have one major way of doing so: learning to want the things we already have and appreciating the things in our life . The more you want what you have, as compared to having what you want , the happier you’ll be.

A very simple exercise you can use to achieve this is negative visualization: Imagine the things and people you take for granted and interact with the most would suddenly vanish and be gone forever . This’ll make you feel bad for a second, because the thought of loss is painful, but at the same time it’ll give you an instant surge of appreciation and show you how lucky you are to still have them in your life.

I found a quote a few years ago that perfectly sums this up:

Imagine you only woke up this morning with only the things you said ‘thank you’ for yesterday – would you have everything you need?

Lesson 3: Be okay with the things that are outside of your control and internalize your goals for the things that aren’t.

The biggest step towards becoming more tranquil you can take is changing your attitude towards the things you can’t control. This takes two steps:

• Realizing when something  is outside of your control right when it happens .
• Not distracting yourself with worrying about it for even a second .

This takes a lot of practice, but once you have it down, it changes everything. It not only makes you happier, it also stops you from wasting time with waiting. For example, when I send an email pitch to someone, I forget it the second I send it, because from that moment on, it’s out of my control. Likewise I never worry about the weather or politics.

And for those things that are somewhat in your control, but not entirely, you can internalize the goal. For example, of course you want to get good grades or win when you enter a competition, but other people have a say in this too. So instead of focusing on getting an A or winning , focus on delivering  your best performance.

This will not only actually make you perform better, but you also won’t feel crushed if you don’t achieve your goal – because it wasn’t entirely up to you to reach it.

A Guide To The Good Life Review

I can’t say enough good things about Stoicism. It’s definitely part of the 20% of the changes I’ve made in my life that account for 80% of my increase in happiness.  A Guide To The Good Life is a great introductory book to the topic and covers everything you need to know in layman’s terms. 100% recommended! Good follow-up reads are Meditations and Breakfast With Socrates .

Who would I recommend the A Guide To The Good Life summary to?

The 21 year old, who’s in a rush to finish his business degree so he can earn as much money as possible and start living “the good life”, the 43 year old who’s still bitter about having to give up her tennis career, and anyone who curses when they’re stuck in a traffic jam.

Last Updated on January 25, 2023

Niklas Göke

Niklas Göke is an author and writer whose work has attracted tens of millions of readers to date. He is also the founder and CEO of Four Minute Books, a collection of over 1,000 free book summaries teaching readers 3 valuable lessons in just 4 minutes each. Born and raised in Germany, Nik also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration & Engineering from KIT Karlsruhe and a Master’s Degree in Management & Technology from the Technical University of Munich. He lives in Munich and enjoys a great slice of salami pizza almost as much as reading — or writing — the next book — or book summary, of course!

*Four Minute Books participates in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising commissions by linking to Amazon. We also participate in other affiliate programs, such as Blinkist, MindValley, Audible, Audiobooks, Reading.FM, and others. Our referral links allow us to earn commissions (at no extra cost to you) and keep the site running. Thank you for your support.

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A Guide to The Good Life: Summary Review & Takeaways

This is a summary review of A Guide to The Good Life containing key details about the book.

What is A Guide to The Good Life About?

A Guide to The Good Life offers a refreshing presentation of Stoicism, showing how this ancient philosophy can still direct us toward a better life. Using the psychological insights and the practical techniques of the Stoics, Irvine offers a roadmap for anyone seeking to avoid the feelings of chronic dissatisfaction that plague so many of us.

Who is the author of A Guide to The Good Life?

William B. Irvine is a bestselling author. He is a professor of philosophy at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio.

Book details

• Print length: 326 Pages
• Genre: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Self Help

What are key takeaways from A Guide to The Good Life?

Takeaway #1: stoics taught the art of living a good life.

In Ancient Greece, when parents wanted their children to get a great education, they would send them off to study philosophy. They did this in Stoic school, which still exists today. Along with rhetoric and logic, students would study the philosophy of life. Why did anyone need to learn how to live a good life and why is this lesson still important today? When you have a philosophy of life, you have direction. A philosophy of life will help you establish and reach your goals even in today’s modern world, which is full of distractions. Stoicism teaches moderation, not extreme existences like asceticism or self-indulgence. Simply put, they preach against reliance upon expendable goods to make one happy. Instead, one should find the joy from within.

Takeaway #2: The Stoics saw two main goals worth pursuing

If they didn’t focus on accumulating wealth, what goals did the Stoics set? The two qualities that they focused on were learning to be virtuous and practicing tranquility. Being virtuous means different things to different people. It can be exhibited in honoring one’s parents or considering the feelings of others. The second goal, tranquility, means putting away negative thoughts, which then makes room for positive emotions. These two goals actually work together. For both to work in one’s life, you must use reason, practice self-control and not be overcome by emotions. Stoics understand negative emotions like anger are futile and that staying calm offers many benefits.

Takeaway #3: We should Learn to Appreciate What You Have

Everyone suffers from one weakness, that is, enough is never enough. Even though we know things won’t make us happy, we seem to still want more. Some psychologists refer to this as hedonic adaption and describe it as, you buy something, enjoy it for a while, and then you want something newer or different. How can you free yourself from the vicious cycle of hedonic adaption? Stoics would advise that you appreciate and learn to want the things that you already have. One way to do this is by imagining that things that you aren’t appreciating have vanished (negative visualization). This practice will help you better enjoy the people and things around you.

Takeaway #4: Voluntary Discomfort is a Key Step Toward Appreciating What You Have

Go a step further and adopt the concept of voluntary discomfort. This practice involves abstaining or practicing poverty. You don’t have to go to the extreme of starving yourself, you just have to make yourself mildly uncomfortable. Why would you do this, you ask? First, to harden or strengthen yourself. Some things that you might do include, ride or walk instead of driving a car or take cold showers. As a result, you’ll appreciate your car and hot water. You might also abstain from certain pleasures, like denying yourself a glass of wine or dessert to build willpower.

Takeaway #5: Change Your Attitude Toward Things You Can’t Control

People often pine over something that they know they cannot have. Instead of getting down about the weather, something that you can’t control, a Stoic would advise that you focus on finding happiness in things that are within your control. This includes setting goals for yourself and establishing values to live by. But, what about things that you have some, but not total, control over, like winning a tennis match? Here, Stoics recommend you put a concept called internalizing your goals into action. Instead of setting a goal to win, you would set a goal of playing your best game. This allows you to focus on yourself and your abilities so you might play better and will have a better chance of winning.

Takeaway #6: Getting Angry With and Seeking Approval From Others is Pointless

It is horrible when a coworker can say something stupid and ruin your entire day. Stoics would say that you should never let others disturb your peace, but this can be hard. Of course, you can’t change others and you have to interact with people almost daily. For your own well-being, it helps to be more tolerant of others by remembering that everyone has faults. And, it is easy to fall into negative behaviors like envy, ignorance or frustration. We also can’t control how others think of you. No matter what you do, some people will find flaws with what you do. Therefore, it is important to stop seeking the approval of others. When you seek the approval of others, you give them power over you and your success.

Takeaway #7: Don’t Let Wealth Corrupt You

Chasing wealth is honorable in today’s society. The Stoics, however, would stress that your mental health is much more important than wealth. The Stoic philosopher Musonius once said that money won’t soothe your sorrows, as evidenced by wealthy people who are wretched. Stoics further believe that a life of luxury is an unnatural desire that cannot be fulfilled. This is because you’ll never be satisfied, and when you live a life of opulence, you won’t appreciate small things. On the contrary, a person who lives a simple life will take delight in simple pleasures.

Takeaway #8: We Can Learn From The Stoics How to Deal With Old Age and Grief

Death is a topic that is not pleasant to talk about. But, it is important to learn how the Stoics deal with death. They acknowledge that grief is a natural response to death. However, the key is not to let it consume you. One way that Stoics do this is by removing the shock of death through visualization. Visualizing your loved one deceased removes the shock of death. It also helps you to appreciate them even more. Upon death, it is just as important to comfort yourself and give yourself reasons not to grieve. Although we know that death is imminent, thinking about your own can be the most difficult. Aging causes one to contemplate death more carefully. Stoics preach the importance of cherishing your life no matter your age.

Takeaway #9: Becoming a Stoic is Life-Changing, But Take Your Time

You’re likely contemplating the benefits of and trying to figure out how you can live a Stoic lifestyle. Because it is a life philosophy, adopting these teachings will give you peace, teach you what is valuable and simplify your life. Stoic values also make decision-making easier because you have clear goals and values. If you are considering converting, that is good, but take your time. It is not a decision that you should make overnight. It will also take time and effort to adapt to the lifestyle. You can start by putting to practice one technique, such as negative visualization. Then move to another technique, like internalizing your goals. Lastly, try not to think negatively of others. Do these things and you will be on your way to experiencing the pure joy of being.

What are the chapters in A Guide to The Good Life?

One - Philosophy Takes an Interest in Life Two - The First Stoics Three - Roman Stoicism Four - Negative Visualization: What’s the Worst That Can Happen? Five - The Dichotomy of Control: On Becoming Invincible Six - Fatalism: Letting Go of the Past . . . and the Present Seven - Self-Denial: On Dealing with the Dark Side of Pleasure Eight - Meditation: Watching Ourselves Practice Stoicism Nine - Duty: On Loving Mankind Ten - Social Relations: On Dealing with Other People Eleven - Insults: On Putting Up with Put-Downs Twelve - Grief: On Vanquishing Tears with Reason Thirteen - Anger: On Overcoming Anti-Joy Fourteen - Personal Values: On Seeking Fame Fifteen - Personal Values: On Luxurious Living Sixteen - Exile: On Surviving a Change of Place Seventeen - Old Age: On Being Banished to a Nursing Home Eighteen - Dying: On a Good End to a Good Life Nineteen - On Becoming a Stoic: Start Now and Prepare to Be Mocked Twenty - The Decline of Stoicism Twenty-One - Stoicism Reconsidered Twenty-Two - Practicing Stoicism

What are some of the main summary points from the book?

Here are some key summary points from the book:

• The book "A Guide to the Good Life" provides insights and practical advice on practicing Stoicism in modern life.
• Stoicism is a philosophy that emphasizes the importance of living a virtuous life and finding inner peace.
• One of the key principles of Stoicism is focusing on what is under our control and accepting what is not.
• The concept of "dichotomy of control" teaches us to distinguish between things we can control (our thoughts, actions, and attitudes) and things we cannot control (external events, opinions of others).
• Stoicism encourages us to cultivate a mindset of gratitude and contentment with what we have, rather than constantly seeking external validation or material possessions.
• Another central idea in Stoicism is the practice of negative visualization, which involves contemplating the loss of the things we value in order to appreciate them more and reduce attachment.
• The philosophy teaches us to embrace challenges and setbacks as opportunities for growth and learning, rather than being consumed by negative emotions or dwelling on past failures.
• Stoics advocate for living in accordance with nature and accepting the impermanence of all things, including our own lives.
• The practice of self-denial and simplicity is valued in Stoicism, as it helps to reduce desires and attachments that can lead to dissatisfaction and unhappiness.
• Stoicism encourages the development of resilience and emotional equanimity, allowing us to navigate life's ups and downs with grace and composure.

What are good quotes from A Guide to The Good Life?

"...pay attention to your enemies, for they are the first to discover your mistakes." ( Meaning )

“Your primary desire should be your desire not to be frustrated by forming desires you won’t be able to fulfill.”

“Pursuing pleasure is like pursuing a wild beast: On being captured, it can turn on us and tear us to pieces. Or, changing the metaphor a bit, he tells us that

"..Intense pleasures, when captured by us, become our captors... the more pleasures a man captures, the more masters will he have to serve.”

"the easiest way for us to gain happiness is to learn how to want the things we already have.”

“...every time we do something could be the last time we do it, and this recognition can invest the things we do with a significance and intensity that would otherwise be absent.”

“if we seek social status, we give other people power over us: We have to do things calculated to make them admire us, and we have to refrain from doing things that will trigger their disfavor.”

“We humans are unhappy in large part because we are insatiable; after working hard to get what we want, we routinely lose interest in the object of our desire. Rather than feeling satisfied, we feel a bit bored, and in response to this boredom, we go on to form new, even grander desires.”

“One reason children are capable of joy is that they take almost nothing for granted.”

“If you refuse to think of yourself as a victim—if you refuse to let your inner self be conquered by your external circumstances—you are likely to have a good life, no matter what turn your external circumstances take.

“It is, after all, hard to know what to choose when you aren’t really sure what you want.”

"...we should be careful about whom we befriend. We should also, to the extent possible, avoid people whose values are corrupt, for fear that their values will contaminate ours"

“Most Buddhists can never hope to become as enlightened as Buddha, but nevertheless, reflecting on Buddha's perfection can help them gain a degree of enlightenment.”

“If we are overly sensitive, we will be quick to anger... if we allow ourselves to be corrupted by pleasure, nothing will seem bearable to us, and the reason things will seem unbearable is not because they are hard but because we are soft.”

“the first step in transforming a society into one in which people live a good life is to teach people how to make their happiness depend as little as possible on their external circumstances. The second step in transforming a society is to change people’s external circumstances. "

"bad men obey their lusts as servants obey their masters"

“one wonderful way to tame our tendency to always want more is to persuade ourselves to want the things we already have.”

“We can either spend this moment wishing it could be different, or we can embrace this moment.”

“...learn how to enjoy things without feeling entitled to them and without clinging to them.”

"avoid people who are simply whiny... who are melancholy and bewail everything, who find pleasure in every opportunity for complaint.”

“After expressing his appreciation that his glass is half full rather than being completely empty, he will go on to express his delight in even having a glass: It could, after all, have been broken or stolen.”

“Pre-Socratic philosophy begins with the discovery of Nature; Socratic philosophy begins with the discovery of man's soul"

― William B. Irvine, A Guide to The Good Life Quotes

What do critics say?

Here's what one of the prominent reviewers had to say about the book: "Irvine's intended audience is nonphilosophers, but everyone can profit from his clear presentation on the on the benefits of using philosophical doctrines to live a meaningful life." — Library Journal

* The summary points above have been concluded from the book and other public sources. The editor of this summary review made every effort to maintain information accuracy, including any published quotes, chapters, or takeaways

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The Good Life: What Makes a Life Worth Living - Book Review

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The Good Life

Lessons from the world's longest scientific study of happiness.

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Table of Contents

• Rave and Reviews

About The Book

About the authors.

Dr. Robert Waldinger is a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development at Massachusetts General Hospital, and cofounder of the Lifespan Research Foundation. Dr. Waldinger received his AB from Harvard College and his MD from Harvard Medical School. He is a practicing psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, and he directs a psychotherapy teaching program for Harvard psychiatry residents. He is also a Zen master (Roshi) and teaches meditation in New England and around the world.

Marc Schulz is the associate director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development and the Sue Kardas PhD 1971 Chair in Psychology at Bryn Mawr College. He also directs the Data Science Program and previously chaired the psychology department and Clinical Developmental Psychology PhD program at Bryn Mawr. Dr. Schulz received his BA from Amherst College and his PhD in clinical psychology from the University of California at Berkeley. He is a practicing therapist with postdoctoral training in health and clinical psychology at Harvard Medical School.

Product Details

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (January 10, 2023)
• Length: 352 pages
• ISBN13: 9781982166694

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Raves and Reviews

"Perfect for readers of Arthur Brooks, Daniel Pink, Angela Duckworth, and other writers who delve into how to fashion prosperous, fulfilling lives. An engrossing look at why relationships matter, featuring an unprecedented abundance of data to back it up."

– Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz lead us on an empowering quest towards our greatest need: meaningful human connection. Blending research from an ongoing 80-year study of life satisfaction with emotional storytelling proves that ancient wisdom has been right all along – a good life is built with good relationships.”

– Jay Shetty, bestselling author of  Think Like a Monk  and host of the podcast  On Purpose

“In a crowded field of life advice and even life advice based on scientific research, Schulz and Waldinger stand apart. Capitalizing on the most intensive study of adult development in history, they tell us what makes a good life and why.”

– Angela Duckworth, author of Grit, Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, co-founder and CEO of Character Lab

“Fascinating. . . . Combining intensive research with actionable steps, this penetrating testament to the power of human connection offers gems for almost anyone looking to improve their happiness.”

– Publishers Weekly

"Want the secret to the good life? Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz give it to you in this magnificent new book. Based on the longest survey ever conducted over people’s lives, The Good Life reveals who winds up happy, who doesn’t, and why—and how you can use this information starting today."

– Arthur C. Brooks, Professor, Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School, and #1  New York Times  bestselling author

“Waldinger and Schulz are world experts on the counterintuitive things that make life meaningful. Their book will provide welcome advice for a world facing unprecedented levels of unhappiness and loneliness.”

– Laurie Santos, PhD, Chandrika and Ranjan Tandon Professor of Psychology at Yale University and host of the podcast The Happiness Lab  podcast

“ The Good Life tells the story of a rare and fascinating study of lives over time. This insightful, interesting, and well-informed book reveals the secret of happiness—and reminds us that it was never really a secret, after all.”

– Daniel Gilbert, author of the  New York Times  best-seller  Stumbling on Happiness;  and host of the PBS television series  This Emotional Life

“Waldinger and Schulz have written an essential — perhaps the essential — book on human flourishing. Backed by extraordinary research and packed with actionable advice, The Good Life will expand your brain and enrich your heart.”

– Daniel H. Pink, #1  New York Times  bestselling author of  The Power of Regret, Drive,  and  A Whole New Mind

“ I'm beyond thrilled that Dr. Waldinger and Dr. Schulz are publishing the findings of the Harvard Study. Over the years, I've discussed their research and recommended Dr. Waldinger's TED talk around the world. I can hardly wait to recommend The Good Life . It's accessible, interesting, and grounded in research—and is bound to make a difference in the lives of millions."

– Tal Ben-Shahar, bestselling author of Being Happy: You Don't Have to Be Perfect to Lead a Richer, Happier Life, and Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment

"This book is simply extraordinary. It weaves ‘hard data’ and enlightening case studies and interviews together seamlessly in a way that stays true to the science while humanizing it. And what an important lesson it teaches. It helps people to understand how they should live their lives, and also provides a spectacular picture of what psychology can be at its best. It is data driven, of course, but data are just noise without wise interpretation.”

– Barry Schwartz, author of  Practical Wisdom  (with Kenneth Sharpe) and  Why We Work

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Blog – Posted on Friday, Mar 29

17 book review examples to help you write the perfect review.

It’s an exciting time to be a book reviewer. Once confined to print newspapers and journals, reviews now dot many corridors of the Internet — forever helping others discover their next great read. That said, every book reviewer will face a familiar panic: how can you do justice to a great book in just a thousand words?

As you know, the best way to learn how to do something is by immersing yourself in it. Luckily, the Internet (i.e. Goodreads and other review sites , in particular) has made book reviews more accessible than ever — which means that there are a lot of book reviews examples out there for you to view!

In this post, we compiled 17 prototypical book review examples in multiple genres to help you figure out how to write the perfect review . If you want to jump straight to the examples, you can skip the next section. Otherwise, let’s first check out what makes up a good review.

Are you interested in becoming a book reviewer? We recommend you check out Reedsy Discovery , where you can earn money for writing reviews — and are guaranteed people will read your reviews! To register as a book reviewer, sign up here.

Pro-tip : But wait! How are you sure if you should become a book reviewer in the first place? If you're on the fence, or curious about your match with a book reviewing career, take our quick quiz:

Should you become a book reviewer?

Find out the answer. Takes 30 seconds!

What must a book review contain?

Like all works of art, no two book reviews will be identical. But fear not: there are a few guidelines for any aspiring book reviewer to follow. Most book reviews, for instance, are less than 1,500 words long, with the sweet spot hitting somewhere around the 1,000-word mark. (However, this may vary depending on the platform on which you’re writing, as we’ll see later.)

In addition, all reviews share some universal elements, as shown in our book review templates . These include:

• A review will offer a concise plot summary of the book. 
• A book review will offer an evaluation of the work. 
• A book review will offer a recommendation for the audience. 

If these are the basic ingredients that make up a book review, it’s the tone and style with which the book reviewer writes that brings the extra panache. This will differ from platform to platform, of course. A book review on Goodreads, for instance, will be much more informal and personal than a book review on Kirkus Reviews, as it is catering to a different audience. However, at the end of the day, the goal of all book reviews is to give the audience the tools to determine whether or not they’d like to read the book themselves.

Keeping that in mind, let’s proceed to some book review examples to put all of this in action.

How much of a book nerd are you, really?

Find out here, once and for all. Takes 30 seconds!

Book review examples for fiction books

Since story is king in the world of fiction, it probably won’t come as any surprise to learn that a book review for a novel will concentrate on how well the story was told .

That said, book reviews in all genres follow the same basic formula that we discussed earlier. In these examples, you’ll be able to see how book reviewers on different platforms expertly intertwine the plot summary and their personal opinions of the book to produce a clear, informative, and concise review.

Note: Some of the book review examples run very long. If a book review is truncated in this post, we’ve indicated by including a […] at the end, but you can always read the entire review if you click on the link provided.

Examples of literary fiction book reviews

Kirkus Reviews reviews Ralph Ellison’s The Invisible Man :

An extremely powerful story of a young Southern Negro, from his late high school days through three years of college to his life in Harlem.

His early training prepared him for a life of humility before white men, but through injustices- large and small, he came to realize that he was an "invisible man". People saw in him only a reflection of their preconceived ideas of what he was, denied his individuality, and ultimately did not see him at all. This theme, which has implications far beyond the obvious racial parallel, is skillfully handled. The incidents of the story are wholly absorbing. The boy's dismissal from college because of an innocent mistake, his shocked reaction to the anonymity of the North and to Harlem, his nightmare experiences on a one-day job in a paint factory and in the hospital, his lightning success as the Harlem leader of a communistic organization known as the Brotherhood, his involvement in black versus white and black versus black clashes and his disillusion and understanding of his invisibility- all climax naturally in scenes of violence and riot, followed by a retreat which is both literal and figurative. Parts of this experience may have been told before, but never with such freshness, intensity and power.

This is Ellison's first novel, but he has complete control of his story and his style. Watch it.

Lyndsey reviews George Orwell’s 1984 on Goodreads:

YOU. ARE. THE. DEAD. Oh my God. I got the chills so many times toward the end of this book. It completely blew my mind. It managed to surpass my high expectations AND be nothing at all like I expected. Or in Newspeak "Double Plus Good." Let me preface this with an apology. If I sound stunningly inarticulate at times in this review, I can't help it. My mind is completely fried.

This book is like the dystopian Lord of the Rings, with its richly developed culture and economics, not to mention a fully developed language called Newspeak, or rather more of the anti-language, whose purpose is to limit speech and understanding instead of to enhance and expand it. The world-building is so fully fleshed out and spine-tinglingly terrifying that it's almost as if George travelled to such a place, escaped from it, and then just wrote it all down.

I read Fahrenheit 451 over ten years ago in my early teens. At the time, I remember really wanting to read 1984, although I never managed to get my hands on it. I'm almost glad I didn't. Though I would not have admitted it at the time, it would have gone over my head. Or at the very least, I wouldn't have been able to appreciate it fully. […]

The New York Times reviews Lisa Halliday’s Asymmetry :

Three-quarters of the way through Lisa Halliday’s debut novel, “Asymmetry,” a British foreign correspondent named Alistair is spending Christmas on a compound outside of Baghdad. His fellow revelers include cameramen, defense contractors, United Nations employees and aid workers. Someone’s mother has FedExed a HoneyBaked ham from Maine; people are smoking by the swimming pool. It is 2003, just days after Saddam Hussein’s capture, and though the mood is optimistic, Alistair is worrying aloud about the ethics of his chosen profession, wondering if reporting on violence doesn’t indirectly abet violence and questioning why he’d rather be in a combat zone than reading a picture book to his son. But every time he returns to London, he begins to “spin out.” He can’t go home. “You observe what people do with their freedom — what they don’t do — and it’s impossible not to judge them for it,” he says.

The line, embedded unceremoniously in the middle of a page-long paragraph, doubles, like so many others in “Asymmetry,” as literary criticism. Halliday’s novel is so strange and startlingly smart that its mere existence seems like commentary on the state of fiction. One finishes “Asymmetry” for the first or second (or like this reader, third) time and is left wondering what other writers are not doing with their freedom — and, like Alistair, judging them for it.

Despite its title, “Asymmetry” comprises two seemingly unrelated sections of equal length, appended by a slim and quietly shocking coda. Halliday’s prose is clean and lean, almost reportorial in the style of W. G. Sebald, and like the murmurings of a shy person at a cocktail party, often comic only in single clauses. It’s a first novel that reads like the work of an author who has published many books over many years. […]

Emily W. Thompson reviews Michael Doane's The Crossing on Reedsy Discovery :

In Doane’s debut novel, a young man embarks on a journey of self-discovery with surprising results.

An unnamed protagonist (The Narrator) is dealing with heartbreak. His love, determined to see the world, sets out for Portland, Oregon. But he’s a small-town boy who hasn’t traveled much. So, the Narrator mourns her loss and hides from life, throwing himself into rehabbing an old motorcycle. Until one day, he takes a leap; he packs his bike and a few belongings and heads out to find the Girl.

Following in the footsteps of Jack Kerouac and William Least Heat-Moon, Doane offers a coming of age story about a man finding himself on the backroads of America. Doane’s a gifted writer with fluid prose and insightful observations, using The Narrator’s personal interactions to illuminate the diversity of the United States.

The Narrator initially sticks to the highways, trying to make it to the West Coast as quickly as possible. But a hitchhiker named Duke convinces him to get off the beaten path and enjoy the ride. “There’s not a place that’s like any other,” [39] Dukes contends, and The Narrator realizes he’s right. Suddenly, the trip is about the journey, not just the destination. The Narrator ditches his truck and traverses the deserts and mountains on his bike. He destroys his phone, cutting off ties with his past and living only in the moment.

As he crosses the country, The Narrator connects with several unique personalities whose experiences and views deeply impact his own. Duke, the complicated cowboy and drifter, who opens The Narrator’s eyes to a larger world. Zooey, the waitress in Colorado who opens his heart and reminds him that love can be found in this big world. And Rosie, The Narrator’s sweet landlady in Portland, who helps piece him back together both physically and emotionally.

This supporting cast of characters is excellent. Duke, in particular, is wonderfully nuanced and complicated. He’s a throwback to another time, a man without a cell phone who reads Sartre and sleeps under the stars. Yet he’s also a grifter with a “love ‘em and leave ‘em” attitude that harms those around him. It’s fascinating to watch The Narrator wrestle with Duke’s behavior, trying to determine which to model and which to discard.

Doane creates a relatable protagonist in The Narrator, whose personal growth doesn’t erase his faults. His willingness to hit the road with few resources is admirable, and he’s prescient enough to recognize the jealousy of those who cannot or will not take the leap. His encounters with new foods, places, and people broaden his horizons. Yet his immaturity and selfishness persist. He tells Rosie she’s been a good mother to him but chooses to ignore the continuing concern from his own parents as he effectively disappears from his old life.

Despite his flaws, it’s a pleasure to accompany The Narrator on his physical and emotional journey. The unexpected ending is a fitting denouement to an epic and memorable road trip.

The Book Smugglers review Anissa Gray’s The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls :

I am still dipping my toes into the literally fiction pool, finding what works for me and what doesn’t. Books like The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray are definitely my cup of tea.

Althea and Proctor Cochran had been pillars of their economically disadvantaged community for years – with their local restaurant/small market and their charity drives. Until they are found guilty of fraud for stealing and keeping most of the money they raised and sent to jail. Now disgraced, their entire family is suffering the consequences, specially their twin teenage daughters Baby Vi and Kim.  To complicate matters even more: Kim was actually the one to call the police on her parents after yet another fight with her mother. […]

Examples of children’s and YA fiction book reviews

The Book Hookup reviews Angie Thomas’ The Hate U Give :

♥ Quick Thoughts and Rating: 5 stars! I can’t imagine how challenging it would be to tackle the voice of a movement like Black Lives Matter, but I do know that Thomas did it with a finesse only a talented author like herself possibly could. With an unapologetically realistic delivery packed with emotion, The Hate U Give is a crucially important portrayal of the difficulties minorities face in our country every single day. I have no doubt that this book will be met with resistance by some (possibly many) and slapped with a “controversial” label, but if you’ve ever wondered what it was like to walk in a POC’s shoes, then I feel like this is an unflinchingly honest place to start.

In Angie Thomas’s debut novel, Starr Carter bursts on to the YA scene with both heart-wrecking and heartwarming sincerity. This author is definitely one to watch.

♥ Review: The hype around this book has been unquestionable and, admittedly, that made me both eager to get my hands on it and terrified to read it. I mean, what if I was to be the one person that didn’t love it as much as others? (That seems silly now because of how truly mesmerizing THUG was in the most heartbreakingly realistic way.) However, with the relevancy of its summary in regards to the unjust predicaments POC currently face in the US, I knew this one was a must-read, so I was ready to set my fears aside and dive in. That said, I had an altogether more personal, ulterior motive for wanting to read this book. […]

The New York Times reviews Melissa Albert’s The Hazel Wood :

Alice Crewe (a last name she’s chosen for herself) is a fairy tale legacy: the granddaughter of Althea Proserpine, author of a collection of dark-as-night fairy tales called “Tales From the Hinterland.” The book has a cult following, and though Alice has never met her grandmother, she’s learned a little about her through internet research. She hasn’t read the stories, because her mother, Ella Proserpine, forbids it.

Alice and Ella have moved from place to place in an attempt to avoid the “bad luck” that seems to follow them. Weird things have happened. As a child, Alice was kidnapped by a man who took her on a road trip to find her grandmother; he was stopped by the police before they did so. When at 17 she sees that man again, unchanged despite the years, Alice panics. Then Ella goes missing, and Alice turns to Ellery Finch, a schoolmate who’s an Althea Proserpine superfan, for help in tracking down her mother. Not only has Finch read every fairy tale in the collection, but handily, he remembers them, sharing them with Alice as they journey to the mysterious Hazel Wood, the estate of her now-dead grandmother, where they hope to find Ella.

“The Hazel Wood” starts out strange and gets stranger, in the best way possible. (The fairy stories Finch relays, which Albert includes as their own chapters, are as creepy and evocative as you’d hope.) Albert seamlessly combines contemporary realism with fantasy, blurring the edges in a way that highlights that place where stories and real life convene, where magic contains truth and the world as it appears is false, where just about anything can happen, particularly in the pages of a very good book. It’s a captivating debut. […]

James reviews Margaret Wise Brown’s Goodnight, Moon on Goodreads:

Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown is one of the books that followers of my blog voted as a must-read for our Children's Book August 2018 Readathon. Come check it out and join the next few weeks!

This picture book was such a delight. I hadn't remembered reading it when I was a child, but it might have been read to me... either way, it was like a whole new experience! It's always so difficult to convince a child to fall asleep at night. I don't have kids, but I do have a 5-month-old puppy who whines for 5 minutes every night when he goes in his cage/crate (hopefully he'll be fully housebroken soon so he can roam around when he wants). I can only imagine! I babysat a lot as a teenager and I have tons of younger cousins, nieces, and nephews, so I've been through it before, too. This was a believable experience, and it really helps show kids how to relax and just let go when it's time to sleep.

The bunny's are adorable. The rhymes are exquisite. I found it pretty fun, but possibly a little dated given many of those things aren't normal routines anymore. But the lessons to take from it are still powerful. Loved it! I want to sample some more books by this fine author and her illustrators.

Publishers Weekly reviews Elizabeth Lilly’s Geraldine :

This funny, thoroughly accomplished debut opens with two words: “I’m moving.” They’re spoken by the title character while she swoons across her family’s ottoman, and because Geraldine is a giraffe, her full-on melancholy mode is quite a spectacle. But while Geraldine may be a drama queen (even her mother says so), it won’t take readers long to warm up to her. The move takes Geraldine from Giraffe City, where everyone is like her, to a new school, where everyone else is human. Suddenly, the former extrovert becomes “That Giraffe Girl,” and all she wants to do is hide, which is pretty much impossible. “Even my voice tries to hide,” she says, in the book’s most poignant moment. “It’s gotten quiet and whispery.” Then she meets Cassie, who, though human, is also an outlier (“I’m that girl who wears glasses and likes MATH and always organizes her food”), and things begin to look up.

Lilly’s watercolor-and-ink drawings are as vividly comic and emotionally astute as her writing; just when readers think there are no more ways for Geraldine to contort her long neck, this highly promising talent comes up with something new.

Examples of genre fiction book reviews

Karlyn P reviews Nora Roberts’ Dark Witch , a paranormal romance novel , on Goodreads:

4 stars. Great world-building, weak romance, but still worth the read.

I hesitate to describe this book as a 'romance' novel simply because the book spent little time actually exploring the romance between Iona and Boyle. Sure, there IS a romance in this novel. Sprinkled throughout the book are a few scenes where Iona and Boyle meet, chat, wink at each, flirt some more, sleep together, have a misunderstanding, make up, and then profess their undying love. Very formulaic stuff, and all woven around the more important parts of this book.

The meat of this book is far more focused on the story of the Dark witch and her magically-gifted descendants living in Ireland. Despite being weak on the romance, I really enjoyed it. I think the book is probably better for it, because the romance itself was pretty lackluster stuff.

I absolutely plan to stick with this series as I enjoyed the world building, loved the Ireland setting, and was intrigued by all of the secondary characters. However, If you read Nora Roberts strictly for the romance scenes, this one might disappoint. But if you enjoy a solid background story with some dark magic and prophesies, you might enjoy it as much as I did.

I listened to this one on audio, and felt the narration was excellent.

Emily May reviews R.F. Kuang’s The Poppy Wars , an epic fantasy novel , on Goodreads:

“But I warn you, little warrior. The price of power is pain.”

Holy hell, what did I just read??

➽ A fantasy military school

➽ A rich world based on modern Chinese history

➽ Shamans and gods

➽ Detailed characterization leading to unforgettable characters

➽ Adorable, opium-smoking mentors

That's a basic list, but this book is all of that and SO MUCH MORE. I know 100% that The Poppy War will be one of my best reads of 2018.

Isn't it just so great when you find one of those books that completely drags you in, makes you fall in love with the characters, and demands that you sit on the edge of your seat for every horrific, nail-biting moment of it? This is one of those books for me. And I must issue a serious content warning: this book explores some very dark themes. Proceed with caution (or not at all) if you are particularly sensitive to scenes of war, drug use and addiction, genocide, racism, sexism, ableism, self-harm, torture, and rape (off-page but extremely horrific).

Because, despite the fairly innocuous first 200 pages, the title speaks the truth: this is a book about war. All of its horrors and atrocities. It is not sugar-coated, and it is often graphic. The "poppy" aspect refers to opium, which is a big part of this book. It is a fantasy, but the book draws inspiration from the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Rape of Nanking.

Crime Fiction Lover reviews Jessica Barry’s Freefall , a crime novel:

In some crime novels, the wrongdoing hits you between the eyes from page one. With others it’s a more subtle process, and that’s OK too. So where does Freefall fit into the sliding scale?

In truth, it’s not clear. This is a novel with a thrilling concept at its core. A woman survives plane crash, then runs for her life. However, it is the subtleties at play that will draw you in like a spider beckoning to an unwitting fly.

Like the heroine in Sharon Bolton’s Dead Woman Walking, Allison is lucky to be alive. She was the only passenger in a private plane, belonging to her fiancé, Ben, who was piloting the expensive aircraft, when it came down in woodlands in the Colorado Rockies. Ally is also the only survivor, but rather than sitting back and waiting for rescue, she is soon pulling together items that may help her survive a little longer – first aid kit, energy bars, warm clothes, trainers – before fleeing the scene. If you’re hearing the faint sound of alarm bells ringing, get used to it. There’s much, much more to learn about Ally before this tale is over.

Kirkus Reviews reviews Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One , a science-fiction novel :

Video-game players embrace the quest of a lifetime in a virtual world; screenwriter Cline’s first novel is old wine in new bottles.

The real world, in 2045, is the usual dystopian horror story. So who can blame Wade, our narrator, if he spends most of his time in a virtual world? The 18-year-old, orphaned at 11, has no friends in his vertical trailer park in Oklahoma City, while the OASIS has captivating bells and whistles, and it’s free. Its creator, the legendary billionaire James Halliday, left a curious will. He had devised an elaborate online game, a hunt for a hidden Easter egg. The finder would inherit his estate. Old-fashioned riddles lead to three keys and three gates. Wade, or rather his avatar Parzival, is the first gunter (egg-hunter) to win the Copper Key, first of three.

Halliday was obsessed with the pop culture of the 1980s, primarily the arcade games, so the novel is as much retro as futurist. Parzival’s great strength is that he has absorbed all Halliday’s obsessions; he knows by heart three essential movies, crossing the line from geek to freak. His most formidable competitors are the Sixers, contract gunters working for the evil conglomerate IOI, whose goal is to acquire the OASIS. Cline’s narrative is straightforward but loaded with exposition. It takes a while to reach a scene that crackles with excitement: the meeting between Parzival (now world famous as the lead contender) and Sorrento, the head of IOI. The latter tries to recruit Parzival; when he fails, he issues and executes a death threat. Wade’s trailer is demolished, his relatives killed; luckily Wade was not at home. Too bad this is the dramatic high point. Parzival threads his way between more ’80s games and movies to gain the other keys; it’s clever but not exciting. Even a romance with another avatar and the ultimate “epic throwdown” fail to stir the blood.

Too much puzzle-solving, not enough suspense.

Book review examples for non-fiction books

Nonfiction books are generally written to inform readers about a certain topic. As such, the focus of a nonfiction book review will be on the clarity and effectiveness of this communication . In carrying this out, a book review may analyze the author’s source materials and assess the thesis in order to determine whether or not the book meets expectations.

Again, we’ve included abbreviated versions of long reviews here, so feel free to click on the link to read the entire piece!

The Washington Post reviews David Grann’s Killers of the Flower Moon :

The arc of David Grann’s career reminds one of a software whiz-kid or a latest-thing talk-show host — certainly not an investigative reporter, even if he is one of the best in the business. The newly released movie of his first book, “The Lost City of Z,” is generating all kinds of Oscar talk, and now comes the release of his second book, “Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI,” the film rights to which have already been sold for $5 million in what one industry journal called the “biggest and wildest book rights auction in memory.”

Grann deserves the attention. He’s canny about the stories he chases, he’s willing to go anywhere to chase them, and he’s a maestro in his ability to parcel out information at just the right clip: a hint here, a shading of meaning there, a smartly paced buildup of multiple possibilities followed by an inevitable reversal of readerly expectations or, in some cases, by a thrilling and dislocating pull of the entire narrative rug.

All of these strengths are on display in “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Around the turn of the 20th century, oil was discovered underneath Osage lands in the Oklahoma Territory, lands that were soon to become part of the state of Oklahoma. Through foresight and legal maneuvering, the Osage found a way to permanently attach that oil to themselves and shield it from the prying hands of white interlopers; this mechanism was known as “headrights,” which forbade the outright sale of oil rights and granted each full member of the tribe — and, supposedly, no one else — a share in the proceeds from any lease arrangement. For a while, the fail-safes did their job, and the Osage got rich — diamond-ring and chauffeured-car and imported-French-fashion rich — following which quite a large group of white men started to work like devils to separate the Osage from their money. And soon enough, and predictably enough, this work involved murder. Here in Jazz Age America’s most isolated of locales, dozens or even hundreds of Osage in possession of great fortunes — and of the potential for even greater fortunes in the future — were dispatched by poison, by gunshot and by dynamite. […]

Stacked Books reviews Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers :

I’ve heard a lot of great things about Malcolm Gladwell’s writing. Friends and co-workers tell me that his subjects are interesting and his writing style is easy to follow without talking down to the reader. I wasn’t disappointed with Outliers. In it, Gladwell tackles the subject of success – how people obtain it and what contributes to extraordinary success as opposed to everyday success.

The thesis – that our success depends much more on circumstances out of our control than any effort we put forth – isn’t exactly revolutionary. Most of us know it to be true. However, I don’t think I’m lying when I say that most of us also believe that we if we just try that much harder and develop our talent that much further, it will be enough to become wildly successful, despite bad or just mediocre beginnings. Not so, says Gladwell.

Most of the evidence Gladwell gives us is anecdotal, which is my favorite kind to read. I can’t really speak to how scientifically valid it is, but it sure makes for engrossing listening. For example, did you know that successful hockey players are almost all born in January, February, or March? Kids born during these months are older than the others kids when they start playing in the youth leagues, which means they’re already better at the game (because they’re bigger). Thus, they get more play time, which means their skill increases at a faster rate, and it compounds as time goes by. Within a few years, they’re much, much better than the kids born just a few months later in the year. Basically, these kids’ birthdates are a huge factor in their success as adults – and it’s nothing they can do anything about. If anyone could make hockey interesting to a Texan who only grudgingly admits the sport even exists, it’s Gladwell. […]

Quill and Quire reviews Rick Prashaw’s Soar, Adam, Soar :

Ten years ago, I read a book called Almost Perfect. The young-adult novel by Brian Katcher won some awards and was held up as a powerful, nuanced portrayal of a young trans person. But the reality did not live up to the book’s billing. Instead, it turned out to be a one-dimensional and highly fetishized portrait of a trans person’s life, one that was nevertheless repeatedly dubbed “realistic” and “affecting” by non-transgender readers possessing only a vague, mass-market understanding of trans experiences.

In the intervening decade, trans narratives have emerged further into the literary spotlight, but those authored by trans people ourselves – and by trans men in particular – have seemed to fall under the shadow of cisgender sensationalized imaginings. Two current Canadian releases – Soar, Adam, Soar and This One Looks Like a Boy – provide a pointed object lesson into why trans-authored work about transgender experiences remains critical.

To be fair, Soar, Adam, Soar isn’t just a story about a trans man. It’s also a story about epilepsy, the medical establishment, and coming of age as seen through a grieving father’s eyes. Adam, Prashaw’s trans son, died unexpectedly at age 22. Woven through the elder Prashaw’s narrative are excerpts from Adam’s social media posts, giving us glimpses into the young man’s interior life as he traverses his late teens and early 20s. […]

Book Geeks reviews Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love :

WRITING STYLE: 3.5/5

SUBJECT: 4/5

CANDIDNESS: 4.5/5

RELEVANCE: 3.5/5

ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 3.5/5

“Eat Pray Love” is so popular that it is almost impossible to not read it. Having felt ashamed many times on my not having read this book, I quietly ordered the book (before I saw the movie) from amazon.in and sat down to read it. I don’t remember what I expected it to be – maybe more like a chick lit thing but it turned out quite different. The book is a real story and is a short journal from the time when its writer went travelling to three different countries in pursuit of three different things – Italy (Pleasure), India (Spirituality), Bali (Balance) and this is what corresponds to the book’s name – EAT (in Italy), PRAY (in India) and LOVE (in Bali, Indonesia). These are also the three Is – ITALY, INDIA, INDONESIA.

Though she had everything a middle-aged American woman can aspire for – MONEY, CAREER, FRIENDS, HUSBAND; Elizabeth was not happy in her life, she wasn’t happy in her marriage. Having suffered a terrible divorce and terrible breakup soon after, Elizabeth was shattered. She didn’t know where to go and what to do – all she knew was that she wanted to run away. So she set out on a weird adventure – she will go to three countries in a year and see if she can find out what she was looking for in life. This book is about that life changing journey that she takes for one whole year. […]

Emily May reviews Michelle Obama’s Becoming on Goodreads:

Look, I'm not a happy crier. I might cry at songs about leaving and missing someone; I might cry at books where things don't work out; I might cry at movies where someone dies. I've just never really understood why people get all choked up over happy, inspirational things. But Michelle Obama's kindness and empathy changed that. This book had me in tears for all the right reasons.

This is not really a book about politics, though political experiences obviously do come into it. It's a shame that some will dismiss this book because of a difference in political opinion, when it is really about a woman's life. About growing up poor and black on the South Side of Chicago; about getting married and struggling to maintain that marriage; about motherhood; about being thrown into an amazing and terrifying position.

I hate words like "inspirational" because they've become so overdone and cheesy, but I just have to say it-- Michelle Obama is an inspiration. I had the privilege of seeing her speak at The Forum in Inglewood, and she is one of the warmest, funniest, smartest, down-to-earth people I have ever seen in this world.

And yes, I know we present what we want the world to see, but I truly do think it's genuine. I think she is someone who really cares about people - especially kids - and wants to give them better lives and opportunities.

She's obviously intelligent, but she also doesn't gussy up her words. She talks straight, with an openness and honesty rarely seen. She's been one of the most powerful women in the world, she's been a graduate of Princeton and Harvard Law School, she's had her own successful career, and yet she has remained throughout that same girl - Michelle Robinson - from a working class family in Chicago.

I don't think there's anyone who wouldn't benefit from reading this book.

Hopefully, this post has given you a better idea of how to write a book review. You might be wondering how to put all of this knowledge into action now! Many book reviewers start out by setting up a book blog. If you don’t have time to research the intricacies of HTML, check out Reedsy Discovery — where you can read indie books for free and review them without going through the hassle of creating a blog. To register as a book reviewer , go here .

And if you’d like to see even more book review examples, simply go to this directory of book review blogs and click on any one of them to see a wealth of good book reviews. Beyond that, it's up to you to pick up a book and pen — and start reviewing!

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11 New Summer Books You Can Still Add to Your Reading List

We've got your next beach read right here.

We've been independently researching and testing products for over 120 years. If you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. Learn more about our review process.

There’s something truly special about summer reading. Whether you call them "beach reads," "summer flings" or simply "great books of the season," the best books of summer 2024 will transport you to a sunny getaway, no matter the weather.

No matter your summer reading style, you're sure to find something to love on this list. Grab a stack of these books to take with you wherever the sun leads you before Labor Day — and when you’re finished, dive into the Good Housekeeping Book Club for even more feel-good reads.

'Plays Well With Others' by Sophie Brickman

“Mother Inferior” Anne Lewin is a sassy New York City-based advice columnist who gets completely swept up in the madness of the elite kindergarten admissions process. With three kids under 5, a workaholic husband, and a cunning archrival, her life turns into chaos — but it’s pure comedic gold for readers.

'Sandwich' by Catherine Newman

Rocky's annual summer week in Cape Cod takes on an unusual poignancy — not just because of menopause, but also due to the deep emotions she feels for her aging parents, adult children, sweet husband, her cat Chicken and a few long-held, sorrowful secrets. Books with this kind of warmth and humor are truly rare.

'There Are Rivers in the Sky' by Elif Shafak

Braiding together the stories of three narrators across millennia and continents, and tracing the journey of a single drop of water, this powerhouse author has crafted a rapturous feat of storytelling. From the ancient shores of the Tigris River to a houseboat on the Thames in 2018, an immersive adventure awaits you.

'House of Glass' by Sarah Pekkanen

Did that little girl push her nanny out the window? As the lawyer assigned to the case, Stella quickly realizes there are plenty of other suspects, including the heiress mother, the landscaper father, the live-in grandmother and the nanny’s boyfriend. On the other hand, little Rose is pretty darn creepy. If you love trying to predict twists, this is the thrill ride for you.

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'The Summer Pact' by Emily Giffin

A trio of college friends are devastated when the fourth member of their group, a star athlete, commits suicide. Now in their early 30s, with their own lives in flux, the three fall back on the pact they made years ago to stick together. Reuniting for a blissful getaway in Capri, they discover that life still has major surprises in store.

'Long Island Compromise' by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

Good Housekeeping 's July book club pick, Long Island Compromise centers on the kidnapping of a wealthy factory owner and the decades of family trauma that follow his return. But if anything has ever proven that laughter is the best medicine, it’s this book. The saga of the Fletchers in their ritzy Long Island suburb delivers brilliant psychological insight and spot-on cultural context along with dialogue so funny, it hurts.

'The Queen City Detective Agency' by Snowden Wright

Black ex-cop Clementine Baldwin and her white partner, Dixon Hicks, are the Nick and Nora of Meridian, MS. Hired by the mother of a recently deceased prison inmate to prove his death was no accident, they follow a trail that leads straight to the heart of the Dixie Mafia — complete with plenty of wit and bourbon along the way.

'The Same Bright Stars' by Ethan Joella

Head down to the Delaware shore with Jack Schmidt, the 52-year-old owner of a family restaurant he’s worked at since boyhood. A corporate chain wants to buy him out, and Jack, who feels "old" at 52, is tempted. The unlikely temptress is Nicole, the chain’s loud but intriguing representative who won’t take no for an answer. But what about the loyal Schmidt’s crew, whose livelihoods depend on Jack? When an ex reappears with shocking news, this endearing man realizes that his life is changing, whether he likes it or not.

'Slow Dance' by Rainbow Rowell

Shiloh and Cary are low on money, long on baggage and high on each other — the relationship they put on hold 14 years ago is reignited at the wedding of a mutual friend. The tension builds through atmospheric flashbacks to their 1990s high school days and Rowell’s signature saucy banter.

'The Next Mrs. Parrish' by Liv Constantine

In this sequel to The Last Mrs. Parrish , Constantine’s magnificent evil creation, Amber, is back. The husband she stole in the last book is finishing up his prison sentence, but she’s dreading his return — especially since she blew through all his money while he was locked up. Her plan to leave their baby with the nanny and disappear is foiled, and now the women whose lives she’s ruined are coming for her. Good luck, ladies!

'And So I Roar' by Abi Daré

The 14-year-old “girl with the louding voice,” whom we met in this young Nigerian author’s debut book , is back. Adunni’s rescuer and mentor, Tia, has helped her win a scholarship to a school in Lagos, but the backward, patriarchal ways of the village are not through with her yet — and their terrifying representatives are literally at the gate.

Lizz (she/her) is a senior editor at Good Housekeeping , where she runs the GH Book Club, edits essays and long-form features and writes about pets, books and lifestyle topics. A journalist for almost two decades, she is the author of Biography of a Body and Buffalo Steel. She also teaches journalism as an adjunct professor at New York University's School of Professional Studies and creative nonfiction at the Muse Writing Center, and coaches with the New York Writing Room. 

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