My book, Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness, will be out in just one week! To celebrate, I thought I’d share a little sneak peek between the covers to show you some of my favorite parts.

Fun Surprises

If you follow @aestheticsofjoy on Instagram, you may have already seen this fun surprise on the US edition — a confetti-filled cover hidden under the book jacket! As a lover of physical books, it was important to me that Joyful not be a throwaway object, but something you’d want to keep! In keeping with the surprise aesthetic, one of the ten aesthetics of joy I write about in the book, we really wanted the design of the book to have a touch of the unexpected.

The UK edition also has a fun surprise — the edges of the pages are yellow! It’s a pop of color in an unexpected place that hopefully will give you a burst of joy every time you pull it off the shelf.

Contents

The book is organized into ten chapters, one for each of the ten aesthetics of joy. Each one is a dive into a different world of joy, from the vibrant color and light of energy to the circles and squiggles of of play to the ethereal sensations of magic. The whimsical chapter openers, designed by Deb Wood, give an immediate sense of the feeling of an aesthetic.

Illustrations

The book contains over 30 of my sketches, developed over the course of my travels in search of joy. I wanted these to feel a little like a peek into my sketchbook, a visual snapshot of the places and things I encountered.

Joyful Toolkit

At the back of the book, you’ll find the Joyful Toolkit, with twenty pages of worksheets and exercises to help you take the ideas in the book and apply them to your own life. These are tools that I use for myself and in workshops, and are designed to make it easy to find and make more joy in the places that matter to you. (Note that these tools will also be available to download for free from the Resources section of the website after the book launches.)

There has been so much love put into this book, and I can’t wait for you to read it!

If you haven’t yet preordered your copy, there’s still time to get it on the first day it’s available (Sept 4 in the US and Canada, and Sept 6 in the UK)! Find your preferred retailer and order here. And for those of you in the US, check out these preorder bonus videos, featuring my top tips for a more joyful home and workspace, a free gift available no matter where you ordered from.

Lastly, I’d love to meet you in person over the next few months as I travel around speaking about Joyful. Here is a list of cities and events. More are being added every day, so please check back. I hope to see you soon!