pbFrom the author of the iNew York Timesi-bestselling iFour Thousand Weeksi, a totally original approach to self-help success through failure, calm through embracing anxiety.b pSelf-help books don't seem to work. Few of the many advantages of modern life seem capable of lifting our collective mood. Wealth--even if you can get it--doesn't necessarily lead to happiness. Romance, family life, and work often bring as much stress as joy. We can't even agree on what happiness means. So are we engaged in a futile pursuit Or are we just going about it the wrong way pLooking both east and west, in bulletins from the past and from far afield, Oliver Burkeman introduces us to an unusual group of people who share a single, surprising way of thinking about life. Whether experimental psychologists, terrorism experts, Buddhists, hardheaded business consultants, Greek philosophers, or modern-day gurus, they argue that in our personal lives, and in society at large, it's our constant effort to be happy