Little Victories

Perfect Rules for Imperfect Living

By: Jason Gay

Narrated by: Jason Gay

The Wall Street Journal's popular columnist Jason Gay delivers a hilarious and heartfelt guide to modern living.

"The book you [will listen to] is a rule book. There have been rule books before - stacks upon stacks of them - but this book is unlike any other rule book you have ever [heard]. It will not make you rich in 24 hours or even 72 hours. It will not cause you to lose 80 pounds in a week. This book has no abdominal exercises. I have been doing abdominal exercises for most of my adult life, and my abdomen looks like it's always looked. It looks like flan. Syrupy flan. So we can just limit those expectations. This book does not offer a crash diet or a plan for maximizing your best self. I don't know a thing about your best self. It may be embarrassing. Your best self might be sprinkling peanut M&Ms onto rest-stop pizza as we speak. I cannot promise that this book is a road map to success. And we should probably set aside the goal of total happiness. There's no such thing.

"I would, however, like for it to make you laugh. Maybe think. I believe it is possible to find, at any age, a new appreciation for what you have - and what you don't have - as well as for the people closest to you. There's a way to experience life that does not involve a phone, a tablet, a television screen. There's also a way to experience life that does not involve eating seafood at the airport, because you should really never eat seafood at the airport.

"Like the title says, I want us all to achieve little victories. I believe that happiness is derived less from a significant single accomplishment than it is from a series of successful daily maneuvers. Accomplishments do not have to be large to be meaningful. I think little victories are the most important ones in life." (from the Introduction)

©2015 Jason Gay (P)2015 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"I loved this book. Jason Gay's Little Victories is funny, wise, direct, deceptively straight-forward and incredibly moving. As soon as I was finished reading it, I put it in the mail to my father, along with a reminder of my love. Such reminders, after all, are what we are here for, as this story - well - reminds us." (Elizabeth Gilbert, best-selling author of Eat, Pray, Love and Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear)

"Jason Gay's rules for living will make you laugh out loud, and also make a whole lot of sense. This is an advice book that doesn't take itself too seriously and is all the more valuable for it." (Charles Duhigg, best-selling author of The Power of Habit)

"With the impeccable timing and delivery of a stand-up comedian, Gay punctuates his narration with chuckles, snorts, and sighs, while his self-deprecating tone maximizes his likability as narrator and protagonist." ( AudioFile)

Fantastic

Awesome lighthearted perspective on all sorts of life's pleasures and challenges. Jason Gay is as good at books as he is newspaper columns.

Little Lessons

Very conversational book with solid life lessons from a dad who, like all of us, has little struggles.