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    Secrets to Happiness
    Secrets to Happiness
    Secrets to Happiness
    Audiobook8 hours

    Secrets to Happiness

    Written by Sarah Dunn

    Narrated by Julie Dretzin

    3/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Deftly mixing humor and pathos, Sarah Dunn's Secrets to Happiness delivers an entertaining story of professional women living the city life. It has been likened to a hybrid of Candace Bushnell, Edith Wharton, and Jane Austen, and Kirkus Reviews calls it a "smart chick-lit tale with dark undertones." Recently divorced Holly is intelligent and spunky-and her priceless ruminations on love, life, and happiness are not to be missed.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateMay 29, 2009
    ISBN9781440718274
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    Reviews for Secrets to Happiness

    3/5

    124 ratings24 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Not really the greatest read for a guy. Thought it might be interesting based on the title but I stuck with it to the end. Even though it’s fictional still a lot like real life. I did like the ending and what happened with Chester the dog. The best part I took was a line at the end about GOD. Page 273.
    • 2/5
      Surface characters with a surface plot, I just couldnt find it in myself to care about the main protaganist, Holly, and there just seemed to be no point at all. There were some good lines but otherwise a bland self indulgent feel that didn't appeal at all.
    • 3/5
      Fast read, basic chick-lit, where the story focuses on finding love in the big city. Reminded me of reading Sex in the City.
    • 5/5
      I really enjoyed this book. It's about Holly Frick, a woman still reeling from her divorce, trying to get on by having an affair with a much younger man. She is shocked when her best friend, Amanda, announces that she is thinking about having an affair. What happens between Holly, Amanda, and Jack, Amanda's lover, is full of twists and surprises. Meanwhile, Holly has adopted Chester, a dog with cancer. This book sounds like pure, simple, conventional chick lit, but Dunn's writing style raises it above the rest of the genre. There are moments that are laugh out loud funny, moments that are just plain TRUE, and most importantly, moments that resonate emotionally. I read Dunn's first novel, The Big Love, several years ago, and really enjoyed it; this is another winner. She's definitely an author I'll watch out for in the future. Highly recommended; four and a half stars.
    • 2/5
      I had fair warning. When I entered the contest to win a copy of this book on Beth Fish Reads, Beth said that she could not finish the book. Had I not entered Beth's contest, won it, and then received The Art of Racing in the Rain that same week, I may never have been inspired to how the first annual Dog Days of Summer week. I have no regrets, but I did not like this book.Susan Dunn's second novel tells the story of 35-year-old Holly Frick, a seemingly typical New Yorker. She was recently divorced from her husband and she was still in love with him. Holly is the main character, but there are numerous other characters given the spotlight throughout the novel - most of whom for no better reason than to show every other selfish, depressed person in New York City can find love and happiness but her. With so many different characters, I would have thought I would have clicked with at least one of them, but did not. The closest I came was cheering Holly on at first after learning of her casual and very sexual relationship with a 22-year-old. That just wasn't enough to go on for me.There is a dog in this book, but he is more of a decoration than a central part of the book. Holly, on the spur of the moment, adopts a dog. He has brain cancer and she takes a risk on him. This act, which is described in after the fact, humanizes Holly more than anything else. Had this story been more prominent and not bogged down by the other characters, I would have enjoyed this novel much more. I was disappointed by that because it really didn't match the adorable cover. (I know, I know, never judge a book by it's cover - and that rule goes both ways).Secrets of Happiness did not make me happy. I had no patience for these characters who kept making the same mistakes only to wonder why their lives aren't happier and more fulfilling. I was so irritated that even the humor didn't work for me. I would not have finished it had it not been one of my Dog Days of Summer books. In defense of this novel, however, I didn't enjoy the few episodes of "Sex in the City" I have watched. I think this book might appeal more to those who did.
    • 4/5
      When I first started the book I didn't think that I was going to enjoy it because there are so many different characters that you have to follow, but I am glad that I stuck it through because I grew to love most of them and hate a couple of the others. However it was still a little hard to remember some of them, it would mention someone and it took a while to figure out who they were referring to.I do love Sarah's writing style. It was very easy to relate to all of the characters, mostly because between all of them there was every type of relationship and the problems that come along with them represented. I also liked the fact that even though the relationships were kind of generic, Sarah was still able to through a lot of twists into the story that I wasn't expecting.My absolute favorite thing about Secrets to Happiness is the fact that the main character, Holly Frick, is a novelist. This allows for many book related thoughts which leads to amazing quotes.
    • 3/5
      This was OK to listen to; not sure I would have finished it if I read it. The characters were self-absorbed and shallow. It was interesting to observe the interactions but if I knew them, I don't think I would want to spend much time with them.
    • 5/5
      This book was a total treat to read. Seriously, my husband had to leave the room, because I had to stop quite often in order to read him a passage. When something is that good, I have to share. I would compare this work to one of my all time favorites "Heartburn" by Nora Ephron, because like Heartburn, it had moments that just cracked me up and were completely impossible to not share. Also I totally could not put this book down! Sarah Dunn has an absolute powerful way of bringing her characters to life in a way that is almost beyond belief. They live and breathe and cause feelings of love and hate. I enjoyed how the story centered on Holly Frick but also gave us smaller stories to enjoy along the way in the lives of those who were close to Holly. There were little lessons on lives in each and every one. Choices were made throughout this book, and many of them I didn't agree with and neither did Holly, but I am surrounded by that in my own life, and that is what made this story real. In order to totally avoid spoilers, I am going to keep certain things out of this review and throw myself into a discussion group somewhere, because this is definitely a book you want to share. Here is what I loved: Each and every character was REAL. Sometimes so real that you wanted to hit them. I loved how Holly had moments where she was faced with her friends failings and expected them to do the right thing. I loved how Holly herself had to make some decisions that were right even though they were painful. Here is what I didn't like: I felt like Holly did and wanted people to behave in the way that was appropriate. Of course that is just not the way life is always going to be. You can only control yourself, and you have to let that be enough. So really I liked that too. That is what is good about this book. You are not going to like some of the decisions that are made, but it is true to life.Honestly, I loved this book. This book is a keeper and it is a book I will share. Mind you, I will have my address label inside this book, because I want it back.
    • 3/5
      What really makes a person happy? For Holly is it rescuing a dog with cancer or having midnight sex with a 22-yeard-old? According to her best friend’s husband it’s having your wife on Paxil but for Amanda it just may be having an affair. For Holly’s ex-boyfriend who came before her ex-husband it’s learning how to manage a crazy fling in New York with a committed girlfriend in Colorado. Follow along with Holly and a few of her friends and acquaintances, all living in New York, searching out the answer to that very question.Dunn brings us a humorous story with both wit and a bit of the snark factor. Different from most chick lit, Secrets to Happiness doesn’t follow along the lines of girl loses guy, goes through dating hell then gets the good guy and I enjoyed the realistic ending over the happily ever after. I just wish there were less secondary characters and more of Holly’s adventures. None of the characters including Holly were endearing too me and none of them stood out as memorable. This was a breezy read that I recommend as a library selection for fans of chick-lit.
    • 2/5
      I heard about this book on the today show, it was touted as one of the must reads of the summer. So I was looking forward to reading it and was lucky enough to get a copy of it from Hachette Book group. And the cover is just really cute. Unfortunately that is where the pleasantness ends on Secrets to happiness. The book was hard for me to get through if I am completely honest. I almost stopped reading but by that point I was half way through and so decided not to give up.I am not sure how the book can be put into the chic lit genre as over all it is rather depressing. I can understand that it is a gritty look at Manhattan love. But when I read chic lit I expect it to be well more like a romantic comedy. Perhaps that’s just me. The plot itself is boring; the characters are just flat on the page and not that likeable.The most likeable thing about the book? The dogs. They are the saving grace over all. I could leave the rest of the book and not feel like I have missed anything. There truly are no secrets to be revealed in the Secrets to Happiness. This hit’s the skip it shelf on my list of books. And if you do feel like plugging through I wish you luck.
    • 4/5
      Though I thought this book would be a fairly typical example of the chick-lit genre, I was pleased to discover it was much edgier and funnier than expected. Holly is not your typical heroine, and can in fact be quite annoying at times. Her interactions with the dog Chester unexpectedly make her much more a character than a characterization, and make this novel stronger. Best friend Amanda is easy to dislike, and though I thought her actions could have been more fully fleshed out while the story developed, at the end I was more satisfied with the outcome than I had anticipated.This was a good book, well-written, funny, emotionally truthful, and if I had written this review the moment I finished the book, it probably would have received 4 stars. I'm giving it 3.5 now because although I finished the book just a few days ago, I have a hard time calling to mind any specifics about the plot without referring to the text. Since I generally have no problem remembering specifics of books I read months (or even years) ago, I was disappointed that this novel left so little impression despite its positive qualities. A enjoyable but ultimately forgetful read; 3.5 stars.
    • 2/5
      Sarah Dunn is a truly talented writer. Her writing is witty, lively, and flows beautifully. However, for me, Secrets to Happiness wasn't the book to showcase that talent. In fairness, let me start off by saying that I am probably outside of the target demographic of this book. I am a fairly conservative, career woman turned stay-at-home mother, who is totally devoted to my husband and children. The characters in this novel would likely describe me as a naive optimist.The central character of the novel is Holly Frick, a recently divorced writer on the downward slope of her career, who has been anything but lucky in love. Holly lives, works, and plays in New York city. In general, Holly is a bit at a loss as to how to find happiness in her life. It turns out that most of her close friends, including her best friend Amanda, haven't figured that out either; despite appearances to the contrary. Secrets to Happiness presents us with a host of characters, and their search to find fulfillment.Initially, I really enjoyed this book for the first few chapters in which the author introduced Holly, and some of her history. However, a few pages more had me wondering why Holly would choose to spend time with many of the other characters, especially her best friend Amanda. I found the majority of the characters in this book to be self-centered egoists who treated Holly as a quaint little country girl because she sometimes voiced a moral qualm with regards to the consequences of destructive behavior, like adultery. The character of Amanda particularly had me wanting to hurl the book out of the window. I think it was partly because I was still enjoying the post-reading high from Everyone is Beautiful, and suddenly, here was a character who drugged her infant with Benadryl so that she could enjoy uninterrupted sexual fantasies about a man she met at a park.I am giving this book two stars because I really mean it when I say that Dunn impressed me with her ability to turn a phrase. As much as I disliked this novel, I still found myself wishing I could write like she does.
    • 3/5
      "A lot of life, it seemed to Holly, was turning out to be just like that. You keep walking, and you keep breathing, and then one day you notice, again, the feel of the wind on your cheek." (Page 275)Secrets to Happiness by Sarah Dunn focuses on the life of Holly Frick and each of the people she effects with her decisions and how their decisions impact her life in a gigantic web. From Holly's ex-boyfriend Spence Samuelson to Betsy Silverstein and her friends Amanda and Mark to her screenwriter/partner Leonard. Each of these characters is dissatisfied with their current lives and is seeking happiness and contentment in their lives."It was probably, primarily, mostly, the chemical hair straightening. Leonard had spent four hundred dollars to get his hair straightened with the new Brazilian hair-straightening chemical, and now it clung to his head like a wet washcloth and then spiked out at the ends down at the top of his neck, which was huge, due to the steroids he got from a pharmacist who ran an underground steroid ring out of his fourth-floor walk-up on Christopher Street." (Page 25)Dunn has a great talent for description and character development. Secrets to Happiness delves into the various situations, emotions, friends, careers, and other elements in people's lives that they believe make them happy. Each of these characters experiences turns their preconceived notions upside down, leaving Holly, Spence, Betsy, and Amanda to make pivotal decisions."'I don't tell Betsy about my personal life.''Good. You know what? Don't tell anybody. Let's just keep this our little secret,' said Holly. 'And now I even sound like a child molester.''That's straight out of the handbook.''Page eleven,' said Holly. 'Right after the part where I lure you back into the back of my van with a box of kittens.'" (Page 21)Overall, Secrets to Happiness reads well with a modicum of interruption from narratives that scope farther back into the lives of the characters. While some of these narrative, which mirror background checks for the characters, are well written, readers could find that they are distracting and unnecessary. Dunn is a talented women's fiction writer with a flare for dramatic and unconventional characters, and her ability to dig beneath the surface of these professional New Yorkers is uncanny.
    • 4/5
      Relationships in various permutations are at the heart of Sarah Dunn’s humorous but thoughtful book Secrets to Happiness. Still reeling from her heartbreaking divorce, New Yorker Holly Frick is hardly ready to hear the news that her best friend, Amanda, is contemplating an affair. But Amanda also thinks that her philosophical potential-lover might be just the right fit for Holly. To further test her relationship boundaries Holly is being contacted by the girlfriend of her “ex before her ex” for relationship insights she thinks might be evident in Holly’s roman à clef failed novel. Soon Holly discovers it might just be easier to have a relationship with Chester, an adorable dog with cancer that she adopts on a whim. To round out the relationship spectrum we also get inside the heads of Holly’s gay writing partner and a couple of lovelorn gym rats. Dunn has a talent for developing her characters through some fairly thorough self-examination that is tempered by dialog that’s witty without being snarky. Falling somewhere between chick-lit and women’s lit, Secrets to Happiness is a cool book that will warm your heart.
    • 4/5
      Holly Frick is having some problems...she is still in love with her ex-husband, she is sleeping with a much younger man, her best friend is having an affair, and she has adopted a sick dog. She is also having career problems, a writer, stuck writing for a kid's show. She eventually dumps the young guy and falls for someone else. This, of course, leads to a whole new set of problems for Holly. Holly finds happiness, maybe not where she (or I) expected her to find it, but she does.I really enjoyed this book, it is lots of fun. It is funny in parts, sweet in others, and very easy to read. Holly is a likeable character, sassy sometimes and clueless other times. She is real. There were a couple of parts I didn't like (or didn't understand at the time) but, it all comes together in the end:)
    • 4/5
      Loved it!Read it in one sitting.Brilliant characters, amazing dialogue, funny, witty, 3 giant steps up from chick lit.Holly Frick lives in NYC, single and sad. Her best friend, Amanda is having an affair with a man named Jack, her TV show writing partner Leonard snorts his Aderall, and her ex-boyfriend Spence's new girlfriend is phoning her up for advice on her love life.Look forward to more by Sarah Dunn!
    • 2/5
      Didn't anyone else notice the complete plotline stealing from Woody Allen's movie, Manhattan? The older woman dating the inappropriately (though at least not illegal) younger man? The married best friend cheating on the spouse who dumps the lover then encourages the best friend to go out with the with the ex-lover, which they do, have an affair, only to have the married best friend and ex-lover re-unite in the end dumping the erstwhile best friend??? Come on, Sarah. I loved Big Love and was supremely disappointed that I could predict where you were going throughout that tangled mess. At least you didn't end with Holly's young lover telling her she has to have "a little faith in people."
    • 4/5
      What is the secret to happiness? This is a question you'll hear a lot these days! Holly thinks that she knows the secrets until her husband leaves her. She's back at the drawing board and with a hunky, young lover, a sweet, ill dog, and a cheating best friend all to help her figure it out.This book starts (and ends) with great, quirky, loveable characters. They are all flawed and each trying their best to find the ever elusive happiness. I love that Sarah Dunn explores all the options. Sure, for some, the secret to happiness is a white picket fence. But in the modern world it can also be a sad, sweet dog, the man your best friend is having an affair with, or the job you thought you hated. You have to open to happiness from anywhere, you never know when it will strike!Secrets to Happiness is sharply funny and yet still sweet and warm hearted. Sarah Dunn pokes fun of her characters even while she is guiding them down the path to happiness. I really enjoyed this book. It was smart enough to keep me reading and warm enough to make me feel good in the end.
    • 4/5
      This was one of those quintessential New York stories - peopled with fun, neurotic characters and filled with quick, witty dialogue. It wasn't always original - Holly's speech to Amanda at one point mimics Woody Allen's speech to Isaac at the end of the movie Manhattan - but that may have been intentional. And the book, as a whole, made me smile.
    • 2/5
      Holly Frick is not a happy woman; in fact, if there are secrets to happiness, Holly is clueless. She's a failed novelist, currently writing mediocre sitcoms for the junior high set, a divorcee whose failed marriage is a cliche, and a woman facing the northern side of thirty-five alone. Life may hold promise, but Holly needs help finding it. And her friends don't seem much better off. Her world is peopled by brittle, self-centered, introspective, and unhappy New Yorkers - Amanda and Mark, the affluent young couple who on the surface appear to have everything; Spence, the ex before Holly's ex, and Cathleen, his current girlfriend, who calls Holly for advice; Betsy, who is growing weary of the endless treadmill her life has become, Lucas, her twenty-two-year-old brother who finds a kindred spirit in Holly; and Jack, Amanda's lover, Holly's lover, whatever. One of Sarah Dunn's major hurdles is to make Holly and her friends sympathetic. And she does. But it takes time, which requires patience from the reader. Their lives are connected - threads in tapestry none of them understand. Each is given a chance to change her/his life, to redeem past mistakes and make a fresh start. If this sounds a bit heavy handed, it is. Dunn's approach lacks finesse. Despite the cover blurb comparing Holly to Austen's Emma, Dunn is no Austen. Her characters lack the warmth and humanity of Austen's. And while there are good lines and occasional humorous flashes, this was not, for me at least, a laugh-aloud book. But for readers who manage to trudge through it, it does tie up all the threads neatly and promise happiness for those who deserve it. By the way, one should never buy a book by its cover: the charming Parson Russell terrier on the cover does not make an appearance in the book. There are two dogs; one is even a laughing dog, but, buyer beware, it's not this little guy. But somehow that holds true to the spirit of the novel.
    • 5/5
      This made me laugh out loud. So it gets 5 stars.
    • 3/5
      When I first started Secrets to Happiness by Sarah Dunn, I was sure I’d found a book I was really going to enjoy, something that was a cut above the usual chick lit fare. There was humor and there was cute banter among the characters. However, as the story progressed, the main characters just became whining bores without a stitch of common sense among them. Well, there was one character, Lonnie, who seemed quite sensible and content with his life, but he was not a main character and unfortunately wasn’t around much. I will say that the cover of this book is fantastic, a great selling point.Ms. Dunn’s writing is quite good; I just find her characters unlikeable. The story flowed very well and this was an easy read. If you’re looking for a light read, perhaps a beach book, this might do it for you.
    • 3/5
      Secrets to Happiness follows a year in the life of a group of thirty and forty something New Yorkers. The group is connected through Holly Frick, a woman in her late 30s who works as a writer on a kids tv show. Holly is certain her life is on the decline--she's recently divorced with no relationship prospects, her career is wanning, and she's lost out on much of the promise NYC holds for young people. Soon Holly's life begins to look up. But just as all of her friends lives also start to look up, Holly's falls apart again. Will these loses help her to figure out the secrets to happiness? Secrets to Happiness is a mixed bag of a book. There are parts of the book that are laugh-out-loud funny, but then there are parts that are completely unnecessary that drag down the whole rest of the narrative. The strongest parts of the novel are the segments that deal with Holly, and those that deal with her ex-boyfriend Spence. Other sections, that focus on Holly's writing partner Leonard and her distant friend Betsy, just feel forced. The first part of the book is pretty slow, and it only picks up when the narrative focuses more tightly on Holly in the second half of the book. I think Dunn has obvious talent as a comic writer, but she should stick to writing what she knows--the experience of a 30 something woman--instead of trying to broaden her story to other characters like gay men. This was okay chit lit, but definitely not the best out there. I would suggest this to someone looking for a casual read if they've exhausted some of the better chit lit options.
    • 1/5
      Secrets to Happiness by Sarah DunnPoor Holly Frick our ‘heroine’, she has just gone through a divorce, is writing for a children’s very, very low end TV show, she is partnered by a overly self medicated writing partner who happens to be gay and seems to be getting gay-er by the day. Her best friend who has just had a baby is contemplating stepping out on her husband, and Holly’s ex-boyfriends new girl-friend is coming to Holly for advice. Add in a whole bunch of other very, very dysfunctional and egotistical people and you would think that you would have a novel that would knock your socks off laughing at their antics. You’d think that wouldn’t you? Well …I’m sorry to say that doesn’t seem to be the case here.What you do get, is a huge wilted salad of extremely self absorbed people, none of which I could ever stomach as a casual acquaintance, let alone see myself seeking advice from or being a friend to. Many of the characters seem to have no rhyme or reason for even being in this book unless they are here to fill up space?Holly Frick is being compared to Jane Austen’s Emma Woodhouse - on further contemplation this whole novel seems to be a modern version of “Emma” and not in a complementary way. I’m sorry…I am neither a professional reviewer nor a writer; I’m just a person who loves books very, very much. I read a lot, and this book was a huge disappointment to me. .If you must read this book, at least save yourself some money and buy the paperback instead of getting the hardcover.