Review of Fireproof Happiness

[Stephen Christopher 1]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Fireproof Happiness" by Dr. Randy Ross.]

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4 out of 5 stars

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Have you ever wondered why some people panicked and struggled through the COVID-19 pandemic while others sailed through it, seemingly untouched? According to Dr. Randy Ross's book Fireproof Happiness, the latter all had hope.

Written during the pandemic, the book offers a new slant on the term ‘hope.’ Like many people, as Dr. Ross states in his book, I also viewed hope as a fairytale-like view of the future. It turns out hope is legitimate and a lot more powerful than we give it credit for.

There’s a lot to take away from this book, and it had me nodding in agreement in many chapters. Personally, I found the section on fear in Chapter 4 fascinating. It was great to get an insight into my own behavior.

Chapter 6 makes the reader confront the danger technology has created around social interactions. Consider this: you can get just about any question answered by doing a quick Google search, but is getting emotional support from another person equally as easy?

Would you rather live in La La Land or Pity Party Palace? Read the book and find out where you land on that scale.

I greatly appreciated how he backed up his comments, referring to specific studies and naming the researchers involved.

Now for what I didn’t like. Readers are encouraged to visit the Fireproof Happiness website at the end of each part and download a personal report. The first one is free, but the ones for parts two and three require payment, and even with the discount code, I feel that’s more than many people are willing to pay, especially as they’ve just paid for the book.

My other complaint about the book is that I found it repetitive. Things the author had covered in earlier chapters resurfaced in other chapters. My only reasoning for this is that maybe he figured people would only read selected chapters, hence the need to cover details again.

However, in Chapter 9, when he repeated data word-for-word towards the end from the beginning of the same chapter, I had doubts. As the book went on, this became more common, including repetition of sentences only a few paragraphs apart. This proved frustrating and took away my enjoyment of reading the book.

The book isn’t about religion, but like many self-help books, it has numerous references. Some are prefaced by a sub-heading of ‘faith,’ but some aren’t. These inserts may put off people with non-Christian beliefs.

I wanted to give this book full marks, but the constant repetition really irked me by the end, so I’m going to rate this one 4 out of 5 stars. The book is superbly edited; I found only one single grammatical error.

There are no swearing or sexual references, and the theories are expressed in easy-to-understand terms, so it’s a book for everyone. I’d recommend it for late teens and up.

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Fireproof Happiness
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[Tomy Chandrafrost]

I like the way you give your balanced thoughts on the positive and negative of the book. Thank you for writing this review. Hopefully I can get some insightful experience while Im reading the book later

[Harshitha Nayak]

It's always helpful when there is highlights of good and bad things in the book that will be guidance to fellow readers to decide whether they want to read or not. you did good work in showcasing the strength and weakness of the day, I have read this book and share familiar opinion.

[MAHAD BAIG MIRZA]

This review navigates the complexities of hope and emotional resilience in Dr. Randy Ross's "Fireproof Happiness," offering praise for its insightful discussions while critiquing its occasional repetition and religious references, ultimately awarding it 4 out of 5 stars

[Stephen Christopher 1]

I like the way you give your balanced thoughts on the positive and negative of the book. Thank you for writing this review. Hopefully I can get some insightful experience while Im reading the book later

Yes, I got a lot out of this book. The idea of seeing the brighter side of everything, 'hope' makes such a difference.

[Stephen Christopher 1]

It's always helpful when there is highlights of good and bad things in the book that will be guidance to fellow readers to decide whether they want to read or not. you did good work in showcasing the strength and weakness of the day, I have read this book and share familiar opinion.

Yes I read your review too. It seems like we both got a lot of positive use from this book.