Rating: 
Summary: The Perfect Gift
Review: I love this book, and I'm not even half way through it yet. The little things that he talks about, can help anybody. I think the part that I like about it the most is the examples he uses to get his point across.
Life is so big and complicated sometimes, we tend to fill our life with so much. This book helps you sort through all that stuff. And really spend the time doing the things that can make anybody happy. Almost after ever chapter I feel so much better about myself, and even more that I know I can make it in life no matter what.
Rating:
Summary: Just what the title says
Review: I really liked that this book is based on real research on happiness and happy people - it's not just a collection of cute sayings or the author's whims.This book is a practical and useful guide, I highly recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: Luke Warm Chicken Soup
Review: I should have been suspicious when there was such a nice round number of secrets of happy people. I now realize that many of the secrets are effectively redundant. The book consists of 100 fluffy 3-part chapters, for lack of a better word. The first part is a one paragraph summary of the "secret", the second is a SHORT description of ONE example of the principle in action (some of these seemed much more apt than others), and the third part is a one paragraph summary of some actual research that coalesces the data into people-who-do-this-are-X%-happier /unhappier. The "chapters" rarely, if ever, exceed 2 pages in length and, as another reviewer mentioned, there is a lot of white spacce. About the only thing I really liked about the book was that it did cite the original research. Overall, I think this would have made a better desk calendar.
Rating: 
Summary: Happy People
Review: I think this book was great. It gave me ways and ideas i never thought I would come across. I was never a sad person, but this book showed me how I can be at my happiest. Personally, I think that everyone should read this book, whether they are depressed or easy going. If you're depressed, I am sure it can help you in some way. In my case, I am a pritty easy going person, and it still helped me. You don't have to be sad or depressed in order to read this book.
Another reason I really enjoyed this book was becasue it is cheap. It is only about $9.00, and being a college student we don't exactly have much money to be spending. The manin reason I enjoyed this book was because it taught me how to deal with everyday situations. It also dealt with a lot of situations dealing with tie and stress. I'll be the first to say it, college is very stressful and time consuming. Overall, it helped me with my transition from highschool to college.
Rating:
Summary: scientific yet simple and fun
Review: If you are inclinded to think scientifically and yet want a simple and fun read, this is the right book. It was useful for me.
Rating:
Summary: Short, Sweet, & Inspiring
Review: Many of these secrets are common sense, such as #54 "Get a good night's Sleep or #6 Cultivate Friendships; a few are debatable, such as #72 "You always have a choice." Overall, however, I find this little book fun and inspiring. Each "secret" follows this formula, as found in one of my favorites #50, "Cherish Animals." Niven gives a brief explanation of how animals have much to teach us about love. After the explanation is an anecdote: the story of an animal shelter that brings a vanload of small dogs each week to cheer up nursing home residents. Each entry concludes with a research finding: "Those with a loved pet are 22 percent more likely to feel satisfied than those without. - Barofsky and Rowan 1998." Most folks probably won't go looking up the references in the back, but my inner scientist is pleased by how Niven, a Ph.D. handled the research. Each reference is: 1. alphabetically listed in the back by author (with journal information), so curious souls can easily look up the study. 2. a meta-analysis (an analysis of multiple studies of the same topic). So when Niven says, "regular readers are about 8 percent more likely to express daily satisfaction" compared to non-readers, this is based on multiple studies, not just one. My only complaint about the book is that there's so much empty space. Many pages have 3 to 4 inches of empty space, well over half the page. Conclusion: Fun, inspiring, easy reading. A great gift idea when you don't know what to give.
Rating:
Summary: Come on, get happy!
Review: Niven has created a highly readable abstract of the best lessons learned from scientific studies into happiness and life satisfaction. With so much research being done in these areas, it's delightful to see the science applied and presented in a engaging, useful manner. Reading through the brief, concise lessons you'll discover some things you already knew... and a few things you may have wondered about. Plus, you'll get a quick example of how the lesson applies to daily life as well as the reference to the study/research behind each idea. As a professional life coach, I recommend this book to all of my clients and encourage them to use it as a low-cost, year-long self-improvement course by having them read 2 lessons a week and focusing on applying those lessons in their daily lives. This little book is a hidden gem in the field of personal development and self-help. Anyone looking for simple, common-sense, EFFECTIVE ideas to improve their lives will want to read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Highly recommended
Review: One of the advantages of this book is that there is nothing complicated theory in the book. Most secrets are related to our daily lives such as habits and attitudes. Therefore, if we can really follow the suggestions of this book, it is believed that we can easily be happy people every day. Since each of the hundred practices for happiness is illustrated with a clear example, we can understand it more easily. Actually, it is good that each story behind the examples can allow us to learn from others¡¦ experience in how to increase our happiness in a simple way.
David Niven try to encourage us to think optimistically by using the simple secrets like Your Life Has Purpose and Meaning, You Don¡¦t Have to Win Every Time, Accept Yourself¡XUnconditionally, Believe in Yourself and Don¡¦t Blame Yourself. So, each time I feel sad or cannot be sure of my life¡¦s direction, I would read this book again because the secrets can remind me that there are still many meaningful things around me. What I need to do so as to gain happiness is to choose a comfortable way to finish my tasks and be confident to deal with the trouble.
With the simple English in this book, no matter children, teenagers or elderly can also get the idea to create happiness for themselves easily. Therefore, I highly recommend my family and friends to read this book.
Rating:
Summary: A must read for all.
Review: Professor Niven's work is excellently drafted and exceptionally useful to people from all walks of life.
Rating:
Summary: be happy, save your money
Review: The book does indeed contain 100 entries
but other than that the title is misleading.
First of all there are no secrets. The
author repeats common homespun wisdom one
can find anywhere. Second there are lots
of claims like 'group A is 35% happier than
group B' . Really now, I wonder what units
happiness is measured in. Such attempts to
hijack math to achieve respectability are
ludicrous and so is this book.
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