How to Be a Happy Academic

My copy of this book was given to me by one of the authors.
The advice in here is spot on for academic workers, but I imagine that many academic workers won't take the time to read through it. That's a shame–and I agree that the book could be pared down a bit. I think the length stems in part from the authors' awareness that spending time with these concepts is important, so slowing the reader down and making him/her think and do exercises is an effective way to get the lessons to sit a bit deeper.

Most of the contents of this book are things that i cover with the academics I coach. That makes me something of the target market for Clark & Sousa. What I really appreciated about their approach, though, can be summed up with a quote from p. 189 “All too readily, the challenge of academic work also becomes about the self, and especially the self-work that we must do.”