An intimate look inside Jenny Lawson’s creative process—and a collection of strong but powerful lessons for embarking on your own, even on days when you can’t get out of bed.
BEAUTIFUL HACKS FOR BROKEN HEADS AND CREATIVE HEARTS
by Jenny Lawson
Penguin Life, Spring 2026
(via Sterling Lord Literistic)
BEAUTIFUL HACKS FOR BROKEN HEADS AND CREATIVE HEARTS is an inspiring self-help book for the rest of us—the ones who haven’t successfully stacked a tower of Atomic Habits or cultivated the 7 traits that would make us highly effective individuals. Now more than ever, readers crave a book that meets them where they are. And where they are just might be still in their pajamas at 2pm, unable to turn on their Zoom video, and feeling worse every time someone recommends yet another book outlining a 10-step plan they can’t muster up the enthusiasm or energy to read, much less conquer.
The question Jenny has heard most over the past decade is, “How?” How did you —struggling with depression, anxiety, ADHD, chronic pain—manage to publish four bestsellers and open a successful bookstore (in April 2020, no less). Too often, people assume you must conquer your demons, cure your ills, and leave behind the brokenness completely before you can even begin to create your life’s work and succeed. Nothing could be further from the truth, and Beautiful Hacks is the road map for this tribe.
Jenny Lawson has published four New York Times bestsellers, including Let’s Pretend This Never Happened and Furiously Happy. She is the owner and proprietress of Nowhere Bookshop, a beloved independent bookstore and bar in San Antonio, Texas. She’s been writing her popular, award-winning blog (thebloggess.com) for over 15 years and has a very large social media following on X, Instagram, Facebook, and Threads.
In kindergarten, James Rhee received a toy red helicopter in gratitude for a simple act of kindness—the innocent generosity of sharing his lunch. Nearly four decades later, the true meaning and lesson from this memory helped him overcome indescribable hurdles as both a first time CEO and son to a dying father. Combining the radical common sense of a child with the knowledge of an experienced private equity investor and law school graduate, James led one of the most dramatic reinventions in business history. Partnering with Black women across America, James led Ashley Stewart, a twice-bankrupt retailer with no WiFi, from the jaws of liquidation to a transcendent success that inspired a world seeking a different way. And, in the process, he was able to reconcile his own complicated past and see his mom for who she truly was.
To be common is to be an everyday person. It’s to do the things that you are expected to do, whether that’s what your parents want for you, or your employer, or your spouse, et cetera. But if you want to be more than you are, more than you think you can be, then you need to recognize and learn from your mistakes to lead a life of excellence.
Women are often socialized to prioritize the needs of others, leaving little time for themselves. In this book, women are equipped with 101 practical and encouraging self-care activities—organized around the five pillars of self-care—to help them care for, replenish, and reconnect with themselves and live a more joyful life.
Our lives are filled with repetitive tasks meant to boost productivity—what we know as habits. Over time, we do these activities automatically. But when we perform these habits mindfully—when we focus on the precise way an act is performed—we create a ritual. Now, an everyday act goes from black-and-white to technicolor. And as author and Harvard professor Michael Norton explains here, it’s these rituals that make life worth living.