Crazy Happy: Nine Surprising Ways to Live the Truly Beautiful Life

Fusco (lead pastor, Crossroads Community Church, Vancouver, WA; Upward, Inward, Outward) espouses the viewpoint that only a relationship with Jesus (based on literal, traditional interpretations of the Bible) can bring about true happiness. Fusco structures the book by connecting each of the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount with the Fruits of the Spirit from Paul’s letter to the Galatians. For instance, the second chapter relates Matthew 5:3 (“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”) to Galatians 5:22 (“The fruit of the Spirit is love”). The author’s prose is engaging, informal, and liberally sprinkled with personal anecdotes as well as wide-ranging footnotes that reference everyone from New Testament writers to David Bowie. While promoting a fairly rigid, traditional brand of Christianity, Fusco chooses to focus on Jesus’s more accessible qualities, such as love, strength, and faithfulness, and how those qualities can be applied to our everyday lives. The book includes a foreword by pastor Rich Warren.