How to Be Happy on Mondays is both a memoir and self-help guidebook by Bruce McCombs as he tells his life story navigating the ups and downs of life before eventually finding the path to fulfillment. Born as the youngest of three siblings, Bruce grew up in his grandparents' home after his father abandoned them and their mother. Despite growing up relatively poor, his mother never let the children lack anything. Over the years, the McCombs family experienced plenty of challenges, including Bruce's older brother C.H.'s diagnosis of ALS after a stint in Vietnam. Bruce and his sister Patricia had their own struggles with drugs and alcohol. Just like his mother, Bruce never let the blows keep him down for long and worked his way up to become an integral member of the second-largest tech company in the world.

An inspirational tale showcasing the merits of resilience and perseverance, How to Be Happy on Mondays invigorates you from start to finish. Bruce McCombs lays bare his entire life story to demonstrate how the biggest challenges and seemingly insurmountable odds can be overcome through a combination of hard work, patience, diligence, strong will, and courage to follow your dreams. McCombs takes special care to mention his mother, who somehow managed to work three jobs to provide for her children after her husband abandoned them. McCombs writes in an easygoing and accessible style, with sprinkles of humor permeating the pages, making the narrative all the more enjoyable to read. Highly recommended.

How to Be Happy on Mondays: Life lessons to create wealth, health, and happiness everyday of the week is a work of non-fiction in the self-help and motivation subgenres. It is suited to the general reading audience and was penned by author Bruce McCombs. As its title and helpful subtitle suggest, this is a practical work about implementing positive thinking that actually produces results, through lessons that the author has learned through his own experiences. The book encompasses twenty-five chapters which each deliver a vital message about our perspective on the many twists and turns of life, and how to make the best of every moment – good or bad – to generate happiness and success.

There are many self-help books out there that offer a generalized and somewhat impersonal approach to improving one’s own life, and it’s clear that author Bruce McCombs stays as far away from this generic approach as possible. His words are filled with life, light, and enthusiasm, and there’s an infectious positivity to the way he sees life that will certainly encourage any reader to do the same. I also enjoyed the format and the poignant quotes that sometimes break up a story to cement a message in the reader’s memory. The Gene Simmons quote was a particularly surprising and moving moment for me especially. There are also some very helpful diagrams and lots of practical advice that you can start implementing pretty much as soon as you begin to read the book, and overall I’d certainly recommend How to Be Happy on Mondays to anyone seeking major positive change in their lives.