When You Need a Lift: But Don't Want to Eat Chocolate, Pay a Shrink, or Drink a Bottle of Gin

Life is full of ups and downs. And while keeping your chin up may hide a double chin, it won’t improve your mood. Looking on the bright side will make you squint, which will lead to crow’s feet, and there is nothing cheerful about crow’s feet.

Listen, if you’re feeling down, it’s going to take a lot more to set things right than insipid platitudes about a cloud with a silver lining. (What is that anyway? Acid rain, or what?) In When You Need a Lift, comedienne Joy Behar and a host of her friends share the simple, silly, profound, and personal things they turn to for comfort when life gets hard.

For Joy, it’s her sense of humor and handbags. Not surprisingly, music legend Burt Bacharach turns to songwriting and performing. Kaye Ballard indulges with a big bowl of pasta. Beau Bridges counts his blessings. Former First Lady Barbara Bush finds solace in the work of Jane Austen. Tony Danza plays the ukulele. Larry King recommends laughter—tell a joke, read a funny book; every time you laugh, a little sadness slips away.

And that’s some advice you can actually use.

Behar, cohost of ABC's The View, doesn't have any advice of her own to dispense. Instead, she offers brief personal essays from more than 100 of her best friends (children's author David A. Adler and comedian Anne Meara among them). These mood boosters include I look at my friend Chip deMatteo's eighth grade picture (Bruce Hornsby) and My remedy is my ukulele. I sit and strum my blues away (Tony Danza). Danielle Broussard is a big believer in the idea that there is very little that a new pair of shoes and a Klondike bar can't fix. At best, those like Regis Philbin remind us that exercise reduces stress and releases endorphins. In the end, perhaps the best advice comes from actor Richard Anderson, The world is imperfect. Be cognitive. Work hard. Stay out of politics. But you might have figured that one out on your own. (Sept.)
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