Quick Take
- Narration: Nathan Glad reads his own material alongside David Osmond, lending the 42-minute listen an authenticity that a professional narrator could not replicate.
- Themes: Happiness as daily practice, living with Osteogenesis Imperfecta, gratitude as discipline rather than feeling
- Mood: Warm and direct, built for a single sitting
- Verdict: Brief but genuinely felt, this short-form audiobook earns its running time rather than stretching thin material across it.
At forty-two minutes, Best Day Ever! is not an audiobook in the conventional sense. It is closer to a long essay or an extended spoken piece, something you can listen to entirely on a short commute or during a lunch break. This matters for how you approach it. Going in expecting a full memoir and coming out in under an hour would feel like a bait and switch. Going in knowing what you are getting, a short and direct account of one man’s philosophy of happiness shaped by a life lived with Osteogenesis Imperfecta, or brittle bone disease, produces a very different experience.
Nathan Glad was not expected to survive birth. The synopsis is brief about the medical specifics, but OI is a condition in which bones fracture easily, sometimes from the most ordinary physical stresses. Glad has navigated a life of remarkable physical challenges, and this short book is his distillation of what he has learned about staying happy through them. Not managing. Not coping. Staying happy, which is a different and more demanding claim.
Seven Hacks and the Stakes Behind the Framework
The book presents Glad’s philosophy through “7 Hacks for Happiness,” which is language borrowed from the self-help genre’s current idiom. The word “hacks” can set a certain kind of reader’s teeth on edge, suggesting shortcuts rather than hard-won insights. What redeems the framing here is the source. Glad’s happiness is not theoretical. It was developed in the context of a body that required extraordinary adaptation and a life that had every reason to collapse into bitterness.
Reviewer Luanne T. Recicar notes that the book demonstrates how God does not make mistakes, which signals the faith dimension present throughout. Best Day Ever! is openly Christian in its framework, and the happiness Glad describes is explicitly connected to his relationship with God rather than presented as a secular life-optimization strategy. This is consistent and worth knowing before you start. The book does not hide its theological commitments behind neutral self-help language.
The Foreword and What Evans Brings
Richard Paul Evans, the number-one New York Times bestselling author listed first on the cover, contributes the foreword. His is not the primary voice here; the book is Nathan Glad’s story, with Evans lending institutional visibility to a project that might otherwise struggle to reach a wide audience. David Osmond participates in the narration alongside Glad, though the exact division of their roles is not specified in the metadata. The collaborative narration gives the short piece an informal, conversational quality that suits its brevity.
Reviewer John Norman describes the book as “life changing” and mentions buying multiple copies to share. That is a strong response to forty-two minutes of audio, and it reflects what the book is going for: a concentrated dose of a particular perspective rather than a slow accumulation. Whether it lands that way will depend significantly on where you are when you hear it.
What This Audiobook Is and Is Not
Best Day Ever! is not a detailed medical account of living with OI, not a comprehensive happiness philosophy, and not a full memoir of Glad’s life. It is an introduction to a person and a perspective, and at forty-two minutes it does what introductions are supposed to do: it makes you want to know more. Reviewer deborah short writes that everyone should read this book, young and old, and the cross-demographic appeal is real. The message is simple without being simplistic, and the delivery is warm without being cloying.
For listeners who want a short, direct audiobook with a clear Christian framework and a story behind the philosophy, this is well worth the time. For those looking for a longer engagement with OI as a lived experience, this will point you toward a direction rather than supplying the destination.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Best Day Ever! appropriate for children, or is it aimed at adults?
Reviewers describe it as suitable for all ages, and the content supports that assessment. The language is simple, the message is accessible, and the faith framework is presented in a way that is neither denominationally specific nor theologically demanding for younger listeners.
What exactly are the 7 Hacks for Happiness that Glad presents?
The audiobook presents them as practical principles drawn from Glad’s own experience living with OI, grounded in gratitude, faith, and daily intentionality. The specific content of each hack is revealed through listening rather than summarized in promotional materials.
Does the book describe what it is like to live with Osteogenesis Imperfecta in any medical or practical detail?
Lightly. The book’s primary mode is inspirational rather than informational. Glad contextualizes his philosophy within his experience of OI, but the memoir of living with the condition is introductory rather than comprehensive at forty-two minutes.
What role does David Osmond play in the narration alongside Nathan Glad?
The exact nature of the collaboration is not fully detailed in the available metadata. Osmond is credited alongside Glad in the narration, suggesting a dual-voice structure. Listeners should expect primarily Glad’s own voice carrying the material given that this is his personal story.
