Authored Books

In 2024, Dr. Lilly published her debut book Just Be Happy, a departure from her academic work to share personal stories and revelations on a life worth living.

From the back cover:

Time. It is the most precious commodity in the world. Time is non-renewable, and even the richest people can’t buy more. What will you do with the time that you have? 

In this memoir, the author describes her marriage and its slow unraveling. She shares with the reader stories to which many couples can relate – family tension, struggles with infertility – while trying to manage a marriage that was failing. The book details a building recognition of how the marriage, and the relationship traps that she set for herself, contributed to the author’s isolation and unhappiness. The author recalls the moments when she knew that the marriage needed to end and the barriers that kept her from making the impossibly hard to decision to walk away, until she did. Through these challenges, the author reflects on how she was all-too-willing to internalize these struggles as personal failures in a marriage in which she was being told to just be happy.

While the book contains many heavy and sad memories, it is a call to action that focuses on the lessons that can be learned from life’s hardest moments. In an authentic voice, the author describes opportunities to honor our mistakes by making choices that enhance our sense of meaning and purpose in the world. The author shares the triumphs and joys that can come from recognizing failed relationship patterns, making different choices, and valuing deeply the time that we have on this planet.