The Four Agreements, The Last Lecture, Chicken Soup for the Soul - it seems as though every week there's a new self-help guru on the bookstore shelves ready to guarantee his or her readers a shot at a better life. Forgiveness, it appears, is key: forgive everyone everything, and your awesomeness shall reign.

But what is one to do with all that smoldering resentment?

According to performance artist/provocateur Karen Finley, plastering on the ol' happy face when you want to choke the life out of somebody is unhealthy. Instead, she suggests digging in your heels, cultivating a massive grudge and harnessing the rage to empower yourself - or to self-destruct. Whichever comes first.

I discovered Finley's 1993 "self-help" book Enough Is Enough: Weekly Meditations for Living Dysfunctionally whilst researching a blog entry last week and, I have to tell you, it may just be the most humorously astute reading of the human psyche committed to paper. A slim compendium of weekly "wisdoms" illustrated with her own crudely childish drawings, each entry is followed by tips and reminders that allow you to reap the maximum benefit of "throwing public tantrums," "controlling others," and "seeking revenge."

"Living for today is more complicated than it looks," she warns in an entry called "Taking More Than One Day At A Time." "It is beneficial to worry about what is going to happen next week and to go over and over in your mind incidents that have occurred in the past. Why? Because then you don't have to deal with the problems that are facing you now, in the present, and everyone knows that now will pass and you can worry about it later, in the future."

Irresponsibility was never so much fun.

Finley, whose radical, socio-political performance pieces famously include acts like smearing chocolate over her naked breasts, making a yam disappear up her bum and dousing her body in honey, has long been a lightning rod for criticism. As Enough Is Enough reveals, the provocative Illinois native may not have a "softer side," but she definitely has a funnier side.

Seek out Enough Is Enough for your most cynical acquaintances -- and let the dysfunctional fun begin!

Wendy Case is the MOLI View's contributing editor for Arts & Entertainment.

I'm fixin' to get hitched and, as anyone who's taken the plunge before knows, working out the wedding details can be a challenge. As the awesome Evelyn McDonnell told me recently, any marriage that makes it through the planning stages was meant to be.

When I asked my betrothed where we should hold this shindig, he came up with some interesting propositions: the zoo, a vintage trailer rally, and a go-cart track among them. Gawd, I love this man. But, by far, his best proposition was House on the Rock -- the bizarre roadside attraction that constituted life's work of the eccentric Alex Jordan, Jr.

There are plenty of wacked-out architectural marvels out there that pay tribute to the singular vision of their slightly unhinged creators (Watts Towers, Winchester Mystery House, etc.), but none to rival the deranged, obsessive energy of Spring Green, Wisconsin's House on the Rock. According to the geniuses at Roadsideamerica.com, the house - a fascinating, albeit unwieldy, Japanese-looking structure built atop a sheer 60 ft. tall pinnacle rock (70 ft. in diameter at its base - graduating to 200 ft. in diameter on its surface), was conceived of by Jordan's father as a big "eff you" to Frank Lloyd Wright. Apparently, Mr. fancy pants architect insulted the elder Jordan's capabilities by telling him, "I wouldn't hire you to design a cheese crate or a chicken coop."

It is reported that Jordan, Jr. inherited the project from his father in the '40s. But information regarding HOTR's origin is hazy. Junior, a legendary recluse, was not forthcoming about anything regarding the project and, when he died in 1989 at the age of 75, he took much of the mystery with him.

The house, which features among other oddities, the Infinity Room (an observation deck that juts out 216 feet from the structure over the forest canopy without any visible means of support), is quirky enough on its own. But the real lure of HOTR is the unbelievable aggregation of junk housed on its grounds. It would seem that Jordan, Jr. never met a garage sale he didn't like. And, in order to display such oddities as his collections of self-playing mechanical orchestras, full-sized steam engines, pipe organs and German beer vats, a 200-ft.-long sea monster replica and the "world's largest carousel," he constructed a veritable Habitrail of enormous, hanger-like buildings that snake through the woods surrounding the house. And that's just for starters. The man's doll collection (yes, doll collection) alone will blow your mind. Thousands upon thousands of baby dolls, Santa dolls, circus figurines, etc. are scattered throughout the place. Creepy? Yes. But mesmerizing all the same.

Because of its proximity to our Detroit-area home, HOTR wasn't a practical option for our nuptials. We've instead decided to take our vows at the odd little shipwreck museum on Belle Isle (let the wisecracks begin). But, if you're still looking for a last-gasp summertime road trip, I can't recommend House on the Rock enough. It's open now 'til November 4th.

I promise, it'll make everything else in your life seem normal as hell.

Wendy Case is the MOLI View's contributing editor for Arts & Entertainment.