Happiness for Beginners” is a beautiful novel that will make you feel, and hope, and wish it would never end. Sometimes it can dazzle the reader with larger terminology that isn't needed where as this was an easy read to follow. In an effort to reboot her life by taking in the wonders of nature she is willing to submit to such torture as no soap, no TP (who knew pinecones work?

Happiness for Beginners by Katherine Center | Goodreads

It brought it all back for me: the scenery, the wildlife, the food, the lessons I was trying to learn, the feeling of being that age and wanting so badly to figure out my life.I started reading this late last night and took every opportunity to sneak in a few more pages until I finished today, less than 24 hours later. Northbound Helen pops in to see Gigi, the grandmother who'd raised them, on her drive from Pittsburgh. During the whole book you are right there with Helen, feeling everything she is feeling, crying with her, loving with her.

Happiness for Beginners: A Novel - Google Books

I reserve the right to come back and give back the ½ star I stole from this book if my toughness dissolves. Jake and Helen are the main characters of Happiness For Beginners, and Duncan (Helen’s younger brother) is a main character in What You Wish For. A Spa Week Daily Book Club Pick for May *A Women’s Fiction Best Bet at Heroes and Heartbreakers *A Rough and Rugged Reading Roundup pick at SheReads *Featured in the Modern Mrs.Happiness For Beginners once again confirms Carole Matthews as the queen of funny, feel good fiction. A year after her divorce, Helen decides to take a risk and go on a three-week life-changing wilderness survival course. As a culture, we’re deeply mistrustful of happy endings in stories, as if we’re foolish to long for them or enjoy them, as if there’s nothing meaningful to take from the joys of life. And she’s also a 5th generation Texan so there’s always a little emotional pig-wrestling and ass-kicking in her books. The author's writing flowed so effortlessly, and she created a wonderfully memorable character in Helen.

Happiness for Beginners: A Novel: Center, Katherine

An easy and reflective read, with a nice splattering of life lessons, that will leave you with a slightly brighter perspective on your own life – whatever the circumstances. And at every turn I was gobsmacked with a healthy dose of self-help (genuinely found this book better than any self help book I’ve read, even if I’m tearing up now). Another wonderful book by Katherine Center, so glad I’ve found this author, she’s so freaking talented it’s crazy. In the wholly refreshing Happiness for Beginners, she explores life’s messy moments with comic precision and proves that it is possible to make a fresh start—and find true love—in the midst of emotional disaster. Helen and Jake were fully formed, interesting people, and all the characters, main, supporting and incidental were well drawn and all compelling.

Having read 3 books by Katherine Center in the less than three weeks, I can assure you that I've become a huge fan. The movie ends with a montage of Beckett repeating "Okay, people", indicating many new groups of hikers, which he finds his happiness in. After all, life will hand each one of us our fair share of despair and loss and suffering—and then some. Even when her characters are facing tough situations and their lives seem to be turned upside down, she brings that silver lining into every moment. Cheers to HoldUp and JDog, and to all who choose to wander into the woods to lose themselves only to then find themselves again.