The Happy Life of Isadora Bentley by Courtney Walsh

“Life is beautiful and horrible and wonderful and awful all at the same time… And that is the adventure” -Marty

 

The Happy Life of Isadora Bentley is about a university researcher and self-proclaimed loner who, on her thirtieth birthday, sets out to disprove a magazine article listing 31 ways to be happy. While picking through these steps, Isadora manages to develop lifelong friendships. On her lunch break, she meets Marty, an older gentleman who had returned to the spot where he and his late wife first met. She meets her neighbor, Darby, who is juggling life with a chef husband and 4 young children. Isadora isn’t the sporty kind, yet she agrees to join Darby at yoga to fulfill one of the 31 steps: Get regular exercise. Although yoga doesn’t make her happy, she feels accepted there and keeps going. She also develops a friendship with Delilah, Darby’s 10-year-old daughter, who reminds Isadora of herself as a young child. At work, Isadora is forced to help Dr. Cal Baxter, a very good-looking, well-mannered professor, with a book he’s writing. As these relationships develop (much to Isadora’s chagrin), her newfound friends learn of her happiness experiment and decide to help her. She finds so much more than happiness with her newly acquired community.

This book had me chuckling out loud at times and teary-eyed at other times. It’s about so much more than steps to happiness. It’s about opening up to unlikely friends, forgiving the pain of your past, and realizing we all have what it takes to find joy in our lives. This book is definitely inspirational, and while it isn’t overtly evangelical, it includes a couple of prayers and mentions of God throughout. If you enjoy clean fiction with some raw feelings and a happy ending, I definitely recommend this book. This is one of those books that, when I finished it (I stayed up way too late one night because I HAD to finish it), I was sad it was over. I wanted more of the story of Isadora and her found family.