Read because of the Netflix movie. In a rare occurance - I enjoyed the movie more than the book.

It’s an almost identical plot but the characters are older in the movie and it makes more sense to me in that context.

There’s nothing really spectacular about movie or book. Both are cute and fun enough but nothing with a real WOW ( )

Cute book about a young woman looking to shake up her life, and improve herself. A Netflix film was recently released, so I will watch that soon. ( )

Quick read. Enjoyable. ( )

Divorced and depressed woman sets out on extreme wilderness outing to rediscover herself, but to her chagrin is joined by her brother’s friend 10 years her junior. She finds true love. Some self-discovery depth here. ( )

I loved this. I’m pretty sure Katherine Center and I went on the exact same Outward Bound trip—down to the meadow, the snow, and the evac. The only difference was my solo was truly solo, but I also woke up to animal hoof prints around my tarp. Weird coincidences for sure, and maybe those drew me into the story more than it would another reader, but I also loved the slow-burn romance and how this book made me cry when I wasn’t expecting it. Great summer read! ( )

I had quite a few laugh out loud moments in this book which I listened to on a car journey.

The first person narration works well because Helen is interesting - she's hilarious, with insights and musings that provided the momentum for the novel - and it was nearly enough - perhaps a few too much musings and a little more action or detail about the countryside might be warranted.

Jake is a mystery - we learn what a charming funny fellow he is during the road trip at the start. But through the middle of the book he disappears, making the book ALMOST a hard slog, and paralleling the second week of the three week walk.

He reappears in Ch 8 of 9, but it doesn't change that this is Helen's story. As the love interest, Jake is present but we rarely know what's in his head - we're left guessing, like Helen. Too much guessing! It's the kind of hard work that mirrors life too much!!

No surprise here but the walk in the wilderness is a metaphor for the endurance and spirit we need to get through life - which generally speaking skips over hoped for fairy tale parts. And yet it is Jake and Windy who are crowned at the end.

In fact, in some ways the book is one long agony of longing, by all the characters, but specifically that is why Helen has undertaken this challenge. To move away from longing and to work out how to be a little more happy, and cheerful, self-confident and self-reliant. She becomes all these things, but the longing? Nope, that's our lot in life. Ironically, it's Windy who is the Buddhist, the one with the most charmed life. And Buddhism is all about living exactly in this moment, as if the future is another galaxy, which obviates longing. What I mean is, she doesn't need Buddhism!

It's read by Marguerite Gavin - who is perfection as Helen. I don't recall hearing her voice before. I've looked up the catalogue to see if my library has any more of her work - OMG! - she's read about 50 books in my library alone ... but at a quick glance I can't see that we have crossed paths before. So! what a rich seam of new material to mine in coming days.

I was thrilled but scared to see that Netflix is making this novel into a movie. I saw photos of the actors who are to play Helen and Jake - alas! neither look like the characters in my neural network. ( )

Helen is trying desperately to bring some control back into a life that has slipped through her fingers. She views survival training as a chance to take back her life and gain strength. But she doesn't count on falling in love with her younger brother's best friend. I liked that Helen is pushed out of her comfort zone and discovers she is ok the way she is. The love interest was a bit unbelievable - maybe just because we only see Helen the way she thinks of herself and don't see her from Jake's point of view. ( )

This is downright obnoxious! I wasn't this immature when I was a young teenager, let alone at 32. Bailed at 26%.

Helen is thirty-two years old, recently divorced, a first-grade school teacher, not the most athletically inclined individual, nor the most socially outgoing. Nevertheless, Helen is going to do something for herself, but she is not booking a stay at a spa or going globetrotting. She is going on a wilderness survival course. Sounds interesting. Could be funny. Wait, there’s more – her brother’s best friend is coming along. That would be her brother’s best friend, Jake, who she has known and ignored forever, who is athletically inclined, a real looker, gets along with anyone and everyone and ten years her junior.

Everything about this book was enjoyable and interesting except the strained romantic dynamic that was on, off, on again, off again. Professing that she “wanted so badly not to feel humiliated. And rejected. And pathetic” Helen seems to slip down that slope time and time again. While having a brilliant thought; “People can’t understand things before they can understand them” - she doesn’t get that this applies to her situation as well. Ah well, love is a funny thing.

Other than a few sophomoric sidebars Happiness for Beginners was well written with solid dialog and a lot of interesting information about surviving in the wilderness. Katherine Center is on my “favorite fun to read author” list and I look forward to making my way through her other novels. ( )

Seek the happiness that you desire and deserve, and propel yourself forward through a journey of self-evaluation, unexpected discoveries, and amazing revelations. This is "Happiness for Beginners", from author Katherine Center. In her early thirties and post-divorce, Helen Carpenter thinks a three-week adventure trek through the wilderness of wonderful Wyoming will make her a new woman--a tougher, stronger woman better able to chart and navigate the course of her own life. She certainly didn't plan on taking the trip with her younger brother's best friend, Jake, someone whom she had never liked, but Fate stepped in and changed the game plan. Jake, younger than Helen by a decade, has always had a serious crush on Helen, and this may be a chance for long-held emotion and attraction to come to full bloom. How will Helen handle an involvement with someone whom, for years, she had told herself she loathed? Going from your daily city-life routine to facing the challenges of the wild will definitely change the perimeters of your thinking-box, open your mind, and expand the horizons of your heart. Katherine Center's charming characterizations and involving storyline will captivate your reader's imagination, and it might just inspire you to take your own journey of a lifetime.

Book Copy Gratis Amazon Vine ( )

Good summer read. ( )

An enjoyable read, perfect for a day on the beach, which is exactly where I read it. Yes, it's a tad predictable but the humor and heart that the author gives her characters elevates it over a typical chick lit book. It's light, yet with some profound life lessons. I thoroughly enjoyed it! ( )

Love, love, LOVED. I read this in 24 hours. It's a quick read like most "women's fiction", but it's smart and funny and really hopeful. Hiking, dogs, and positive psychology happen to be interests of mine as well and they feature heavily in the book. ( )

Hmmm...what to say? The title of this was cute but led me astray. I liked this enough to finish it and think it was sweet but it was not what I expected. Certainly a good read for the beach with a clean cover and nothing racy between the pages. ( )

I love the way Katherine Center tells a story. Her characters are people that inhabit my world; they suffer yet they laugh, too. This is the story of an unlikely romance. Helen sets off on a wilderness-survival course and, to her surprise, finds that her little brother’s friend, who has long had a crush on her, has come along, too. The little brother’s friend, however, isn’t so little any more. Adventure. Disaster. Romance. Fun. ( )

I'll admit right up front that I am a fan of Katherine Center. I think at this point I have read all of her novels. She is a very dependable read. Her characters are fun, usually somewhat quirky and pretty easy for me to identify with.

Happiness for Beginners delivers on all these points. I really enjoyed reading it. The pages flew by for me and it was mostly a very enjoyable read. I will say that I had a bit of a harder time identifying with main character than I have had with her other protagonist of the past. My idea of a nightmare is going on one of those camping expeditions. I have had enough exposure to that kind roughing it that it was a little unrealistic that someone as inexperienced as Helen would have had such a positive experience.

Putting that all aside - it was a good read. Perfect for the plane or the beach! ( )

Fiction
KATHERINE CENTER
Happiness for Beginners
New York: St. Martin’s Press
Trade paperback, 978-1410479167; e-book 978-1410479167
320 pages, $15.99
March 24, 2015

Reviewed for Lone Star Literary Life by Michelle Newby, 3.29.15

In Happiness for Beginners Katherine Center tackles the well-trod territory of a woman on the verge, but what matters is the telling and Center turns it into a fun, entertaining read that has a lot to say about our preconceived notions of others. And of ourselves.

Helen Carpenter, a prim, proper, orderly thirty-two-year-old teacher, has just suffered the worst year of her life: a strained relationship with her younger brother, an estrangement from her mother, a miscarriage and a divorce. Deciding that she needs to toughen up and make a radical break with her comfort zone, Helen signs up for a wilderness survival course in Wyoming. “The plan…was to drive out to Wyoming and have a brave adventure with a bunch of strangers that would totally change not just my life, but my entire personality. The plan was to set out alone into the world, conquer it, and return home a fiercer and more badass version of myself.” Her younger brother’s best friend, Jake, has signed up for the same course and Helen reluctantly agrees to a cross-country carpool. A near-miss in a hotel room on the way to Wyoming complicates matters when Jake confesses a crush and Helen, against her better judgment, begins to fall for him. This survival course tests them both in ways neither had imagined, and they emerge on the other side changed but not necessarily in the ways they anticipated.

The characters in Happiness are diverse and sharply drawn. Helen is immensely likeable. Her reaction when she realizes that everyone else in the survival course, including the instructor, is college-age: “Where were the grown-ups? The guys having midlife crises? The stockbrokers with lumberjack fantasies? The carpool moms with something to prove to their personal trainers?” You will root for her and cheer each achievement and lament every setback. Center has a gift for snappy, engaging dialogue that frequently had me laughing aloud.

A typical exchange between Helen and Jake:

Helen: “You don’t know about wine.”
Jake: “I do. I took a class.”
I frowned at him. “Why?”
But then I figured it out, and just as he answered, I answered, too, and we said, in unison, “To get girls.”
“That’s right,” he said. “The same reason I learned to juggle. And took swing dancing lessons. And read The Beauty Myth.”
“You read The Beauty Myth to get girls?”
“Sure.”
I put my hand over my eyes. “You used The Beauty Myth for evil?”
“Not for evil,” he said, looking over. “For good. A whole lot of good.”

The plot is well-constructed and impeccably paced. My only quibble with Happiness is the conclusion in which all conflicts are a little too neatly resolved, childhood traumas are alleviated, and everyone seems on the verge of happily ever after. On the other hand, the conclusion reflects the main theme of the book: it’s just as easy to see the bright side as the dark – our choice – and it’s not success or failure that’s important; it’s the trying. What makes you happy? ( )

Thank you to Goodreads for the win and Martin's Pres for sending the ARC of Happiness for Beginners. I enjoyed reading this chick lit novel about a thirty something woman embarking on a 3 week group wilderness journey as a means of pulling her life back together following the break-up of her marriage. As she is ready to leave for the trek, Helen discovers that her younger brother's best friend Jake is also going to be going on the same adventure. As Helen falls in love with Jake she is forced to deal with her past and learns a lot about herself. I liked that the author included a touch of humor and kept the book from being overly sweet. My only criticism would be that I felt Jake's character was a bit unrealistic and a little too perfect for someone his age. All in all a good read and a great reminder to remember to look for and appreciate the good things that happen everyday and not just the bad moments. ( )

First – I received this ARC e-book for my enjoyment and review from NetGalley. If you enjoyed “Wild” by Cheryl Strayed you will also love this book, as it takes the main character Helen Carpenter, on a 3 week hiking adventure - not alone, but with a group of young hikers, backpacking off into the remote wilderness of Wyoming. Her brother's young friend Jake also joins the adventure, and adds to the enjoyment of the story. I will not reveal the ending, but will say that it is very-well written, loved it from the beginning, easy to stay with all through the day. More of a chik-lit and less of survival adventure than I was expecting, but still, a warm, fast-paced, read. Thanks, Katherine Center. ( )