I recently finished reading 3 funny, bittersweet, heartbreaking yet hopeful books. Each in their own way, immerses the reader from the first words, captivates you and takes you on a life changing adventure.

Let’s start with “The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry” by Rachel Joyce. The story begins with Harold receiving a letter from an old friend/co-worker, Queenie, who tells him that she is in the hospital dying. What begins as a simple walk to mail his letter to Queenie, quickly becomes a walking pilgrimage to Queenie.

As one of the reviewer’s mentioned, Harold Fry is extremely infuriating and frustrating to the point where you want to yell at him and shake him out of his dullness. As the story progresses it becomes clear to the reader that although Harold begins his pilgrimage to save his friend’s life, the pilgrimage quickly shifts to become about Harold’s journey. This is a story that all of us can relate to. You become almost hypnotized in your day to day life, to the point where you don’t make an effort, you just go through the motions, which is exactly what became of Harold. Through his journey, Rachel Joyce reveals Harold’s story, his past, his history, she explains to the reader why Harold has become the way he is. Once it becomes clear to the reader why Harold’s life has turned out the way it has, you empathize with him, you become less judgemental and more understanding.

The end of this amazing tale will leave you thinking about your life, will make you examine why are in the place where you are and gives you hope that no matter how lonely and down you feel, you can change things around.

“The Rosie Project” by Graeme Simsion is a sweet story of a man looking for love. This man is not ordinary. Picture Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory and mix that with Dr. Brennan from the tv show Bones and you have Don Tillman. Don is a scientist who decided to approach finding a wife as one would a science experiment. Don constructs an in-depth 16 page questionnaire to find the perfect wife. What he soon discovers is that no women will give him 100% of the answers he seeks.

Although Don is extremely anal, which is putting it mildly, some of his questions/answers are also deal breakers for me. For example smoking is definitely a no in my books. Punctuality is also very important. I hate it when people are late, especially when they are chronically late. It’s rude and disrespectful; my time is just as valuable as yours. I also agree that enjoying a food is a must, although this is where Don and my similarity ends. I do not think that enjoying eating brain and other stomach churning organs is what I would define as enjoying good food. For me a foodie is someone who enjoys a good steak, or amazing pasta, an aromatic glass of wine, etc. I know that that is very subjective as evidenced my Don’s definition and women’s reaction to this question.

The story takes an interesting turn when Don meets Rosie. Rosie is looking for her biological father and enlists Don to help her find him. Through their experiment in finding Rosie’s father, Don and Rosie quickly develop a relationship. Rosie in no way fits into Don’s questionnaire, idea of his “perfect wife:, but in the end it doesn’t matter. Love conquers all, or does it??? You’ll have to read it to find out what happens.

Graeme Simsion writes a sweet tale of the journey to finding love. Isn’t that what we are all searching for?!?!?! I believe there is a bit of Don in all of us. We all have deal breakers when it comes to finding the qualities we want in another person. In the end, we all just want to find someone who loves us for us, idiosyncrasies and all!!!!

“The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak is a story that will break your heart, bring tears to your eyes, and question life and death. The story takes place right before WW2, before Hitler becomes a monster and kills millions of innocent men, women and children. It was a very hard story to read as although the story itself is a work of fiction, the events that lead to the massacre of millions of innocent people isn’t. I kept having to remind myself that this happened, that people were killed for their race, and for that matter, people are still being killed for it.

Markus Zusak immerses the reader into the life Liesel Meminger and her adoptive family in pre and post WW2 Germany through the narrator, who is death. As the title suggests there is a book thief, which is the main character Liesel. She accidentally steals a book that has fallen to the ground at her brother’s grave and that begins her life of crime: stealing books. She picks it up and with the help of her adoptive father, learns to read. This book is not about stealing books, it’s about Liesel’s love to read, to tell a story. It’s about life and death, it’s about strength and determination, it’s about seeing the beauty in an otherwise atrocious situation.

The Meminger family takes in a Jewish man and hides him from the Nazi’s. Liesel and he develop a bond over books and story telling. Through the horrific events that encompass Liesel’s world, there is this beautiful, bittersweet story.

I’ll end this by saying that it’s a very hard book to read, to imagine all the atrocities that happened, yet there is love in this book, there is life, there is light where there is death and darkness. From tragedy Markus Zusak shows that there is beauty, that in the depths of hell one can still see light, smile and love.

May this blog inspire you to read all 3 or just one. I promise that you won’t be disappointed.

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Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!!!

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