The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper

Another book to satisfy me while I'm in light reading mode–Arthur Pepper fits in well with the happy folks in Laurie Colwin novels. I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. It's a little predictable, but well-written, and the quirky characters are not annoyingly so.

Next, Knausgaard #4, which I'm betting will not be so light at all.

This had all kinds of alarm bells of “it will be a rip off of Harold Fry or Captain Pettigrew “ two other very similar “elderly men coming of age” in gentle middle class England. But it does work on its own merits. Yes it covers all the expected chestnuts in therms of characters but it was a perfect book to listen to on a long car journey

This has easily been one of the best books I have ever read. In The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper we see a glimpse into a full life. This book touches on so many raw human emotions and experiences. I cried a few times throughout this book, and I'm going to check out more works by Phaedra Patrick. They write people and their experiences so realistically. This novel was like listening to my great grandparents tell me stories of their lives, something I desperately needed.

This was an emotional book for me that I expected to be a lot more lighthearted than it was. It's an adventure story of a man that recently lost his wife in his old age. He finds a charm bracelet of hers that he never saw before that sparks a journey to seek out what each charm meant to his wife. The joys and pains in that journey stretch his perspective on life and gives him courage to do new things even being an older gentleman. It was beautiful. It was fun. It was sad, and disheartening as well as joy-filled and enlightening. It was a very good book that I would recommend to anyone needing a change of pace.