Recipe for a Happy Life

I am pretty sure that I have already explained what happens to me when I go into a bookstore. I get lost. I feel this overwhelming desire to read every single book on every single shelf, and it gives me anxiety that I can't do that. So now, in order to limit the time and money that I spend wandering the aisles feeling incredibly inadequate, I try to prepare a list of books to look for. But every once in a while, when I have nothing to do and no place to be, I let myself roam. And it was while I was roaming that I found Brenda Janowitz's Recipe for a Happy Life.

I picked it out when I was feeling a little down, and the recipe for a happy life would have been very nice to have. It is the story of Hannah Goodman, a New York City lawyer who retreats back to her grandmothers Hampton home after an unfortunate incident and bad break up with her boyfriend. 

Throughout the course of the summer, Hannah learns that sometimes you have to stop waiting to be happy and just be happy. 

I thought that this book was cute. It was a nice, easy read, and a great pick me up when you are feeling like your life is not going the way you want it to. It was relate able, and I grew attached to Hannah and her grandmother. 

That being said, it was often hard to know what the story line was. There was always so much going on. There is Hannah's relationship with her mother, her dead husband, her grandmothers past, a pregnancy and a choice she must make between two men. Although this gave the story a lot of depth, I was constantly looking for what the story was about. Was it about the relationships between three generations of women? Was it how Hannah survived and moved on after the loss of her husband? Or was it about her choosing the right man?

But then again, maybe that was the point. Maybe there wasn't supposed to be a specific issue, it was just supposed to be life. It is messy, and complicated, and there isn't a story line. 

I did really enjoy this book. It makes you feel like it is normal to be afraid and want to run away, or to constantly feel like you are looking for something more. But the truth is, you can't spend your life trying to be happy or waiting to be happy. The recipe for a happy life is that there is no recipe. Your life is what you make of it. So stop waiting, stop trying, stop worrying, and just be happy.