by Maja Vrhovnik
For the start of year 2022, I have prepared some book recommendations for you. All books are about finding happiness in difficult times. I hope you find something for yourself and enjoy reading.
1. Virginie Grimaldi: HOW TO FIND LOVE IN THE LITTLE THINGS
Julia is thirty-two-year-old woman whose happy life suddenly ends. She loses her dad, her future husband, and her grandmother. She decides to move and find a new job. She is offered a job as a psychologist in a nursing home Tamariska in Biarritzu in the southwest of France. She has some reservations about the job, as she would only be temporarily replacing a psychologist on maternity leave, but finally accepts it. At first, she is reluctant, but as she gets to know the people in the nursing home better, she realises that she can learn a lot from them. She makes real friends with the residents and workers, sheds tears of sadness, laughs, gets involved in countless funny and interesting situations, falls in love and realises that she doesn’t need much to be happy
2. Cecelia Ahern: HOW TO FALL IN LOVE
Christine Rose met Adam Basil one evening when she was crossing the Dublin Bridge. He was standing at the edge of the bridge trying to jump. Christine makes an odd deal with him. Until his thirty-fifth birthday, which is only fourteen days away, she needs to show him that life is worth living. She goes to live with him in his hotel room and discovers that he found his girlfriend was cheating on him with his best friend and that he lost his father and a job. She gives him tasks and they decide to win his girlfriend’s heart back and that leads them into many funny situations and romantic gestures for his ex-girlfriend. It looks like Adam is falling in love with life again. But is life really the only thing he will fall in love with?
3. Eva Woods: HOW TO BE HAPPY
Annie is desperate. She has cut herself off from the people she loved and starts sinking deeper into bitterness every day. One day she meets 35-year-old Polly. They meet in hospital, where Annie is visiting her 60-year-old mother, who is completely demented, and Polly is being treated for a very advanced cancer. Annie is from the working class, Polly from the rich intellectual class, but their suffering brings them closer, and they become true friends. Polly wants to teach Annie to be happy in 100 days, so she sets her a challenge: every day she needs to do something that makes her happy. Polly’s actions change Annie’s life and lives of others close to her, so she decides to fight on. But not matter how strong and determinate Polly is, Annie soon realizes that she will need to help her, too.
