Happiness is a choice…this is the premise to The Happy Life of Isadora Bentley by Courtney Walsh, and one I agree with wholeheartedly. I struggled to read this story, not because it is slow or boring or unrealistic, but because it was like holding a mirror up to myself and I didn’t fully enjoy what I saw. Yes, happiness is a choice, and for the last 30 years Isadora Bentley has been choosing self-isolation and stoicism. Her rationale is simple: if you don’t let people in and you don’t feel anything, you can’t get hurt. But all this does is make one a robotic loner. Isadora hasn’t been living. She’s been barely surviving. On her 30th birthday, Isadora reads a “31-Steps-to-a-Happier-You” article and sets out to disprove the author by running an experiment. She will complete each task and track her data. Isadora is convinced her experiment will prove the article foolish. As she embarks on this purely scientific journey, Isadora meets and befriends some truly amazing people, and they all influence her life in nuanced and various ways for the better. Isadora now gets out of her apartment regularly to do things like yoga and kite-flying and visiting family. She has real, deep conversations about life and experiences and hardships and love and goals and other sundry topics. Over the course of trying to prove the article wrong, Isadora wakes up to an actual life. I must admit that I love/hate Isadora. There were moments I 100% fully understood and related to her. There were moments I wanted to hug her hard and share all my hard truths so she would know she wasn’t alone. There were moments I full-out cheered for her. And then there were several moments where I wanted to knuckle-punch her hard right in the arm. The more like a baby she acted and the more she stood in her own way, the more I wanted to scream at her to stop being a goober and grow up. But then I realized two things: 1.) I needed to take it down a notch as this is a fictional tale and Isadora isn’t real (maybe look at myself instead, Nicole); and, 2.) Walsh is a genius storyteller who has mastered illustrating, through Isadora, how humans who embark on a journey to change often take one teensy baby-step forward, then 12 adult-sized steps back. Once I got this, I gave Isadora some grace because changing one’s self for the better is HARD work. It’s why so many people don’t change — inevitably, it proves to be too much work to complete day in and day out.

I really loved my time reading The Happy Life of Isadora Bentley. This story is solid good storytelling. The characters are fabulous and human and multi-faceted. The journey is tough, but fun and totally worth it. And the many, many themes discussed are timely and poignant. I cannot recommend this book enough. If you’re in the mood for emotions and hope and love and change and happily-ever-after then this is definitely the book for you!