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A review by amymo73
100 Days of Happiness by Fausto Brizzi
4.0
So a girl walks into a book store in Saratoga Springs. She's on vacation. It's the first day of her vacation, actually, and she has three books packed in her suitcase. But it's a bookstore. And if she spends more than five minutes in there, she will buy something. And this was one of the two books she bought.
SPOILER ALERT: That girl was me.
The title certainly caught my attention as did the premise. This guy finds out he has 100 days left to live. What does he do with those last 100 days? Ok real spoiler alert: a trip IS involved but this is not a "hey let's do everything on my bucket list" kind of last 100 days. This is a 100 days that at times is ordinary, but shows so powerfully that we too often take the ordinary for granted.
The main character is flawed and real and I felt the other characters in the book were also flawed and real, although not as flushed out as our narrator. Which makes sense since we see the world through his eyes. At the end I was crying. Yes it was sad, but it also touched my heart, touched a part of me that is always there. The part of me who loves and longs for the people who have passed before me. The part of me who wonders if I'm doing enough to show the people I love here and now that I love them. The part of me who wonders if I'm truly living my best life, even when I get sucked into banal reality shows.
All I can do is all I can do. And the book has certainly inspired me to savor the days. To take care of myself but not take myself too seriously. To laugh and live and love and not take the whole thing so seriously.
This is the book I officially used to kick off my summer reading challenge. Which is to say, read as much as I can this summer.
If you need a bit of perspective, or a good read, or a good cry, pick up this book as soon as you can.
SPOILER ALERT: That girl was me.
The title certainly caught my attention as did the premise. This guy finds out he has 100 days left to live. What does he do with those last 100 days? Ok real spoiler alert: a trip IS involved but this is not a "hey let's do everything on my bucket list" kind of last 100 days. This is a 100 days that at times is ordinary, but shows so powerfully that we too often take the ordinary for granted.
The main character is flawed and real and I felt the other characters in the book were also flawed and real, although not as flushed out as our narrator. Which makes sense since we see the world through his eyes. At the end I was crying. Yes it was sad, but it also touched my heart, touched a part of me that is always there. The part of me who loves and longs for the people who have passed before me. The part of me who wonders if I'm doing enough to show the people I love here and now that I love them. The part of me who wonders if I'm truly living my best life, even when I get sucked into banal reality shows.
All I can do is all I can do. And the book has certainly inspired me to savor the days. To take care of myself but not take myself too seriously. To laugh and live and love and not take the whole thing so seriously.
This is the book I officially used to kick off my summer reading challenge. Which is to say, read as much as I can this summer.
If you need a bit of perspective, or a good read, or a good cry, pick up this book as soon as you can.