Joy For Beginners by Erica Bauermeister – 288 pages

Book Blurb:

At an intimate, festive dinner party in Seattle, six women gather to celebrate their friend Kate’s recovery from cancer. Wineglass in hand, Kate strikes a bargain with them. To celebrate her new lease on life, she’ll do the one thing that’s always terrified her: white-water rafting. But if she goes, all of them will also do something they always swore they’d never do-and Kate is going to choose their adventures.

Β My Review: 4 stars

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Joy For Beginners is a book that I had no expectations for and it gets a high rating! I love when that happens! I was familiar with the author but I literally just picked this book up on a whim! Maybe this book was just what IΒ needed when I read it. The characters and their stories flowed seamlessly well together. I found myself dog-earring page after page of wonderful quotes, descriptions and feelings.
I suppose I saw a piece of me in each character and learned a little bit from each of them. I highly recommend especially if you enjoy stories about women’s friendships.

Quotes I liked:

The wife’s wife, they called each other jokingly, the third support in the three-legged stool that is the unseen structure of many marriages.”

-“You’re here, be here.”
-“She had watched so many couples fall apart after their children left, as if the ever present urgency of their offspring’s’ needs had been ropes that held the boats of their separate lives together.”
-“When was the last time she and Jack and really touched each other? Maybe that’s what Jack had meant when he talked about wanting to be in love- not just hands on skin, but that feeling of being seen, understood.”

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