A review by ettagriff
Happiness for Beginners by Katherine Center

3.0

I’m honestly not sure how I feel about this book. To start with, the romance felt contrived and unnatural- the more I read, the less I believed the characters would be able to end up together. And then, it got a weird amount of things right and wrong about the backcountry. I knew I was going to be disappointed reading about their trek as soon as they were about to leave and her pack was 79-SEVENTY NINE!!!-pounds. I spent a week backpacking in the Sangre de Cristos last summer and my pack was no more than 40. I can’t even imagine how you could make it twice that, even with a few more days of food (I only carried 3 days at a time). But anyway, I thought I could get over that until they hung a bear bag in the most ridiculous way possible. After that, I found it hard to believe that their guide, although very endearing and passionate about Leave No Trace (which I admire in a guy) was the wilderness guru we were supposed to believe him to be. Also, I wish we could have seen more of why this trek was supposed to be so adventurous and daring. But anyway. Some great little nuggets about happiness. I’m off to go watch the new Netflix movie now.