I won an ARC of this book in a Goodreads giveaway. I am very grateful for winning a free book because I hardly ever win anything.

I really enjoyed this book. I loved it almost as much as The Silver Linings Playbook. I really enjoyed the diverse set of characters. I also like that the book is an epistolary novel. I think writing in a novel in letters is such an interesting way of showing instead of telling. I love how the characters, especially Bartholomew, Wendy, Max, and Elizabeth are like normal people anyone may know. Their various situations helped me become more empathetic which I love in a book. I learned a lot about Catholicism, Philadelphia, Montreal, and Ottawa. I'm eager to read more of Quick's books and his wife's novel, as well.

I hope the movie version of The Good Luck of Right Now will be great like the movie version of Silver Linings was. I'm anxious to see who will play the main characters. ( )

Love surfaces in curious places

I became a fan after reading Silver Linings Playbook, which like this is filled with dysfunctional characters. Bartholomew loses his mother to cancer after spending his life by her side without ever knowing his father. Since her favorite actor was Richard Gere, the story is told in letters he writes to him, which is not only dysfunctional but funny! Quick's humor becomes laugh out loud when we meet Max at a grief counseling group. His favorite word being f**k, he grieves over Alice his cat. Rather than spoil the story, it's engaging, heart warming and quirky and definitely lives up to its title. A great choice for all those who appreciate the value of love and how it turns up when least expected. ( )

This was a strange one and not my usual fare, but a good buddy loved it, so I took it for a spin. It was very good on audio.
A book written as a series of letters to Richard Gere sounds pretty weird, but somehow it worked. I quickly fell in love with the narrator Bartholomew, and I adored Max pretty much the second he showed up.
The story follows Bartholomew Neil through the process of grieving for his mother, who has recently died from cancer. When he finds a form letter from Richard Gere in one of her drawers, he starts writing the actor, treating him as a confidant and guide.
Some of the content is upsetting, but there's sweetness and goodness anchoring this book. The ending wrapped up a little quickly, but I didn't mind too much, since I liked how things turned out.
This was the first Matthew Quick book I've read, and I really liked his style. I'll be snapping up more of his stuff for sure. ( )

I ended up being surprised by how much I enjoyed The Good Luck. I don't like Richard Gere that much as an actor and, given that I work in a library where men sometimes stare while pretending to read the paper, I was uncomfortable, to put it mildly, with Bartholomew's (non)interactions with the "Girlbrarian." (If anyone EVER tries to call me that. . . .) But by 50 pp in, I was interested. And then without realizing it, I was more than halfway through the book and raring to read the rest. Yes, everything ends a little too neatly, and it's sprinkled with platitudes disguised as philosophy, but it's well written and has an adventurous, interesting story that dragged me along whether I wanted to go or not. It may be the literary equivalent of candy, but it's fancy, expensive European candy, and we could all use a little treat now and then, yes?

#ReadICT categories 1 (face) and 11 (character different than you). ( )

You will think about this book for a long time after you have put it down ( )