Beginner’s Luck by Laura Pedersen: When high school and her ginormous family get to be too much for her, Hallie drops out and gets a job as a yard person for the rather eccentric Stockton family. Here she meets kooky aging activist Olivia; the Judge, her husband suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease; her fabulous son Bernard who deals in antiques; and Gil, Bernard’s relatively sane husband. (And a chimp, but that’s not important right now.) Though a longtime and pretty successful gambler, Hallie soon finds herself spending all her time with the hospitable (and often very, very funny) Stocktons. This is not a book I would have picked up had it not landed in my hands courtesy of a generous BookCrosser, but I’m so glad I did. The characters were brilliant, the plot more or less believable (I’m still not convinced putting money in someone else’s parking meter is actually against the law), and perhaps most importantly, it made me want to put forth more effort toward making my house a home. Definitely a good beach read.

Also posted on BookCrossing.