Instant Favorites

"Matchmaking for Beginners" became an instant favorite, a few pages into the book and I knew this book would continue to be important for the rest of my life. 

It is a beautiful story of the family misfit and the girl who is trying so hard to have a normal life and live up to everyone else's expectations.

Blix is the family misfit, she was shunned by her family, cut out of her inheritance and then further made mocked and shunned for going off and having her own life. Ridiculed for her choices, though never seeming to care about their opinions of her. Blix had a vibrant life, a full life, a life with no regrets and her greatest hope was to show that possibility to Marnie. 

Marnie, is afraid, of the judgment she would face from her very traditionally middle class family. Their expectations for her are to get married, have babies, live near them and be "normal". However after meeting Blix and inheriting her Brooklyn brownstone Marnie realizes, that is not the life she is meant to have at all and that her true happiness is when she does exactly as she wants. 

Marnie and Blix are so similar when you look deep down. 

This is my second time reading through this novel. Before the pandemic sent us all firmly into our homes, my Aunt would pass books onto my Mom. Very early on in the pandemic my Grandpa passed which sent my parents headed on a long trek past my home towards my Grandma's home to help her handle all the paperwork, check in on her and in general be there for her whenever numbers were down and everyone had been quarantining. So Mama and Papa would stop by (fully masked of course) and check in on me, dropping and swapping books with me. This was the first and I am forever grateful she determined this one I would want to read. 

Every time (both times) I read this novel I am struck with the urge to move to Brooklyn and live in a brownstone...obviously I won't be doing that, the location of my life does not determine how full and happy it is. But I am so inspired by Blix, I want to be her. Well, in some ways of course. I believe my husband is my soulmate, I have a kid and I want it that way. I feel like Blix would still take me under her wing though, and tell me to love and thrive and look for the sparkles. 

I'm sure some people reading the book thought Blix was manipulative of Marnie, perhaps she was a bit. But I know without a doubt, her entire intention was to give Marnie a chance to be her true authentic self, no pressure, no judgments, and clearly it caused Marnie to thrive. Not everyone wants the white picket fence in a suburban neighborhood life and that's okay. Not everyone wants every conversation with their partner to be about boring mundane things. Some do, that's okay, some don't and that's okay. 

More to the point I love Blix's mantra "Whatever happens, love that" I love her acceptance and exuberance for life. Life is precious, and while my life is definitely more domestic than hers and I unfortunately do not see sparkles or know who should be with who. My life is full of love and happiness and there is definitely room to sprinkle in adventure and go with the flow of it. I am also predicting that I will be re-reading this book, minimum once per year, possibly more because you know what, I freaking love this book.