The Happy Life of Isadora Bentley: A heartfelt and humorous story of overcoming loneliness and finding yourself

Isadora Bentley is a university researcher who values order and solitude. She keeps to herself, avoids mentoring students, maintains distance from neighbors, and has sworn off romantic relationships—particularly with other academics. She believes happiness simply doesn't exist in her life. On her thirtieth birthday, Isadora acts uncharacteristically by impulsively purchasing a magazine containing an article titled "Thirty-One Ways to Be Happy." The suggestions range from smiling at strangers to exercising to indulging in chocolate. Isadora decides to create a secret research project to prove the article's claims wrong. As she pursues this research and meets a handsome professor, Isadora begins to question her assumptions. She discovers that happiness may be more attainable than she believed, and that loosening her rigid control over life might lead somewhere unexpected. Through humor and heart, the novel explores how Isadora's carefully ordered world transforms as she learns that life and love cannot be measured, only lived.