Good Joy, bad Joy : a novel / Mikki Brammer.

By:

Brammer, Mikki [author.]

Material type: Text

TextPublisher: New York : St. Martin's Press, 2026Edition: First editionDescription: 288 pages ; 25 cmContent type:

text

Media type:

unmediated

Carrier type:

volume

ISBN:

9781250284433
1250284430

Subject(s):

Genre/Form:

Summary: "From the bestselling author of The Collected Regrets of Clover comes a vibrant, heartfelt novel about friendship over the decades, self-discovery, and what it means to have a life well-lived. Break the rules. Find your joy. For over eighty years, Joy Bridport has played by the rules: she's been a devoted wife and mother, contributing to the community in her small Hudson Valley town. But her quiet existence is jolted when she learns that her best friend, Hazel, only has months left to live. Hazel has always been the more adventurous one of their duo, and she seems at peace with all that she's squeezed out of her long life. Yet Joy realizes she can't say the same. Determined to live boldly and make the most of the time that she and Hazel have left together, Joy steps outside of her comfort zone-and into a bit of trouble. But as her foray into rule-breaking escalates into committing petty crime, Joy must consider what kind of legacy she wants to leave behind, and whether there's a way for her to embrace the liberation that "Bad Joy" offers without losing all that she holds dear. Is it ever too late to become who we're meant to be? With laugh-out-loud hijnks and emotional heft, Good Joy, Bad Joy is a heartwarming and wise celebration of the choices we make, the friendships we cherish, and the lengths we go for love"-- Provided by publisher.

List(s) this item appears in: New Adult Fiction

Average rating: 0.0 (0 votes)

Holdings
Item type	Current library	Collection	Shelving location	Call number	Status	Date due	Barcode	Item holds
Adult Book	Phillipsburg Free Public Library	Adult Fiction	New Books	FIC BRAMMER	On hold		36748002652776	1

Total holds: 1

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

"Uplifting, charming, and wonderful, it will make you call your oldest friend to say 'I love you, I'm so glad you're alive, and also, please read this book.'" --Annie Hartnett, author of The Road to Tender Hearts

From the bestselling author of The Collected Regrets of Clover comes a vibrant, heartfelt novel about friendship over the decades, self-discovery, and what it means to have a life well-lived.

Break the rules. Find your joy .

For over eighty years, Joy Bridport has played by the rules: she's been a devoted wife and mother, contributing to the community in her small Hudson Valley town. But her quiet existence is jolted when she learns that her best friend, Hazel, only has months left to live. Hazel has always been the more adventurous one of their duo, and she seems at peace with all that she's squeezed out of her long life. Yet Joy realizes she can't say the same.

Determined to live boldly and make the most of the time that she and Hazel have left together, Joy steps outside of her comfort zone--and into a bit of trouble. But as her foray into rule-breaking escalates into committing petty crime, Joy must consider what kind of legacy she wants to leave behind, and whether there's a way for her to embrace the liberation that "Bad Joy" offers without losing all that she holds dear.

Is it ever too late to become who we're meant to be? With laugh-out-loud hijnks and emotional heft, Good Joy, Bad Joy is a heartwarming and wise celebration of the choices we make, the friendships we cherish, and the lengths we go for love.

"From the bestselling author of The Collected Regrets of Clover comes a vibrant, heartfelt novel about friendship over the decades, self-discovery, and what it means to have a life well-lived. Break the rules. Find your joy. For over eighty years, Joy Bridport has played by the rules: she's been a devoted wife and mother, contributing to the community in her small Hudson Valley town. But her quiet existence is jolted when she learns that her best friend, Hazel, only has months left to live. Hazel has always been the more adventurous one of their duo, and she seems at peace with all that she's squeezed out of her long life. Yet Joy realizes she can't say the same. Determined to live boldly and make the most of the time that she and Hazel have left together, Joy steps outside of her comfort zone-and into a bit of trouble. But as her foray into rule-breaking escalates into committing petty crime, Joy must consider what kind of legacy she wants to leave behind, and whether there's a way for her to embrace the liberation that "Bad Joy" offers without losing all that she holds dear. Is it ever too late to become who we're meant to be? With laugh-out-loud hijnks and emotional heft, Good Joy, Bad Joy is a heartwarming and wise celebration of the choices we make, the friendships we cherish, and the lengths we go for love"-- Provided by publisher.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Joy Bridport is an 89-year-old widow who lives on a tight budget in a well-tended old house outside of New York City that her late husband chose for them many years ago. When her lifelong friend Hazel announces that she has stage-four cancer and is refusing treatment, good-hearted Joy jumps into caregiver mode, visiting her friend in New York City at least once a week to provide food and friendship. But after seeing successful businesswoman Hazel transformed into a deathly ill shell of herself, "bad Joy" erupts. She steals library books from the holds shelf because she's tired of waiting, meets Hazel's marijuana dealer and takes a few tokes, and drives above her town's speed limit. The crux of the book is Joy's scheme to steal the one item that her dying friend could not buy. VERDICT Brammer's (The Collected Regrets of Clover) refreshing, humorous, cozy novel is filled with Joy's reflections on her life as a wife, mother, and friend. It offers many points for discussion groups as Joy changes from an older woman who saw herself as invisible to an unrepentant risk-taker.--Joyce Sparrow

Booklist Review

Joy has spent her life trying to be good. As a child, her parents drilled into her that she should not burden anyone with her troubles and always keep a smile on her face, and Joy took that to heart. Now, nearing ninety, Joy is facing an uncertain future as Hazel, her best friend of decades, reveals a devastating diagnosis, and Joy's relationship with her daughter seems fractured beyond repair. Joy always thought of Hazel as the adventurous one in their duo, but when reflecting on their friendship and after meeting a new neighbor with a checkered past, Joy starts questioning what she always thought she knew about her life and relationships. Through small acts of rebellion (pulling the fire alarm at the library, stealing a small item from the pharmacy) Joy reframes her sense of self and recognizes that it's never too late to become the person she wants to be. Like her previous novel, The Collected Regrets of Clover (2023), Brammer has crafted a heartwarming, poignant story of self-discovery and hope.