The Silver Linings Playbook

Pat Peoples, a former high school history teacher, narrates his own story in a voice that is honest, earnest and often unintentionally funny. He has just left a treatment facility in Baltimore, which he calls the bad place, and he moves in with his patient mother and his silent, sports-obsessed father in Collingswood, New Jersey. Pat has lost track of time and does not quite understand why his wife has not visited. He believes they are simply in apart time, which will end if he improves himself.

So he works out for hours a day, tries to practice kindness and reads the classic novels on Nikki's syllabus, often with strong opinions about their sad endings. He sees a therapist, Dr. Cliff Patel, who shares his love of the Philadelphia Eagles, and the family's fragile peace revolves around game days. Then his friend's sister-in-law Tiffany, who lost her husband and is as blunt and unpredictable as Pat, starts following him on his runs. She offers to help him contact Nikki, but only if he becomes her partner in a dance competition. Slowly Pat begins to face the truth about his past.

Gentle and very readable. About 304 pages. The film adaptation earned Jennifer Lawrence an Academy Award.