Money Can't Buy Happiness

While taking a recent "staycation," I read two young adult novels, back-to-back, whose overall themes were that money can't buy happiness. Both were engaging, but for different reasons. Deb Caletti's THE FORTUNES OF INDIGO SKYE is full of snappy, LOL humor directed at the ironies of contemporary life. The heroine in the book is an 18 yr. old waitress trying to sort out her future. When an appreciative customer gives her a huge amount of money, Indigo's options markedly expand. And her life gets much more complicated. In the end, Indigo manages to chart an authentic course for herself, but not without a few reality checks along the way. Jennifer Bradbury's SHIFT is a riveting character study within the framework of a mystery. In SHIFT, best friends Chris and Win take a post high school graduation cross country bike trip together, but only Chris returns. The mystery surrounding Win's whereabouts ensues, with chapters effectively alternating between chronological episodes from the bike trip, and the ongoing investigative efforts to find Win. At SHIFT's conclusion, the mystery is solved, but the reader is left with lingering questions. Both books were solid reads that I heartily recommend for their entertaining approaches to values clarification and the concept of wealth.