Good Reads, Offbeat Characters

One of my favorite reads of the reads of the year thus far has been Eleanor Oliphant  is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman.

"Meet Eleanor Oliphant: she struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she's thinking. That, combined with her unusual appearance (scarred cheek, tendency to wear the same clothes year in, year out), means that Eleanor has become a creature of habit (to say the least) and a bit of a loner. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy."






She was such an enjoyable character that I sought out some other novels with other unique characters.  If you enjoyed Eleanor here are some other books with interesting and quirky characters you might also enjoy:

The Seven Rules of Elvira Carr: A Novel  - Frances Maynard

 "Elvira Carr believes in crisp schedules, clear guidelines, and taking people at face value. She lives at home with her overbearing mother, who has deemed her unfit to interact with the rest of society. But when her mother has a stroke, Ellie is suddenly forced to look after herself. She quickly comes up with an ingenious way of coping with the world: the seven social rules spreadsheet. Unfortunately, Ellie soon discovers that most people don't live their lives within a set of rules. As she experiences social missteps and awkward encounters, Ellie continues to learn - about herself, and the people around her. And she'll need this new knowledge if she hopes to pave the way to living life on her own terms."


Britt-Marie Was Here - Fredrik Backman

Britt-Marie is a socially awkward, fussy busybody who is used to being organized. When she walks out on her cheating husband and gets a job as caretaker of the dilapidated recreation center in Borg, she is woefully unprepared for the changes. But as she takes on the task of leading the supremely untalented children's soccer team to victory, she just might find a place she belongs.







Courting Greta - Ramsey Hootman

A tender, cheer-inducing debut novel about two lonely people who don't believe in romance, but who finally decide to give love a chance.












This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance! - Jonathan Evison
With her husband Bernard two years in the grave, seventy-nine-year-old Harriet Chance sets sail on an ill-conceived Alaskan cruise only to discover through a series of revelations that she's been living the past sixty years of her life under entirely false pretenses. There, amid the buffets and lounge singers, between the imagined appearance of her late husband and the very real arrival of her estranged daughter midway through the cruise, Harriet is forced to take a long look back.