A book for anyone who secretly loves motivational posters of sunrises and mountaintops. Grandma’s last will and testament names Ray to inherit the trailer park. It’s a million-dollar estate with one hitch: to prove he’s not as aimless as he seems, Ray must discover the meaning of life by the end of the month. (She left the answer in an envelope.) If he fails, the camp goes to his estranged family. estranged family.
How does anyone find the meaning of life while running a park full of misfit miners, would-be truck racers, and one demanding little girl? There’s a bear too. A grizzly. Maybe that’ll help?
“A tale spins its answer to an age-old question into an inclusive, hilarious, and thought-provoking yarn.”–Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
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Full of heart and spunk. This author has a new fan in me. I’m definitely checking out more of his work.
This goes on my favorite all-time reads list. Someone needs to offer the author the rights to make this into a movie. From hopeless to courageous, Ray is a character rich with feeling surrounded by a supporting cast that kept me reading until I finished in the middle of the night.
Not what I expected but I loved it. Life lessons abound.
Ray is a slacker with a grandmother who sees his hidden potential. He goes through a month-long journey trying to find it for himself.
Characters were funny. Fun read.
Pretty entertaining. It’s a different kind of story. No world shattering events just a simple thing some people could relate to. Characters seem like people you might have met if you went on vacations in the summer with your family when you were younger.
I don’t know where I picked this book up, but it’s exactly the kind of book I’m always looking for. It’s spiritual in the most unpretentious way. It’s witty and easy to read, it’s tragic without being overwhelmingly depressing. I loved it!
I loved this book and I learned the Meaning of Life.
Read this book in one afternoon, couldn’t put it down. Great characters!
I tried really hard to get into this book. I am not saying it is bad, just not for me.
Delightfully fun read.
This book has a rather bizarre premise, as could have been ascertained from reading the description. The characters grew and learned from their experiences, so it wasn’t too bad. The changing relationships seemed quite authentic, and I could believe events such as these could happen…well except for the insta-freeze brain service. A story of people who feel stuck just isn’t to my taste.
AWFUL! This garbage made no sense
DNF. I couldn’t finish this book. At the 20th chapter, with many more to go, I skipped ahead, but just couldn’t find any way to care about what was going on. It isn’t a bad idea, but the details grew too tedious for me, and Ray’s goals weren’t things I cared about enough to endure it all. Sure all the characters seemed to manage some growth, but I didn’t want to live every moment of it with them.
This book is full of twists, turns, and humor. When Ray’s grandmother unexpectedly died, she left her sizable fortune to her 17 year old grandson, provided that he finds the meaning of life within 30 days. Can he do it? Read this book to find out.
Ray is a loser teen at first glance – playing video games for days, eating three-day-old mac and cheese from the pan, and living at his grandma’s run down trailer court. The fun is just beginning! Ray’s search for the meaning of life shows us that we are all searching and that the meaning is different for each of us.
At first I didn’t think I would want to even continue reading; the characters just didn’t seem “real” to me……..very cartoony. However the more I read, the more I appreciated the authors’ intent and began to understand what he was doing. This was at times funny, thought provoking and just enough different it kept me going. Yes,I do recommend it!
A quirky fun read with a nice message!
I enjoyed the main character and how he grew during this book. I certainly had his doubts as a young adult, but I didn’t have his life!
As an adult, I encourage every adult to read this book which is intended for young adult audiences. Every character, young or old, in this story has his/her own revelation. It goes to show that it’s worthwhile to check your own meaning of life every few years to see if you’re on the path you really want. Enjoyable book. Not just for teen readers.