The Book Of Charlie

This week I finished the most beautiful book titled The Book of Charlie by David Von Drehle. When veteran Washington Journalist David Von Drehle and his wife and children move to Kansas and meets his new neighbor who is over a century old named Charlie White. David never expected a deep friendship and profound message about the meaning of life. Charlie did not live an ordinary life. Charlie learned as a young boy what loss was while at the same time mastering survival skills that helped him in life. Charlie was born before radio and lived long enough to use a smartphone. Charlie’s life was full of adventure, heartbreak and joy. This book teaches the important lesson about how to live a good life no matter what season of life we are in.

Pros & Cons

I enjoyed this book so much. Some memoir/biography and non-fiction novels can be very dry, The Book of Charlie did not read as though it were a bullet point of historical events. The only flaw I have to say is sometimes it did focus a little too much on the historical events and it seemed as though Charlie and David were observers. I loved reading about Charlie’s travels especially to California when he was hitchhiking with his friends, and along the Amazon river as a guest of Peru’s president. Charlie went through hardships and heartbreaks but Charlie learned early on as a boy that nothing is certain and we can’t always control what happens to us, but we can control how we respond to it. Another important lesson is we need to enjoy the now instead of dwelling in the past and looking too far into the future.

Overall

If you’re into memoirs/biographies and non-fiction I suggest you pick this up. It might be a tiny book, but there’s so much wisdom to unpack. We all need someone like Charlie in our lives. Charlie lived 109 years of life and while life knocked him down, he learned not to let life keep him down. Thank you Simon & Schuster for the early free copy.