The Life Impossible by Matt Haig

The Life Impossible by Matt Haig

336 pages

Published September 2024 by Penguin Publishing Group 

Publisher's Summary: 

“What looks like magic is simply a part of life we don’t understand yet…”

When retired math teacher Grace Winters is left a run-down house on a Mediterranean island by a long-lost friend, curiosity gets the better of her. She arrives in Ibiza with a one-way ticket, no guidebook and no plan.

Among the rugged hills and golden beaches of the island, Grace searches for answers about her friend’s life, and how it ended. What she uncovers is stranger than she could have dreamed. But to dive into this impossible truth, Grace must first come to terms with her past.

Filled with wonder and wild adventure, this is a story of hope and the life-changing power of a new beginning.

My Thoughts: 

"A beautiful novel full of life-affirming wonder and imagination and, at its adventurous heart, a wry and tender love-letter to the best of being human.” —Benedict Cumberbatch

I don't usually put much credence into quotes about books from other authors. Publishers tend to pick authors for quotes who are prone to like the book and writers are likely to want to praise a book, in no small part because they'd like the same done for them. But Benedict Cumberbatch? I doubt he's hoping for a great review of his next film from Haig. 

Still not the reason I picked up this one. I picked this one because my book club read Haig's The Midnight Library and we all really liked it. Why not read his next novel as a club as well? Now I'm honestly question that decision. While The Midnight Library absolutely had a fantasy element, it worked for me as a device between chapters. But in this one the fantasy element is front and center and it's supernatural. I'm not sure how that's going to go over with my book club. I know I struggled with it throughout the book. 

"Once upon a time there was an old woman who lived the most boring life in the universe. 

That woman rarely left her bungalow, except to see the doctor, help at the charity shop, or visit the cemetery. She didn't garden any more. The grass was overgrown, and the flowerbeds were full of weeds. She ordered her weekly shopping. She lived in the Midlands. Lincoln, Lincolnshire. The same orange-bricked market town that she had stayed in - apart from a stint t Hull University centuries ago - all her adult life. 

You know the place."

Grace is a lonely woman, living with grief over the long-ago loss of her son and more recently her husband when she receives the notice that a long-ago acquaintance has left her a home. Grace once did a kindness for Christina, something that seems insignificant to Grace but changed Christina's life. Grace arrives in Ibiza only to discover that what she's inherited is a small, run-down house set far off from the city and has been left a list of things to do in her time on the island. Almost immediately warned to avoid Alberto Rios; but Grace, wanting to know what happened to Christina, soon realizes that Alberto is the only one who can help her find out. So to check something off of her list and because Alberto tells her he will show her what happened to Christina, Grace goes scuba diving with Alberto late one night. What happens leave Grace able to read minds, to have a far reaching knowledge, and the ability to move objects.  Now she must decide what to do with those "gifts" and if she can truly know what happened to Christina and stop the people who were trying to hurt her. 

All of which sounds like a crazy adventure novel. Which it is...kind of. But it is far more about how Grace, who has been battling anhedonia for years and living with the guilt of her son's death, find pleasure in life again and learns to forgive herself. And that is very much the kind of book I enjoy. Strangely, one of the things I really enjoyed about this book was all of the references to mathematics (Grace had been a math teacher) - Haig really uses math to explain how the magical elements in this book just might not be that implausible, but also to explain life. I liked that - I may have to rethink my opinion about math...and maybe magical realism. 

Life: It Goes On - April 27

Happy Sunday! It's been quite a dreary weekend here and it's resulted in my battling a headache off and on for a few days (which is always a frustrating way to spend time away from work). I did manage to power through and get quite a bit done and to head off Friday to enjoy one of Omaha's fun things - Junkstock. Found so many things there that I really wanted but talked myself out of, thanks to all of the work I've done to pare down the amount of stuff we  own. There was a part of me that was grateful to my brain being rewired to reject bringing too much home and another part of me that was annoyed that my rewired brain made me leave behind some really cool things. 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: I finished The Hitchcock Hotel and started Samantha Irby's We Are Never Meeting In Real Life, which I will finish in the next couple of days. Then it's on to Anne Tyler's Vinegar Girl. 

Watched: Monday evening I had the t.v. to myself and watched The Life List, which I enjoyed - predictable but also sweet and funny and touching. Last night the Big Guy and I finally watched Glenn Powell in The Hitman. 

Read: I'm jumping back and forth between The Fairbanks Four and Peter Graham's Anne Perry And The Murder Of The Century. It's not often that I find myself reading two nonfiction books at the same time (plus listening to a nonfiction) and I'm not sure it's my best idea. May have to set one aside and read something light and fluffy to offset the heavier topics. 

Made: An adaptation of Ree Drummond's Chocolate Cereal Treats (she uses three kinds of cereal but we were never going to finish the three boxes of unfinished chocolate cereals so I only used one and I didn't include extra marshmallows). They're very tasty but I also got the ingredients to make traditional Rice Krispie treats, which I think I may actually like better. 

Enjoyed: Book club on Tuesday. Seeing some of "kids" at Junkstock, one of whom is the creator of the jewelry I'm addicted to (I may have splurged on another pair of earrings while I was there!) on Friday. Dinner out with friends on Saturday night. 

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: On getting to the greenhouse(s) this week so I can start getting my hands in the dirt!

Thinking About: Monday evening a 16yo died at the entrance to our neighborhood when a man ran a redlight. I heard the sirens that night and it reminded me of all of those years when I'd hear sirens and run a mental checklist of where all of my people were, trying to make sure that siren didn't involve any of them. I can't help but wonder if that girl's mother heard those sirens and did the same thing. My heart just breaks for her family. 

Feeling: Tired of grey days and cool temperatures. 

Looking forward to: Higher temps this week and time to starting bringing our outdoors back to life. 

Question of the week: I'm seeing a lot of people starting to bemoan the spring and the pollen and the approaching of summer. Whereas, I, of course, cannot wait for these seasons. How about you? Are you more of a cool weather or warm weather person? 

The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

Read by Clare Corbett, Daphne Kouma, Julia Winwood, Sope Dirisu, Sofia Zervudachi

12 hours, 53 minutes

Published February 2022 by HarperCollins

Publisher's Summary: 

Jess needs a fresh start. She’s broke and alone, and she’s just left her job under less than ideal circumstances. Her half-brother Ben didn’t sound thrilled when she asked if she could crash with him for a bit, but he didn’t say no, and surely everything will look better from Paris. Only when she shows up – to find a very nice apartment, could Ben really have afforded this? – he’s not there.

The longer Ben stays missing, the more Jess starts to dig into her brother’s situation, and the more questions she has. Ben’s neighbors are an eclectic bunch, and not particularly friendly. Jess may have come to Paris to escape her past, but it’s starting to look like it’s Ben’s future that’s in question.

The socialite – The nice guy – The alcoholic – The girl on the verge – The concierge

Everyone's a neighbor. Everyone's a suspect. And everyone knows something they’re not telling.

My Thoughts: 

Sometimes when I finish an audiobook, I look at what's available from what's on my TBR list. Sometimes I'm just looking for something that will suit the reading mood I'm in. Which is a pretty good way to increase your chances of enjoying a book, especially when you're familiar with the author. I'm certain picking this one because of my reading mood increased my enjoyment of it. Even though I had some issues with it, in the end, it gave me just what I was hoping to get. 

Jess has had a tough life. As a young girl, she found her addict mother dead. Her half-brother Ben, the only person she has ever really been attached to, is taken into a well-to-do family and lives a life that has no room for Jess. Still, Ben is the person she turns to when she's done something really stupid and needs to leave England and when she calls him as she arrives in Paris, he agrees to let her stay with him for a while. Yet when she arrives at the apartment building, Ben isn't answering his phone and isn't in the apartment she can't believe he can possibly afford. 

There are only a few apartments in the building and Jess soon gets to know all of the residents, including the caretaker, and all of the nooks and crannies of the building, including a hidden stairwell. Only Nick, who was Ben's friend, feels like someone Jess can trust and she needs an ally. But as we bounce back and forth between narrators, we soon learn that Jess doesn't know the first thing about any of the people who live in that building and finding Ben is going to be dangerous. 

I'm glad I listened to this one; the multiple readers really worked well. I did wonder, at times, if Jess wasn't a little too quick to trust, for a girl who had grown up on the rougher side of life. But I really like the "locked-room" feel of this one and was completely taken by surprise by the two big twists toward the end of the book. My biggest issue with the book was the "tying up the knots" ending - it felt a little too easy for me. Otherwise, I really enjoyed this one a lot. 

The Little Village of Book Lovers by Nina George

The Little Village of Book Lovers

272 pages

Published July 2023 by Random House Publishing Group

Publisher's Summary: 

In Nina George’s New York Times bestseller The Little Paris Bookshop, beloved literary apothecary Jean Perdu is inspired to create a floating bookstore after reading a seminal pseudonymous novel about a young woman with a remarkable gift. The Little Village of Book Lovers is that novel.

“Everyone knows me, but none can see me. I’m that thing you call love.”

In a little town in the south of France in the 1960s, a dazzling encounter with Love itself changes the life of infant orphan Marie-Jeanne forever.

As a girl, Marie-Jeanne realizes that she can see the marks Love has left on the people around her—tiny glowing lights on the faces and hands that shimmer more brightly when the one meant for them is near. Before long, Marie-Jeanne is playing matchmaker, bringing true loves together in her village.

As she grows up, Marie-Jeanne helps her foster father, Francis, begin a mobile library that travels throughout the many small mountain towns in the region of Nyons. She finds herself bringing soulmates together every place they go—and there are always books that play a pivotal role in that quest. However, the only person that Marie-Jeanne can’t seem to find a soulmate for is herself. She has no glow of her own, though she waits and waits for it to appear. Everyone must have a soulmate, surely—but will Marie-Jeanne be able to recognize hers when Love finally comes her way?

My Thoughts: 

Last fall my book club read Nina George's The Little Paris Bookshop and it was a big hit. So when I was putting together this year's reading list and found that this book is meant to be the book referenced in that book, Southern Lights, I thought it would be a great follow up that we would surely enjoy. 

We did not. In fact, one member said she hated this book. I have never heard her say that about any book we've read; she is generally the one we count on to find the humorous bits and the highlights of books. She began with the book in print and finished with the audiobook version, which I think may have been the problem. On Goodreads, I noticed that a lot of the people who didn't like this book had listened to it and found it confusing. I can definitely see that; a lot of people who read it in print found it confusing as well. There is a lot of back and forth in the narration and Love as a narrator and a talking (although not literally) olive tree are tough for a lot of people to buy into. 

To be fair, having not that long ago read The Little Paris Bookshop and having been told throughout that book that Southern Lights was the perfect book, George set readers up with very high expectations that were all but impossible to live up to. Further, in that book we were promised that this book would explore all kinds of love but when it came down to it, this one is all about romantic love between men and women. Very traditional love, even if told through a magical voice. Then, too, the title tells us that this is a book about book lovers, which would seem to be a different book entirely than a book about all kinds of love. Honestly, books only brought these people together tangentially - Francis' book mobile was more of a way to introduce us to a big cast of characters instead of a way for the characters to come together organically. 

I think my book club agreed that a book that was primarily about Marie-Jeanne's gift and her being able to help people find each other would have made a better book. Or a book strictly about how the book mobile makes true book lovers out of all kinds of people and how they learn about each other would have been a good read. It just didn't work for us to pull the two stories together. 

For most of us the ending of a book can make or break a book and this one might well have been saved by a different ending. We spent the entire book waiting for the sainted Marie-Jeanne to be rewarded for all of the good she did with love of her own. And we waited. And we waited. It was not until there were only five pages left that George gave us the slightest hint that Marie-Jeanne might finally find love. The lesson from that? Love is cruel. Which seems a strange way to come to the end of a book all about love. 

The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl

The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl 

288 pages

Published April 2024 by Random House Publishing Group

Publisher's Summary: 

Stella reached for an oyster, tipped her head, and tossed it back. It was cool and slippery, the flavor so briny it was like diving into the ocean. Oysters, she thought. Where have they been all my life?

When her estranged mother dies, Stella is left with an unusual inheritance: a one-way plane ticket and a note reading “Go to Paris.” Stella is hardly cut out for adventure; a traumatic childhood has kept her confined to the strict routines of her comfort zone. But when her boss encourages her to take time off, Stella resigns herself to honoring her mother’s last wishes.

Alone in a foreign city, Stella falls into old habits, living cautiously and frugally. Then she stumbles across a vintage store, where she tries on a fabulous Dior dress. The shopkeeper insists that this dress was meant for Stella and for the first time in her life Stella does something impulsive. She buys the dress—and embarks on an adventure.

Her first stop: the iconic brasserie Les Deux Magots, where Stella tastes her first oysters and then meets an octogenarian art collector who decides to take her under his wing. As Jules introduces Stella to a veritable who’s who of the Paris literary, art, and culinary worlds, she begins to understand what it might mean to live a larger life.

As weeks—and many decadent meals—go by, Stella ends up living as a “tumbleweed” at famed bookstore Shakespeare & Company, uncovers a hundred-year-old mystery in a Manet painting, and discovers a passion for food that may be connected to her past. A feast for the senses, this novel is a testament to living deliciously, taking chances, and finding your true home.

My Thoughts: 

I've thoroughly enjoyed Ruth Reichl's nonfiction work and was really looking forward to seeing what she would do with a work of fiction. Of course, it's not a surprise that she would choose Paris for a setting, nor is it a surprise that food plays a major role. I chose this one for my book club to read and it was, by and large, a hit. In fact, I think everyone else liked it much more than I did. 

I had a lot of issues with it, to be honest. There's a scene, very early on, that should have come with a trigger warning. Given that she chose to include it, I expected it to play a much bigger role later in the book, but when I finished the book, I felt it could have, very easily, been left out entirely or at least have been minimized. 

Then there's the fact that once Stella, who has never had any real interest in food and prefers a plain meal, can suddenly discern all the flavors in a dish once she's introduced to food by a real Parisian. I know that some people are born with the ability to taste many more flavors than others of us can, but for her to be able to name them without ever having had them was a stretch. In fact, a lot of the book required a lot of suspension of disbelief. Like Stella having a boss that was ok with her extending her stay by months. 

Despite all of that, the writing about food was, as you would expect, divine and Reichl's love of fashion also comes front and center. As someone who studied fashion merchandising in college, I was familiar with the designers, the fabrics, the styles and I thoroughly enjoyed it. And, I will admit, I did come to long for Stella to find happiness and the family she had never really had (which, of course, we know she will, eventually, even when we can't figure out how she'll get there). 

Life: It Goes On - April 20

Happy Easter! We had the most low key Easter ever. Miss H had to work most of the weekend so couldn't make it up, Mini-him and Miss C went north to be with her family, and no siblings or nieces/nephews came up. So I made most of the family traditional favorites and the Big Guy and I took Easter dinner over to my dad's to have our meal with him.  If you know my dad at all, you'll know that he was very appreciative of the visit and the meal, but what he was most excited about was the chocolate pie. 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: The Hitchcock Hotel by Stephanie Wrobel. It won't surprise anyone to know that I didn't figure out who done it even if I never did trust that person. I don't have of my holds coming up soon so I'm going to have to spend some time this evening looking for something that's available to start tomorrow. 

Watched: Some more of Only Murders In The Building. 

Read: The Life Impossible by Matt Haig. A lot of great lessons in this one but maybe too much supernatural for me. Still pondering that. 

Made: Ham, cheesy hash brown casserole (a.k.a. funeral potatoes), lemonade "salad" (that's the name it came with and we eat it with the meal but it's really more of another dessert), deviled eggs, and that pie. I make Ree Drummond's French Silk Pie. It's so easy, but so decadent. The key to this one is patience. My dad doesn't eat a lot these days, but he ate two pieces of this pie! 

Enjoyed: Dinner with Mini-him and Miss C. After we went for  drinks and had a strange encounter with a very drunk, strung out young man who reminded me why we rarely go to bars. Certainly not to bars that are frequented by people in their twenties and thirties! Although he did call me "adorable" and no one's called me that in at least 40 years so there's that! 

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: With the arrival of Easter, 40 Bag in 40 Days is officially over. But as part of that, I started doing some work on organizing our photos so that will continue this week. Can I just tell you how much I wish I had at least written the year on the back of all photos? It is so darn hard to remember if a given photo was taken when your child was eight or when they were nine! Heck, I can't even remember what grade they were in in the school pictures! This will take the better part of my free time this week. 

Thinking About: What great kids we have. I love that we enjoy them as much as adults as we did when they were cute little people. 

Feeling: You know you're old when you can tweak a knee stepping up a 2" curb, which I did on Thursday. I could hardly get out to my car after work. Spent Friday working from home so I can baby it and have taken it easy most of the weekend. I'm happy to report that it's feeling much better now, but it's so frustrating that the littlest things can take me out these days. 

Looking forward to: Book club. I know I said that last week but we had to reschedule. 

Question of the week: Does your family have a big Easter extravaganza? 

**The theme of this weeks book reviews will, very obviously, be Paris

Twist by Colum McCann

Twist by Colum McCann

256 pages

Published March 2025 by Random House Publishing Group

Publisher's Summary: 

“Everything gets fixed, and we all stay broken.”

Anthony Fennell, an Irish journalist and playwright, is assigned to cover the underwater cables that carry the world’s information. The sum of human existence—words, images, transactions, memes, voices, viruses—travels through the tiny fiber-optic tubes. But sometimes the tubes break, at an unfathomable depth.

Fennell’s journey brings him to the west coast of Africa, where he uncovers a story about the raw human labor behind the dazzling veneer of the technological world. He meets a fellow Irishman, John Conway, the chief of mission on a cable repair ship. The mysterious Conway is a skilled engineer and a freediver capable of reaching extraordinary depths. He is also in love with a South African actress, Zanele, who must leave to go on her own literary adventure to London.

When the ship is sent up the coast to repair a series of major underwater breaks, both men learn that the very cables they seek to fix carry the news that may cause their lives to unravel. At sea, they are forced to confront the most elemental questions of life, love, absence, belonging, and the perils of our severed connections. Can we, in our fractured world, reweave ourselves out of the thin, broken threads of our pasts? Can the ruptured things awaken us from our despair?

My Thoughts: 

In 2010, I read McCann's Let The Great World Spin and completely understood by it won the National Book Award, even if it didn't entirely work for me. But ten years later, I read his Apeirogon. That one I proclaimed "incredible;" so impressed with it was I that I couldn't put words together and had to just type in notes that I had taken as I read the book. 

This one falls somewhere in between for me. I was immediately pulled in by McCann's writing; but the story itself is a slow build as Fennell waits for his opportunity to get on that boat that will ship out to repair a broken internet cable. Even though it gave McCann a great opportunity to paint a picture of who both Fennell and Conway are and the world they find themselves in, I was as eager for Fennell to get on that boat as he was. Let me also be honest and admit that I really couldn't see why Fennell was so interested in being on that boat or what the draw was about the cables. 

Until I could. Once on the boat, though, McCann really begins to amp up the tension, but in the job they've set out to do itself and in the relationships between all of the characters. And I understood what those cables meant...not just to the world because they carry the glass tubes that carry the internet, but all of our connections to each other and our ability to communicate (or not) with each other, as much on a personal level as on a global one.

Once they are out to sea, once that tension began building, I was all in and the closer I got to the end, the harder it was for me to put down the book. Now here's a thing that often happens in a book - we reach the zenith of the story with fifty pages or so left to wrap things up and the story often flags at this point. This one did not. Even after we learn what happened to Conway (we know early on that something has happened that has tarnished his image), I needed to find out how Fennell and Zanele moved on from it. And how Fennell finally resolves his relationship with his son. 

Life: It Goes On - April 13

Happy Sunday! It's starting to get really beautiful outside of my window, with the little bright green leaves on the lilac bushes and the brilliant pink buds on the crabapple tree. This is the one time of the year that I'm happy the Big Guy went against my wishes and came home with a crabapple tree 25 years ago. 

It follows very closely on the heels of the time I am most annoyed at him for the same reason. Early every spring, those little crabapples (which, to be fair, have provided a nice spot of color throughout the winter), just drop off that tree, fully ready to be squished and leave a streak of juice all over my driveway. Not at all the "they'll dry up before they fall off and blow away" scenario my husband was sold. 

Anyone else been mostly chained to their desk chairs getting their taxes done this week? Please tell me it's not just me who puts it off! It's really put a cloud over my head all week On the plus side, at least I got excused from jury duty so I didn't have to deal with that as well. I was terrified I was going to end up sequestered and not be able to get my taxes done! 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: A short book I won't even be reviewing until December and don't know why I listened to now. Other than it was available immediately. Also started Stephanie Wrobel's The Hitchcock Hotel, which the New York Times Book Review convinced me to listen to - so far, the jury is out. I should have expected some magical/fantasy elements (having read Haig's The Midnight Library) but, for some reason, I was taken by surprise and you know how I struggle with fantasy in a book.

Watched: NCAA basketball championships and a couple of episodes of Shrinking (if you have Apple TV and you haven't discovered this one yet, you really need to check it out). Then yesterday, when I was taking breaks from doing taxes, I watched a couple of musicals. One was Sara Bareilles' Waitress - absolutely loved it and hope it comes to Omaha soon so I can see it live. The other was a trip down memory land - Robert Stigwood's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, starring George Burns, The Bee Gees and Peter Frampton. It really is quite bad but I remember seeing it in the movie theater in 1978 and haven't seen it since. I had such a crush on Peter Frampton then! 

Read: Matt Haig's The Life Impossible, which is my book club's June selection. I'm a little over half way through it and still not sure how I feel about it. I'm also reading The Fairbanks Four: Murder, Injustice and the Birth of a Movement by Brian Patrick O'Donoghue. 

Made: BLTs (which I always regret when I don't have homegrown tomatoes to use), pizza, BLT salads (because we needed to use up the rest of the bacon we'd cooked), and chicken orzo soup. 

Enjoyed: Thursday four members of our book club drove across the Missouri River to Council Bluffs, Iowa, to see Shelby Van Pelt, author of Remarkably Bright Creatures, which is our July selection. She is really wonder to see in person, if you get the chance - humorous, open, and very comfortable in a very crowded room. My only regret is that we got no pictures. 

Also, we enjoyed our first evening on the patio on Friday night after we had dinner out. We didn't even have all of the furniture uncovered yet or the fire pit ready but it was too nice to be inside. 

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: Y'all, Easter snuck up on me so this week will be about getting food ready and figuring out how I get it to my dad's to celebrate with him. 

Thinking About: Taxes. Even with a tax software, they are so complicated! And why is there always one document that you need but don't recall getting in the mail? 

Feeling: In theory I have one week of 40 Bags in 40 Days left and I haven't even come close to getting through all of the areas I wanted to get through or to reaching 40 bags. I'm frustrated! 

Looking forward to: Book club on Tuesday.  

Question of the week: what are your go-to side dishes for Easter dinner? What do you have for dessert? 

Life: It Goes On - April 6

Happy Sunday! I'm going to type this quickly because I have a lot of eating to get to today - late breakfast with my dad, late lunch with Miss C and then I need to get a welcome home dinner ready for the Big Guy, who's been out of town for four days. 

Not gonna lie, I've kind of enjoyed having the house to myself for the past four days - I've watched what I've wanted on t.v., eaten what I wanted when I wanted, done nothing or gone like a whirling dervish without concern that I was bothering anyone. But the poor cat has been so confused; she has hardly left my side the entire time and hasn't been eating so she'll for sure be happy to have him home! 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: I tried listening to F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender Is The Night but it just wasn't working for me (I think in print I'll enjoy it) so I switched to Lucy Foley's The Paris Apartment and I'm a little more than half way through that. 

Watched: As much basketball as I could, including the national high school girls championship game. Mini-him's company installed the scoreboards in the gym where the high school championships were being held and he was there to rep the company and be on hand if there were any issues. So proud of him for being the go-to guy who can solve both the physical but also the programming problems AND be a person that a company wants interacting with customers. 

Read: Finished Nina George's The Little Village of Booklovers, which is April's book club selection. 

Made: Really, really very little - tuna salad, grilled cheese, some pasta. When I'm eating alone, I tend to eat like a 15-year-old. 

Enjoyed: I binged the entire series of Shonda Rhimes' The Residence and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was just the thing to watch when I was in the house by myself and didn't want anything too intense. 

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: This week is going to be all about finishing up taxes. I hate doing them and have to do them for us, my dad, and Miss H, so I tend to put them off. 

Thinking About: As part of 40 Bags, this week I've been working on organizing photos and memorabilia. It certainly has me remembering so many wonderful things that have happened in our lives. 

 Photo by @ItsCassified    

Feeling: Hopeful after being one of 5.2 million people across the country who protested in an effort to save democracy. Omaha had a really great turnout; this picture represents about half of what was on the hill in the park and doesn't include all of the people lining the street the park is on or the walkway over that street. 

Looking forward to: Getting these taxes behind me so that I can focus on getting back to a final push on 40 Bags. Time to get to the basement, where there will certainly still be a lot to get rid of. 

Question of the week: What have you been watching on t.v. or streaming services that might be great for me to watch the next time BG is out of town? We have a lot of things we watch together, but there are things that I just know I'll enjoy more than he will and I prefer to watch those by myself. 

How To Walk Away by Katherine Center

How To Walk Away by Katherine Center

Read by Therese Plummer

11 hours, 28 minutes

Published May 2018 by St. Martin's Press

Publisher's Summary: 

Margaret Jacobsen is just about to step into the bright future she's worked for so hard and so long: a new dream job, a fiancé she adores, and the promise of a picture-perfect life just around the corner. Then, suddenly, on what should have been one of the happiest days of her life, everything she worked for is taken away in a brief, tumultuous moment. 

In the hospital and forced to face the possibility that nothing will ever be the same again, Maggie must confront the unthinkable. First there is her fiancé, Chip, who wallows in self-pity while simultaneously expecting to be forgiven. Then, there's her sister Kit, who shows up after pulling a three-year vanishing act. Finally, there's Ian, her physical therapist, the one the nurses said was too tough for her. Ian, who won't let her give in to her pity, and who sees her like no one has seen her before. Sometimes the last thing you want is the one thing you need. Sometimes we all need someone to catch us when we fall. And sometimes love can find us in the least likely place we would ever expect.

My Thoughts: 

Margaret has always been afraid to fly, terrified, in fact. Her boyfriend, Chip, is a pilot-in-training, who convinces her, despite every fiber in her being screaming out against it, to go on a flight with him. Midflight he proposes and Margaret feels like her entire life is falling into place - she's about to start the perfect job, Chip is about ready to start a great job, and they're about to be married. But Chip is not skilled enough to deal with the winds that confront them as they try to land and the plane is sent cartwheeling down the runway. Chip walks away unscathed. Margaret is not so lucky. She will spend weeks in the hospital after skin grafts for burns and trying to regain the use of her legs. 

This is one of those books that is both predictable and unexpected. I knew that any relationship that good, any future that bright, was going to implode. Just as I knew that a relationship will develop between Margaret and Ian and that Margaret and Kit will mend their broken relationship. Readers will want those things to happen; we want Chip (and his not very nice mother) to fade out, we want Margaret to fall in love with someone who deserves her, and we want she and Kit to become close allies. 

But this isn't just a book filled with the lightness of a heroine finding love, with some humor thrown in. There is plenty of heaviness here as well. From the plane crash and  Margaret's burns and paralysis, to the reason that Kit left home and didn't make contact again for three years, Center gives readers some depth. And while there is a predictable happy ending (I'm not spoiling it - you know it's going to happen), there is an expected piece of the ending that made it all seem more believable. 

Was Chip (and Ian's boss, for that matter) a bit too much of a caricature? Yes. Did Ian and Margaret's relationship seem to develop pretty rapidly, considering how much she disliked him at first? Also, yes. Did Margaret seem to mentally heal faster than I would expect it to happen in real life? Yes, again. But all of those things seemed perfectly acceptable to me since I was all about Margaret healing and finding happiness. This is the fifth book by Center that I've read, and I've enjoyed all of them - she's become a go-to author when I'm looking for just a certain kind of book, particularly a book that will end on a high note, something I really need these days.