a complicated kindness, indeed

I don’t usually do “sad” – sad movies, sad shows, sad stories, sad books, I try to avoid “sad”, like the plague.

I read a complicated kindness and I know I’ve only been doing this reading thing for a short time, but this is possibly the best book ever. It’s completely heartbreaking. I finished it with the overwhelming urge to just sit and cry for a few hours.

Although sad, the story was brilliantly told, it was amazingly funny, and I could possibly start reading it again right now. Yeah, it was that good.

“My neighbor came out to look at it. She’s an unhappy housewife with the flattest ass I’ve ever seen. Swaths of fabric allocated for a person’s butt billow emptily around hers like a sail.” pg. 100

I totally and completely appreciated all the analogies.

The underlying story was about love and loss. Dealing with loss, I guess. Told by a teenage girl, who’s mother and sister left, as she and her dad try to make sense of their lives. They dealt with the loss very much like most of us deal – block it out, pretend everything is okay, try really hard to figure out what happened, how you’re supposed to move on, and privately grieve a whole lot. It’s a remarkable reminder that we can never win when we have to choose between the “right thing” and our happiness, there is such a fine line, and I guess that’s why most of us hold on to faith and hope so desperately.

And in the end, she asked a question I ponder every day almost, “Is it wrong to trust in a beautiful lie if it helps you get through life.”

Monday giveaway!

So I’ve been reading about 1 book every 2 weeks – I read almost exclusively on my commute to and from work. My most favorite book so far has to be Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella. It’s witty, funny, smart, for me – very entertaining. I loved it so much that I am giving one away! Unsponsored and everything… this one is really from me!

Leave a comment, I’ll do a random draw next Monday! Happy Monday!

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Expanding my mind

Current Reads

Remember Me?

three cups of tea

Canadian Reads

The End of the Alphabet

Kids’ Reads

Geronimo Stilton and the Gold Medal Mystery

What are you guys reading?

Dear John

One day, as I was walking to the train station, I passed by a book store, and I asked the girl standing there which book she would get; she directed me to Dear John by Nicholas Sparks, who, I didn’t realize at the time, is also the author of The Notebook.

If I had to describe this book in one word, I would say “sad”. I don’t really know if I enjoyed reading it or not, I was actually able to relate to a lot of it so in that respect I liked it, and although the ending was tremendously sad – ‘bittersweet’ really, it didn’t make me cry (like The Notebook apparently made me do the first time I saw it!). It was inspiring though, and in a strange way makes you feel sort of good, especially if you’re a person that always tries to do the right thing!

If you’re one of those people that are in love with “true love”, you should read it, and if you’re a skeptic and a realist, you may want to skip it!

The Pirate’s Daughter - ok, so maybe I’ll become an “avid” reader yet!

I just finished another book – it took me 2 weeks, like a normal person, and I did find it relaxing! Yey, right?!

The story was based in Jamaica, and you’ve got to love the use of the word broughtupsy in a novel! I can’t be certain that I did not enjoy it more because of the many West Indian references, but I did find that it was an escape from my life and I looked forward to reading it on my train rides. The descriptions of the island and people were really vivid and her analogies were really interesting!

Anyone read it? What did you think?

Since the whole reading thing is going so well, I got Dear John today, which is sort of timely, as it is somewhat based around 9/11 – I am not sure really, since I only read 1 chapter so far – I’ll let you know how it goes.