be impressed!

So - for all of my whining and complaining about finishing MIAB, you would think that the next Sparks book "A Walk to Remember" would be just as painful. Not so! I read AWTR in just 1 and a half days....I guess third time really is the charm for Sparks. Which makes me a bit nervous to read the rest of his books.

"A Walk to Remember" is far and away the best of the three Sparks books that I have read so far. It isn't what I thought it would be about at all - for some reason I had it in my mind that it was about teenage pregnancy in the 1950s. Someone was REALLY far off on the content.

The first thing that I really liked is that there was a clear narrator from the beginning of the story - an old man looking back 40 years ago at the year that "changed his life." It was really nice to have that out of the way and not spend a majority of the time reading trying to figure out who the hell is telling the story.

The year that changed his life was a bit dramatic, but sweet at the same time. The "cool" kid in town falls in love with the preacher's daughter, who he only starts noticing because she grew some boobies.

Turns out, it was all part of the "Lord's plan" (according the the PD) for the CK to fall in love with her. There are some sappy moments where they hold hands and kiss for the very first time - all very romantic in an innocent way. But, there is something very ominous looming about her - why is the PD holding back from the cool kid? And why doesn't she want to go to college?

Turns out, she has leukemia and she is slowly dying - and all she wants is to get married....because it is part of the Lord's plan. So the cool kid gives her what she wants, and she gets married and everyone who made fun of her for years because her dad was a preacher felt guilty and cry over her.

The one downfall of the book though is that it ends right after the two get married - something that I was a bit disappointed by. I wish that Sparks had taken another 10-15 pages and tied it all back together. It would have been nice - I didn't really grasp at the end why we jumped back to retell the story at that particular moment, but oh well.

Now, I know that at the beginning of this journey, I said that I was going to read the books in order. But, I can't. I just got "Dear John" at the library because the hold was a lot shorter than it originally said it would be. So dear readers, "Dear John" is next!

save me!

People who know me well know that I love to read. I was the kid in elementary school who got in trouble for reading while the teacher was teaching - the kid that knew every way how to try and hide a book in their desk when they were supposed to be doing something else. My mom tells me that I don't just read books I "devour" them. In sixth grade I did read a different chapter book every day...

So - it does come as a big surprise to me that I can't finish "Message in a Bottle." I'm ALMOST finished - but I keep finding excuses for not reading it - knitting projects (I made a really cool scarf!), studying (really actually a lot of fun), reading the second "The Girl.." book (fabulous read - though I did get really scared reading it by myself in my parents' basement at 2 in the morning). Today, I even sunk so low that I am writing lesson plans INSTEAD of reading MIAB (I like calling the book that). I think if I were given the choice, I might rather go to the dentist and get a bunch of work done over finishing this book. That is a bad sign.

The characters in the book are mildly ridiculous - Theresa is suffering from not being able to find a man who understands her - Garrett from loosing his wife unexpectedly. I sympathize more with Garrett, but am frustrated that when they have intimate moments, Garrett's mind wonders back to his dead wife. When they finally do the nasty, all Sparks can say is how it has been 3 years for both of them and that they have opened something that has been closed for so long (I think I threw up a bit when I read that).

If you remember, Theresa found Garrett after discovering his messages to his dead wife that he puts in bottles. SHE HASN'T TOLD HIM THAT YET! Um....that's not a good idea....but yet, she's upset that he isn't sure if he wants to commit to her. Shouldn't she be more worried that she might loose him when he finds out how much of a creeper she has been?

Then, there is the distance thing - he lives in North Carolina (and has never left) and she lives in Boston...and has a 12 year old son. I just don't see this working out for them. Theresa has to go back to work, so she flies back up to Boston with the hopes of seeing him again soon. Let us also keep in mind that they have only actually been together for FOUR days at this point in time....but she wants him to be in love with her.

I think I have to just stop reading this book. It is too painful, and if I would rather go to the dentist or write lesson plans on a beautiful day instead of sitting outside and reading, then I need to move on to Sparks' next book. I will still watch the movie - it HAS to be better than this.

Maybe I'll just chalk the horridness of this book up to the fact that I checked it out in LARGE PRINT....yeah....that's it! If you want to know how MIAB ends - go look it up on Wikipedia!