Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella is a fun read. It is about Lexi Smart, who doesn't have the greatest job or boyfriend...but does have a great group of friends. She's out the night before her father's funeral, having drinks with her friends, when she slips off the curb and knocks herself out.
When she wakes up she is in the hospital. Her snaggle teeth are fixed, she's lost weight and it seems she's married! Its 3 years after the night she slipped off the curb and she doesn't remember a thing. Apparently she's got a brand new life, one that dreams are made of. She's
successful and rich and married to a beautiful guy. However, sometimes when we get what we want, it turns out not to be everything we dreamed of.
Lexi finds out that she has lost her friends, her husband actually has a "marriage manual" and she has no color in her life. She tries to fit back into her life, even though she doesn't remember anything and finds out that is harder than she thinks. Have things changed so much that she can't slip back into her life?
Can she make things work with a husband she doesn't know, even if he is a hunk? Can she go back to her new position at work and win her friends back?
This is a funny book, that was a nice light book.
I give it 4 out of 5
I'm a waitress and I can see people at their best and their worst. I guess some people feel that waitresses are beneath them, not intelligent. If they had an ounce of knowledge they would have real jobs, therefore, they can be treated as servants, second class citizens. Let me say, not always are we treated that way. Where I work has a lot of regulars that are fun and caring. However, we do get our share of those "who are above us". But I digress....
Back to seeing people at their worst. I have issues with parents who bring their children in and proceed to ignore them. There is a couple who bring their child in and order a pitcher of beer and two generous entrees for themselves. The child will nibble at the food...then proceed to crawl under the table, on top of the booth and consequently on to the booth next to them. The parents continue to eat and talk to each other...but I have never really witnessed them talking to the child. The child must be close to 3. This to me is sad in and of itself, but they allow the child to stick his fingers into the foam of their beer and lick it off. Is this ok? It seems wrong to me...along with letting the child eat the fruit that has been in the alcohol. I don't know...maybe I overreact.
You can't always watch and protect your child....sometimes its even hard to talk to them (i.e. teenagers) but shouldn't you try when they are right in front of you?
Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult is a story about a school shooting in Sterling, a small town where everyone knows everyone. But this story is about much more than the nineteen minutes it took for Peter Houghton to shoot his way through the high school. Peter was a loving and sensitive young boy and on his first day of kindergarten, he found out that's not how he was supposed to be. He had his lunch box thrown out of the bus and from that day on was relentlessly bullied, even by his older brother. He tried to find help, but this only made things worse.
Josie was his best friend until her mom stopped them from hanging out when they were still young. Their paths crossed from time to time, they did live in a small town, but by high school they traveled in different social circles.
As the story is told, we go from months before the shooting to years before, from days after to the day of. I actually tried to read the book, but had a hard time starting it. I opted to listen to it and I'm glad I did. Nineteen Minutes was one of those books that I felt a sadness for towards the end, because I really cared about the characters and I wasn't ready to let them go. The people were complex and well developed. This was a book that made me look at my own actions and thoughts as well as what others may be dealing with. It taught me to not be too quick to judge and to really listen to my children. I cannot say enough good things about this book.
Some quotes from the book that really resonated:
"If you spent your life concentrating on what everyone else thought of you, would you forget who you really were? What if the face you showed the world turned out to be a mask, with nothing beneath it."
"You were born with six silver spoons up your ass... you're granted passage and you don't even realize that other people never get to walk that way. Being on the fringe is the most dis-empowering feeling."
I give it a 5 out of 5....I loved it.
