Me Before You

Okay, let's just get it over with...which one of you incredible bookies can I blame??

For my headache...

from crying and thinking and my general book-hangover???

Who...can I blame AND thank?

I've spent some of my Spring break with Will and Lou, two characters that are hard for me to forget, courtesy of JoJo Moyes and her book, Me Before You.

I had not heard of the book, I had not read any hype, I just saw that several of you out there were saying that it was great, that it made you think, that it stuck with you. On those small tidbits I added it to the library reserve list and viola, guess which book came in as Spring Break began?!?! 

What? Have I lived in a hole?

 Now I find out that this book is a best seller in 28 countries!?! 

Well, I am a teacher and yes, I guess I have only a little bit of a life from August to June, but how could I have missed this?

 This book is probably making Jodi Picoult quiver right about now. (I know, I was just with her this weekend at the Tucson Book Festival. We're pals now. ;) 

This is a perfect book club book, with discussion aplenty. It's British (but not Downton Abbey.) It's English village and class struggle but no preaching. This is not chick-lit. (Good thing too, I have low tolerance for that.) 

So what is it?

• It's the story of Lou,a local girl going nowhere, who gets laid off from her job as a waitress. She accepts a job as a home care assistant to a 35 year old quadriplegic for 6 months.
• It's the story of Will, who lived life in a large way, now living small due to an accident that has left him a quadriplegic - enraged, sarcastic and wanting to die.
• It's the story of the relationship that grows between Will and Lou.
• It's a story that could be maudlin or story-book pithy and over the top romantic. It is none of that.
• It's a page-turner.
• It requires a tissue or two or three.

So, what are you waiting for? 

Go and enjoy it. You can thank me later.

Favorite quotes...

"It's just that thing you never understand about being a mother, until you are one, that it is not the grown man - the galumphing, unshaven, stinking, opinionated offspring - you see before you, with his parking tickets and unpolished shoes and complicated love life. You see all the people he has ever been all rolled up unto one"

"Her default setting seemed to be stuck on Disapprove."

"So this is it. You are scored on my heart, Clark."

"He had always been like that, our son - quite capable of doing the opposite of what was right, simply because he didn't want to be seen to be complying in some way. I don't know where it came from, this urge to subvert."

Sunday Salon - March Madness!!

 By the time March comes around, my students are anticipating spring break (so am I) and warmer weather (me....well okay, at least Spring Break doesn't USUALLY mean snow for us) — not to mention the rapidly approaching end of the school year (Can we be in the count-down already?!?) Due to all of these distractors the students are really crazy!! Yep, in first grade we used to call it the Miracle of March (when all students somehow really learn to read) but in 4th grade we just call it March Madness!! To keep myself sane during this wild and wacky time I'm making lists.....

Work....Grades, contact a few parents, Tutoring, SmartBoard lessons, planning, Testing Prep, meetings, Take apart the data, Back up computer to the Z drive, Book Study notes (even at work I am leading a Book Group!!)

Itinerary....The Tucson Festival of the Book is this coming weekend!! We are plotting and planning and being totally frustrated that the event schedule is so hard to see on portable apps. Argh. I have a list of authors I do not want to miss!

Celebrations....birthday cards to two of my boys got mailed and received on their birthdays - no small feat!, Rich had an interview and has another tomorrow - go get 'em babe!, there's only one week left before Spring Break, we went walking (gosh exercise IS possible!), a phone call from #3 son, my friend's PET scan came back clean!!!, I cleaned the whole downstairs yesterday, I mended some things, mopped the floor and I'm still sugar-free for 2 weeks now, I discovered sugar-free Bahama Bucks...yum!

Books that were recommended this week...Me Before You by JoJo Moyes, Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes (already started and it's scary and intense...we'll see...)The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott by Kelly O'Connor McNees. I love good recommends.

Books I've been reading this week....The Marriage Bureau for Rich People (still), Into the Darkest Corner, Teach Like a Champion (again), and a few instruction manuals. Yes, I am that kind of girl.

General to-do items.... Life insurance quotes, groceries (it's not my week to cook but it IS my week to shop - - a good trade!)Pay bills, pray for 20-20-20-20 for Miss Em, email a friend who's getting married, email my mom MUCH more faithfully this week...I was a bum last week. My list goes on and on but you probably get the drift.

Search out...the perfect Bagel, a good new ethnic restaurant in Tucson, a gift for someone who has everything, and a nice pair of black boots for next fall.

Random....J and I are planning a Hawaiian vacation list - we'll get there someday, make an appointment to get my haircut, write a friend, laugh more tomorrow, sleep through the night....

Okay the lists are done, the dishwasher is going, my lunch is packed for the morning, the lights are off for the night and all is quiet in the house...now I will go to work on that last one...sleeping through the night.