Books on Cold Winter Days - One Plus One

When I checked the school closings website on Tuesday I yelled “Yay!” One look out the window when I got up and I knew I didn’t want to chance the roads to go to the senior hall lecture about great books and I was glad it was canceled and rescheduled for Monday. It’s a yearly program presented by the head librarian in the township and I’ve always thought the timing was all wrong. It should be given at the beginning of winter, not the end, when we have months ahead of us to spend inside the house. I’ve never actually read one of the books she recommends but a few of the titles are on my ‘Wish List’ at Amazon. She’s such an animated and interesting speaker that she makes you want to dive into any book you can get your hands on.

Up until the last ten days, I’d been in a reading dry spell, having gone almost two months without reading anything other than blogs, The Sunday Press, Facebook, political message boards and news related stuff online. Then the spell lifted and I’ve polished off two books and I’m two chapters into a third. It all started when I saw a movie trailer for Me Before You based on a book by Jojo Moyes. I knew right away that I want to see that film even if it’s not what my Movie and Lunch Club picks for our June outing. The lady who sat next to me when the trailer was playing had high praises for Moyes so I went right home and ordered Me Before You online. I probably could have found it at the library but I’m a bit of a germaphobic about library books during flu season. If I was totally honest here, I'd admit it’s not just during flu season. Every time someone donates a dead person’s books to the senior hall I have thoughts of getting leprosy or Ebola from their pages. I don't care that they sell for only twenty-five cents, nope, at Amazon full-priced books come plague and deadly bacteria free. When I donate books to the senior hall I have the urge to write on the cover, “Germ Free!” And it’s up to you to decide if I’m kidding about that urge, but I’ll give you a clue: I occasionally let the dog eat off the china. Not much of a clue, though, considering I have a dishwasher with very hot water.

Me Before You is about a quadriplegic in his early thirties who decides he wants to leave England and go to a Swiss clinic for an assisted suicide. But he promises his parents he’ll give them six months if they'll respect and accept his decision when the time is up. He’d already attempted to take his own life before the promise, so his parents hire an off-beat girl to essentially be on suicide watch and to maybe help him find a reason to change his mind. I already knew a lot about living as a quadriplegic because my boss at a support message board where I worked for several years was a quad. One of my jobs on the site was to evaluate if any of the posters on the website were serious when they talked about suicide or if it was just talk. If I thought they were serious and had the means at hand to carry out a plan I was authorized to contact their local police department to intervene. That’s how I found out that no matter how anonymous someone thinks they are online, we really aren’t. One intervention happened on the other side of the globe and, boy, was that person mad.

Anyway, back to the book. The girl fell in love with the guy, and he fell for her, too, although he never voiced it and at the end of the six months---spoiler alert---he still went through with his plans. The last chapter or two was a well-written, in-depth examination of all sides of the assisted suicide debate. Ohmygod, there are so many layers to this book I’ve lost count---living with severe disabilities, a poignant love story, family bonds, rape, guilt, assisted suicide, sibling friction, support message boards for quads, life in England, etc., etc. Let's just cut to the chase and say it was well-worth the cover price and then some. I'm looking forward to seeing the movie and if you like tragic love stories with red meat on the bones, you'll want to see it, too.

The other book I read recently was The Martian by first time author, Andy Weir. I had it on my Amazon ‘Wish List’ forever and despite the fact that all the space science stuff that was way over my head, I really enjoyed that book. I kept thinking if an astronaut can spend over a year all by himself on Mars, with all the problems that came up, I could stand one more day of not having any human contact in a string of solitary days when I was snowed in and marathon reading. Aside from that the book had many funny moments and it blew my mind on how really, really smart astronauts and the people at NASA are.

Now, I am reading another JoJo Moyes book, One Plus One. I will finish it by the time the rescheduled book lecture takes place on Monday. I suspect I’ll be working my way through all of Moyes’ books. Hallelujah, my reading mojo is back! ©

Favorite line in the book: 

"Some mistakes...just have greater consequences than others. 

But you don't have to let that night be the thing that defines you."