Me Before You....

We have a routine when we're at Target. Usually someone has to pee so that's usually when I peruse the dollar section unless there are too many people in there. We blow through the clothing department. Skip past shoes, baby stuff, toys, electronics. Occasionally we hit up the DVD rack to see what is new and then head for seasonal to get candy then through the food and then checkout.

For weeks now I've been noticing this book on the shelf and the cover is just awesome and simple and has a vintage feel to it. I don't know why but this book has such a vintage feel to my the cover and I love it. I wanted to read it before it came out at the theatre and before the book had a movie tie in cover which I really hate.

The movie has been receiving a lot of criticism for the way that it portrays people who are wheelchair bound. The main character Lou starts working as a caregiver for Will who was paralyzed in a freak accident. 

The relationship starts out like so many with a period of adjustment that makes you realize how connected two people become in the caregiver patient relationship. It is an intimacy that develops  slowly for Will and Lou, starting first as awkward and full of disdain for each other and over time they become friends and start to develop a relationship that verges on more than friendship. Will would never let it go that far because he fears being a burden to anyone even his parents.

He wants to die. Prior to the accident he was athletic and adventurous and now confined to a wheel chair he doesn't have the coping skills to live his new life.

The real question is who does me refer to?

Lou wants him to see that there are many things that he is capable of doing with his life in a wheelchair. She thinks that it is truly selfish for him to want to end his life. She wants him live.

He wants her to think about him. Think about how he feels in this situation. To think about how over time he will get sicker and become more of a burden. That she will come to resent her comittment to him in time. 

But know in that the sequel is called After You.  So that blows that out of the water.

The book delves into the world of selfishness. The question is who is selfish in this situation. The person in a wheelchair or the person who wants to keep another person alive? A person who is so in love that they will do anything for the person they love?

30 Before 30...Great Expectations

Oh my goodness. This is one of those books that I've been reading since I was a freshman in high school. I think that we were supposed to read it during the Christmas break and I did my best to work on it but I just couldn't finish it.

This is one of those books that it starts to drag and there aren't any good action sequences to pick it up. There are some great characters that are classic.

Pip is a great character who you get to watch as they grow up. You see as he changes from a simple country boy to a man who realizes that there is more to life than money. He only realizes this after he comes into money, uses it irresponsibly, and then loses what little he had left. He loses the love of onr or two women.

I hate to spoil a book. I know that this is terrible review but it was a book that I struggled to read. I struggled the first time that I read it and on rereading this book I knew exactly how far I had gotten the first time. What I had read was a breeze on the second reading. I'm sure that if I did choose to read it again, it would be awesome.

The subtle love story was great and I love that for once the story doesn't end the way you think it would. I really only read it because I wanted to check it off my list and I wanted to finish it.

love ya!