Book 3 completed…now what’s next?

I am enjoying this book challenge even more, especially when I finish one book and pick up the next from my list. This could possibly be due to my slight OCD tendencies when it comes to completing tasks on a list – could be anything from a shopping list, to-do list for the day and of course a list of books that I need to complete in what is now 23 days!

The satisfaction I feel after completing each stage is well worth the slightly tired eyes and marshmallow head. You know the feeling? A bit like when you climb the stairs to bed after having a busy day and as much as you want to go to sleep, your brain has other ideas – so you spend the next hour trawling through everything that is spinning around up there until you are at peace with it all. Only then you can fall fast asleep.

Book 3 – ‘Left Neglected’ by Lisa Genova – if you have read ‘Still Alice’ by the same author, then you will know that you will need as many hours as possible to yourself in a nice quiet room, so that you can fully immerse your mind into another amazing and well researched story. Yet again Ms Genova pulls out all the stops and had me entranced from the first page.

If you read the back page, it talks about an accident that changed the life of one entrepreneurial woman and her family after a devastating accident. To begin with the book focus’s on Sarah, the main character and her husband’s mad careers. They both have astoundingly high-pressured jobs and work horrific hours every week. The juggling act of the life they lead reminds me a bit of ‘How does she do it’ by Allison Pearson. To my dismay I found myself getting annoyed with Sarah but that is what the author wants you to do – she wouldn’t be doing her job properly if you didn’t feel some kind of connection with the characters in the book. To fully appreciate this book you need to feel the pressure on her and her family and know that something has to give. You sigh when she sighs because she misses yet another one of her sons football games. You laugh when she laughs because she has walked out the ladies room with her dress caught in her pants and you cry when she cries because she misses her youngest sons first steps.

Reading back on what I have written you may think that this is another chick-lit book, but it’s so far away from that. The accident itself takes care of that genre and puts this book in an altogether different zone. The path that she must take and the hellish steps she needs to conquer from the cards dealt to her by life are nothing short of miraculous.  I raise a glass to Sarah Nickerson and what she achieved personally and emotionally throughout this journey of her fictitious life we have had the pleasure of being a part off.  Please read it and then read Still Alice. Brilliant.

Next up…The Blackhouse by Peter May! Already on page 82- *slaps back of hand* as I should have been at the gym instead of starting this but I can’t help myself…this is the book I was most looking forward to from my list. I am a massive fan of the Western Isles and this crime novel is based there.