I Feel Bad About My Neck. Finished 10-12-13, rating 3/5, non-fiction, 137 pages, pub. 2006

I thought this would be the perfect choice for the read-a-thon.  I had it on my shelves, it was short, it should be funny.  Nora Ephron has written some of my favorite movies: When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve Got Mail (hm, maybe it’s Meg Ryan I love?).  The good thing is that it was short, the bad thing is that I still caught myself skimming. It’s not bad, it just didn’t hold my interest.  I think I find essays like this more interesting in small doses and when I try to read them compiled in a book like this I don’t care for them.  The average or boring ones ruin the good feeling from the great ones.

This was from my favorite paragraph…

When I pass a bookshelf, I like to pick out a book from it and thumb through it.  When I see a newspaper on the couch, I like to sit down with it.  When the mail arrives, I like to rip it open.  Reading is one of the main things I do.  Reading is everything.  Reading makes me feel I’ve accomplished something, learned something, become a better person.  Reading makes me smarter.  Reading gives me something to talk about later on.  Reading is the unbelievably healthy was my attention deficit disorder medicates itself.  Reading is escape, and the opposite of escape; it’s a was to make contact with reality  after a day of making things up, and it’s a way of making contact with someone else’s imagination after a day that’s all too real.  Reading is grist.  Reading is bliss.  But my ability to pick something up and read it-which has gone unchecked all my life up until now-is now entirely dependent on the whereabouts of my reading glasses. (Blind as a Bat chapter)

I was going to make one funny note from each of the 15 chapters, but only made notes on 5, that’s not a positive percentage.  A few things Iearned…

1. Necks go south at 43 and there’s nothing you can do about it.  This probably struck me because I just turned 42.

2. I can buy a Metrocard bag/purse at the Transit Museum in Grand Central Station.  I want one!

3. One Away friendships do not work. (both of you having slept with the same person)

4. Don’t romanticize your home. You can make another one.

5. JFK didn’t sleep with every intern.

It was okay, nothing to get too excited about but a quick diversion.

The Girl You Left Behind. Finished 10-29-13, rating 4.75/5, fiction, 369 pages, pub. 2012

In 1916, French artist Edouard Lefevre leaves his wife Sophie to fight at the Front. When her town falls into German hands, his portrait of Sophie stirs the heart of the local Kommandant and causes her to risk everything – her family, reputation and life – in the hope of seeing her true love one last time.

Nearly a century later and Sophie’s portrait is given to Liv by her young husband shortly before his sudden death. Its beauty speaks of their short life together, but when the painting’s dark and passion-torn history is revealed, Liv discovers that the first spark of love she has felt since she lost him is threatened…

In The Girl You Left Behind two young women, separated by a century, are united in their determination to fight for the thing they love most – whatever the cost. (Goodreads)

The dueling time period story isn’t one that I seek out, but in this case I loved it.  It was told at just the right pace, switching between the past of WWI France and current day London, at all the right times to keep me invested in both stories.  We learn about Sophie first and what her family and village had to endure during the German occupation.  I loved Sophie and was so disappointed when we moved to Liv who seemed weak in comparison.  Sophie was full of spirit and strength. She was a survivor and I wanted to see how she would manage to save herself and those she loved.  Poor, sad Liv hadn’t gotten over the death of her husband four years before, no friends, no life.  Sophie’s portrait and history became the only thing that Liv cared about even when it cost her everything she had managed to find, a friend, a love.

I learned about the German destruction of WWI France, which I knew next to nothing about and I appreciated the restitution storyline.  I knew what I thought was right, but Liv’s journey with the portrait made me see the flip side of restitution issues.  I didn’t love Liv’s trial, but the way these two stories were so separate and yet so connected made this book a joy to read.  I loved the way it wrapped up and I imagine I’ll be thinking of Sophie for at least a few days.

I highly recommend this one.  It was such a thought-provoking and satisfying novel.  I know many preferred her book, Me Before You, but since I haven’t read it yet I have nothing to compare it to.  I plan to remedy that soon!

I received this book from She Reads.  Go on over and see what other bloggers think, if you hurry you can enter to win free books 🙂