My book club decided to read Suzanne’s Diary for Nicholas by James Patterson for our February selection.
I read the book a few years ago when I was trapped in Chicago’s O’Hare airport for 16 hours while my flight was delayed and delayed and then delayed again. It was Captain Cavedweller’s birthday and I was not in the best of moods or frame of mind. I was supposed to catch an early flight, stop and shop at one of his favorite stores on the planet and then make the four-hour drive home from the airport in time to have dinner with him.
Only things didn’t go quite according to plan. It was 5 a.m. the next morning when I finally arrived home, without gifts because the store was closed at 1 a.m. when my plane landed.
I don’t know if it was due to the trauma of:
1. Being stuck in the airport for such a lengthy period of time
2. Missing Captain Cavedweller’s birthday entirely
3. The emotional rollercoaster ride of reading the book
But it made me cry. A lot. In the airport. Full of people who kept staring at me like I was a nut-job. I admittedly was that particular day.
The book is superbly written and emotionally gripping. For the life of me, I could not remember the ending though. So rereading the book, I remembered why I blocked out the ending from my mental recesses. It wasn’t how I wanted the story to end at all. Well, I take that back. The story actually ended just fine. It was the final pages leading up to the ending that made my heart hurt and more than a few tears drip down my cheeks.
This book is touching, poignant, and one you won’t read and forget in a day or two.
If you are looking for a book to make you feel and think and be grateful for what you’ve got in life, most definitely give it a read.
