WWRW

Another segment for What We're Reading Wednesday.

I admit, after the past few weeks of extreme bookishness which was great I have retreated back to one book at a time. And this week I found myself on the same book the entire time because I have a new television show and I can't get enough of it.

So I have been reading The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe.

The premise is simple. His mother is dying and they start discussing books between them.

My feelings on the book are not simple. I wanted to like this book. I didn't.

I was in grad school during the nitty gritty part when my MIL (who wasn't technically my MIL yet as we were only engaged.) passed away. But it was a lot like any terminal illness, they waste away and it is hard to watch and harder still for them to essentially suffer. So I anticipated the nitty gritty in the book and found a very white washed version. Even with the diagnosis his mother didn't let it change anyone's life and I don't know if that's a good thing.

Schwalbe is not a bad writer, I just didn't care for his family. And his family and their anecdotes are the backbone and meat of this book. His reflections on lessons he learned were good and the part of the book I thoroughly enjoyed. That's about all I got however. I just didn't love this book. It wasn't moving they way I was expecting.

Tuesdays with Morrie and The Last Lecture those were far more inspiring books with kernels of goodness and wisdom. And if you thought they were books that were sappy, they were. But this book is not within the same breath, it's not sappy. This was not full of that. There's not even one line of the books that stood out more than others. Honestly it's too bad Schwalbe's mother didn't write most of the book, her perspective may have been more enlightening and possibly entertaining. The one other thing I did appreciate, were the book club discussions, I want to read some of the books now based on their conversations. So that's like a bonus.

This book has excellent reviews on Amazon and honestly, the title was captivating. This is not a book I regret reading by any means, and boy who hasn't been there? But this is a book I was very glad came from the library.