First and formost – ‘Silver Linings Playbook’ by Matthew Quick. I read the book before I saw the movie and honestly, was tremendously moved by both. Yall know me. I’m generally not impressed when they make a movie out of a book – it just never seems to measure up. But this time, they did a tremendous job. Yes, a lot was left out, but somehow, they did the movie just right. So. If you haven’t read SLP, you need to. Immediately. And then get the movie.
The story centers around Pat Peoples, who has just been let out of a mental hospital – there has been some sort of incident and he is separated from his wife, Nikki. Pat has a theory that if he works hard at his physical and emotional health he can make everything right and reunite with Nikki. (Can I interject here? In months of sheer denial, I thought much the same. If I worked very hard on my physical and emotional health that I could make a certain someone realize what a great package deal I am. Um, so NOT true) Anyway, Pat meets Tiffany (who is widowed and seems to be depressed and a little bit unfriendly) – they become friends of a sort – and she agrees to act as a go-between for Pat and Nikki, if he will give up football and participate in a dance competition with her. I won’t spoil the ending for you, but suffice it to say that it is a beautiful, poignant story that warmed my heart.
I really gravitate toward feel-good books during a bad
time – I understand that the protagonist has to suffer, but I really want them
to learn, feel better and find their way to a better situation! (Kind of how I feel about myself, but it is a
lot harder to actually DO than to just read about.)
So another thing.
Please don’t judge. But I went to
a psychic and she answered all my questions very quicky and decisively (and so
far, she has been correct, but we’ll see).
Interestingly, she also recommended a book for me, called ‘The Soulmate
Secret’ by Arielle Ford.
Now, those of
you that know me know I am very pragmatic and don’t have a lot of use for self
help books – I generally believe that you just have to pull yourself up by your
bootstraps and continue on. But I bought
this book and I read it in one day.
(which is not unusual for me, but a self help book? very unusual)
This book is so good and so positive, it really helped pull me out of
the funk into which I was headed. It is
a book about being open to meeting your soulmate (really meeting new people)
and how to let go of old, toxic relationships (and how to stop thinking about
them!) and how to be happy just being by yourself. I really enjoyed it, even if there were some
words (‘feelingizations’) and new agey things in there that I wasn’t too sure
of. Surprisingly, most of it wasn’t even
about ‘how to find the love of your life’, it was about how to love yourself. Really liked this one.
The last book that I would recommend in the midst of a
heartbreak is, ‘Never Change’ by Elizabeth Berg. You know I love her stories. All of them.
Her heroines are normal, non-perfect women who seem to be a little
bewildered and somewhat naïve. I can
totally relate. Anyway, in this novel,
Myra is a home-health nurse who has been called to take care of a new patient. The patient turns out to be a boy she went to
high school with (and had a crush on), Chip.
The story is about Chip’s last days, which are really very normal and
wonderful, thanks to Myra, and about how they end up falling in love just as
Chip’s life is coming to an end. It is a
beautiful, sad and hopeful story. I hope
you like it.
That’s all for today.
Yall take care! Chrissy
