the best book that i have read in a long time

i was lamenting on the fact that i hadn't had too many good reads lately...then i started thinking harder.  i haven't read a book in SO long.  i used to read a lot...probably every night before i went to bed.  and i'm a fast reader, so i got through a lot in a short amount of time. 

throughout time, i also found that it took an amazing book to get my attention.  if it was "meh"...then i'd rather stop reading and leave it. 

Image by Catherine T via Flickr

just FYI, I'm not giving anything away in this post that you would not get from the first few pages of the book.  my friend, brad, dropped off a book for me on his recent trip to colorado.  "The Art of Racing in the Rain".  he knows i love dogs...and knows that in the past, i loved books.  i THOUGHT i asked him if the book had anything to do with a dog dying and i THOUGHT he said no.  so, i dove in. 

after the first page, i was crying...at the gym....trying to disguise it to look like sweat.  i wrote to Juni and told her to start reading...we had a book club book finally.  she got it and started in.  i had planned on stopping until she could get to where i was.  yes, i said i "planned" on that.  i brought the book to the gym with me the next day.  read through another few chapters.  in the parking lot of the gym, though, i sat in my car.  i thought about what would happen if the book ended like i thought it was going to and i was in public?  so, i flipped to the last couple pages of the book and read.  i didn't want to be caught off guard when i finally got there! 

i cried and cried.  but, let me let you know, that this is not a SAD book, per se.  i cried because i much preferred this authors rendition of what happens to dogs when they pass away, than apparently what my rendition was.  i decided, when we had to put my dog to sleep, to be in the room with him.  my dad stayed too, because i stayed.  it is one of those moments that i will remember forever.  he had the cutest nose and a little tuft of white hair that puffed out above it.  he had stayed WAY too long and was an old soul by the time of that day.  so we let him go that day in that office.  it is strange to have such strong feelings for a dog...but, i'd say that i miss him and think about him everyday. 

i wish i had a picture of this, but my dog used to go to work with my mom, who, at the time, worked for my grandfather.  at lunch, many times, my mom couldn't find either one of them.  she creep into my grandpa's office and there she would find cooper, with his paws on my grandpa's desk, sitting on my grandpa's knees.  grandpa would have his eyes closed...halfway taking a nap and he would be massaging cooper's old back.  coop would have his eyes closed too.  so, after the end of reading that book...i hope that they are both having many moments like that wherever they are.

this is a book that i feel fairly confident anyone will like....man or woman.  it is so well written and has so much depth.  it's amazing