Day 3 of the blog hop has arrived, so let's get the most obvious choice when it comes to my personal Top 5 out of the way.
The Fault in Our Stars |
But after hearing the author read from it, there was no going back for me. I hunted it down: first through a loan from a friend, and then in local bookstores until I located three copies: one for myself, two for my library. Because reading this book that isn't just a book about cancer had me crying for days.
Not just because of you-know-what (that is, if you've read it. If you haven't, please. Give it a chance). But because of Augustus' determination to make this closed girl open up to him. Because of her parents' worry and overwhelming helplessness. Because of Hazel's own determination to destroy as few lives as possible when the inevitable occurred.
TFiOS isn't just some cancer book, and you know that if you've read it. It's more than the movie that was based on it as well (as excellent as job as they did with that movie: the gas station scene and the entire Amsterdam trip had me crying like a baby). It's about... inevitability, in the end. About the many, many ways that life can suck, and the inevitability that we all will hurt others or be hurt ourselves as we make our way through it, and as it comes to its end.
But it's also about the little things we can do, the ways we can touch others, that make the hurt and the suffering just that much easier to bear. And, sometimes, almost worth the inevitable pain.
But it's also about the little things we can do, the ways we can touch others, that make the hurt and the suffering just that much easier to bear. And, sometimes, almost worth the inevitable pain.