Dear John by Nicholas Sparks

Completion Date: July 2007
Pages: 276
Publication Year: 2006
Owned Prior to 2007

Reason for Reading: Nicholas Sparks is the author that I pick up when I want something light and uncomplicated.

When Savannah Lynn Curtis comes into his life, John Tyree knows he is ready to turn over a new leaf. An angry rebel, he had enlisted in the army after high school, not knowing what else to do. Then, during a furlough, he meets the girl of his dreams. Savannah Lynn Curtis is attending college in North Carolina,
working for Habitat for Humanity, and totally unprepared for the passionate attraction she feels for John Tyree. The attraction is mutual and quickly grows into the kind of love that leaves Savannah vowing to wait for John while he finishes his tour of duty, and John realizing that he's ready to settle down with the young woman who has captured his heart. Neither can foresee that 9/11 is about to change the world and will force John to risk every hope and dream that he's ever had. Like so many proud men and women, John must choose between love and country. And like all those left behind, Savannah must decide to wait
or move on. How do we choose wisely? How can we face loss-without giving up on love? Now, when he finally returns to North Carolina, John will discover that loving Savannah will force him to make the hardest decision of his life. An extraordinary, moving story, Dear John explores the complexities of love -- how it survives time and heartbreak, and how it transforms us forever.

It is always weird to even me that I read Nicholas Sparks. He is not my normal read at all, and even though I like some of his books, he is not an author that I can say that I love. I just enjoy reading a book from him once in a while. I only started reading him when The Notebook came to theatres. I really liked the movie, so I bought the book, and then I read all his backlog soon after. I still have to read True Believer and At First Sight, and he has a new book coming out in September, The Choice. Of all the books that I have read by him, though, I do not think anything will beat The Notebook, although I also really liked The Guardian and The Wedding. Those are my three favourite Nicholas Spark novels.

Anyways, I have not been super impressed with the last few books by Sparks. I used to like his books because they had a story outside the romance and he wrote less conventional romance novels, but the last few have been rather dull. This one was okay, but nothing like his earlier sort of writing. The storyline was pretty basic. Guy meets girl, guy and girl fall in love, bad things happen, and nothing that they dream will happen, happens. I think it is very valiant to work in the army, but this book made me think should love of country come so strongly above your family and your own happiness. It's a difficult line to walk and more a rhetorical question than anything else.

So, an okay read, but not by far the best thing I read this month. I also say that there are better Nicholas Sparks books so if you want to read him and are looking for a good start, go back to his earlier stuff. He also has a book about himself growing up and a trip he took with his brother that is very worthwhile.

Just in case you want to know: I posted a review of The Fire Rose by Mercedes Lackey on Historical Tapestry. (Click here).

Thoughts on a Sunday...

I am nearing the home stretch with This is my Country, What's Yours?, having just over a hundred pages left. I am just finishing up Chapter Nine, which was a chapter dedicated to Newfoundland, then only two chapters and I am done! It has been a very interesting read, I must say, and I will be writing a full review in the next few days.

Sometime this week, I plan to be moving on to a more local book of history, that book being The Acadians by James Laxer.

An evocative and beautifully written history of some of Canada’s earliest settlers, and their search for a definitive home.

In 1604, a small group of migrants fled political turmoil and famine in France to start a new colony on Canada’s east coast. Their roughly demarcated territory included what are now Canada’s Maritime provinces, land that was fought over by the British and French empires until the Acadians were finally expelled in 1755. Their diaspora persists to this day.

The Acadians is the definitive history of a little-known part of the North American past, and the quintessential story of a people in search of their identity. In the absence of a state, what defines an Acadian is elusive and while today’s Acadian community centred in New Brunswick is more confident than ever, it is entering a contentious debate about its future.

James Laxer’s compelling book brilliantly explores one of Canada’s oldest and most distinct cultural groups, and shows how their complex, often tragic history reflects the larger problems facing Canada and the world today.

So, I will be interested to read that. I have read other books on them in the past, and of course, we learned about them in school since pretty much the day I started, so not a topic I am unfamiliar with.

It is almost time for me to get the new Nicholas Sparks book. He is the author that I hate to admit I read because he is so different than anything else I enjoy, but I read him. That means that I have to read True Believerand At First Sight in preparation for Dear John. Some of his books I like better than others.

I have also been giving some thought to a Chunkster Challenge following the posting of my Thirteen big books in my TBR pile. One of these days, I am going to have to read them. So, if I challenged myself to read one a month next year, that would get rid of them all. I know some other bloggers have been contemplating a challenge of that sort as well. I will have to think about it.

The Rescue - Nicholas Sparks [June/06]

Nicholas Sparks has always been an author that I am surprised to like. I have owned The Rescue for a while, but just never got around to reading it. Now that I have it done, I just have his two newer novels to read: True Believer and At First Sight. Then, I believe he has a new book coming out in the fall. There is just something about his books that I don't mind, and I can tell people I have a broad taste in books because if I read no other romance novelist, at least I read him.

From the back:

Volunteer fireman Taylor McAden is driven to take terrifying, heroic risks to save lives. But there's one leap into the unknown he can't bring himself to make: He can't fall in love. A man who likes to rescue troubled women, he inevitably leaves them as soon as they want more from him. Then, one day, a record-breaking storm hits his small Southern town, and Taylor comes across a young single mother named Denise Holton in a crashed car. When she revives, Taylor finds himself looking for her missing son - and involved in a rescue different from all the others. This one will require him to open doors to his past slammed shut by pain. And with Denise's help, dare him to make the greatest commitment of all: love someone forever.

I am glad that it took me a while to read this book because by the time I had read it, I had already finished Three Weeks with my Brother. By reading that book, I got an idea why the characters act the way they act. You see, Nicholas Sparks has a son who has speaking trouble and him and his wife spend years dealing with incorrect problems before finally taking matters into their own hands. In The Rescue, Denise is going through the same thing with her son. He is in all matters are normal child, but he just has trouble speaking. Sparks has captured his families own struggle in the pages of this novel, something I would not have picked up on if I hadn't read Three Weeks with my Brother first.

In this novel, Taylor is dealing with demons. His mother thought that she did a good job raising him after his father died, thought that she had made his childhood as normal as possible, but Taylor can not get passed the things that happened to him in his past. He thinks he does not deserve to be happy, and so the moment that he feels that way, he tries to destroy it. At the same time he tries to make everyone else around him happy, even if he himself can't be. He is determined to make it so that no one grows up with the pain he experienced his whole life, and especially do everything he can to make sure that no one grows up without a father.

Then Taylor meets Denise. She is new to the town and raising her son Kyle all by herself, as he was an accident and she hardly knew his father on the night that they conceived him. She has given up her whole life for this sweet little boy, and Taylor finds that he feels the need to help her. Things go great for a while, but once again Taylor starts to find himself happy and he can't allow that to happen. Even if that means destroying a little boys happiness. Kyle is so dear, though, even if he can't say the words that he needs to say he seems to be aware of what is going on around him. When Taylor starts to drift away, he knows it is happening and accepts it. It is as simple as that.

In the meantime, Taylor's friends and family join together to try and get Taylor to accept that everything that happens is not always his fault. The demons he is running from were not something he intentionally did, they happened when he was just a child after all. The Rescue is really a novel about a man trying to find his way out of the storm and to a woman that cares and a young boy that needs a father figure.

4/5

Three Weeks with my Brother - Nicholas Sparks [April/06]

This is a novel that I wanted to read for a while, but for some reason it was hard to come by. My friend, who also reads Sparks, saw it at the store the other day and called to see if I wanted a copy too. Now, I have read it. I think the best way to tell what happens in this book is to quote the back:

In January 2003, Nicholas Sparks and his brother, Micah, set off on
a three-week trip around the globe. It was to mark a milestone in
their lives, for at thirty-seven and thirty-eight respectively, they were
now the only surviving members of their family. Against the backdrop
of the wonders of the world and often overtaken by their feelings,
daredevil Mica and the more serious, introspective Nicholas recalled
their rambunctious childhood adventures and the tragedies that
tested their faith. And in the process, they discovered startling
truths about loss, love, and hope.

Narrated with irrepressible humour and rare candor, and including
personal photos, THREE WEEKS WITH MY BROTHER reminds
us to embrace life with all it uncertainties... and most of all, to
cherish the joyful times, both small and momentous, and the
wonderful people who make them possible.

What better way to sum the book up than that? I really enjoyed reading it, and it took me little to no time to do so. It is always interesting to see where the author was coming from. He even explains how these life experiences influenced his novels.

4.5/5