The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks

Bookish Mardi: A Book Review of "The Longest Ride" by Nicholas Sparks 

"Trust people, until they give you a reason not to." 

- Nicholas Sparks

It's undoubtedly undeniable that Nicholas Sparks is one among my personal favorite authors. He has the most space in my shelf since I have been collecting his books as well. So when he updated his status via FB which stated that his latest novel had finally been released, euphoric I've become. It was exactly the 17th day of September 2013 when the eagerness and giddiness collided within me. It was the same day I felt I badly needed to travel from the previous school I was working going to any neighboring city which had the bookstore selling the book so I would be able to fall in line for it. However, reality sank in when a student came inside our faculty room reminding me of my next literature class. I then realized I actually didn't have the time to read it yet and considering the fact that the book on that day wasn't available yet,everything became vague. Mind setting was all I did so as for me to be able to set aside that intense flame burning within me to touch and read the book.

I kept my the feeling until months had passed, the next time I realized, it's already been December. The month of such a jocund season, Christmas. Since it's also my birth month, one of my favorite students, Janica a sophormore, asked me through her classmate as to what I would like to recieve or what book would I like to received. I made mention of it but not expecting her buying it for me. ^_^ 

Fast forward to the day I finally got the book, I was sent to cloud nine. Though I wasn't able to actually receive it on the month of December but instead of May, nine months after it was released,  my gratefulness was incomparable. Millions of thank to Janica, indeed! :)))

Book Review

The author introduces to us the story by using the point of view or Ira, a ninety one year old man who met a car accident. A man who had been holding and losing his consciousness and was about to give up living but with the help of his dead wife's presence it enabled him to survive. His wife helped him to not lost his grip of his life by making him reminisce his World War days and how they met. Therefore, flashbacking's been so evident in the story.

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The author does not only make use of one character's point of view, instead, four. Sparks makes use of the four main characters' insights. As you go through the story, each chapter is named after a character which signals you that, that particular chapter is that character's point of view. I find it unique, since it's the very first book I've read which has a style like such. However, if you are not following the story too well and if you are not familiar with how the author writes, you'll actually be confused, which I believe will just be diminished as you are to slowly unfold the story.

Sparks, as always, makes me love him even more by his works. Other than him being so poetic and literary prolific, his ability in writing billet-doux sensationally is one among the many characteristics  I just don't like but madly in love with about him. The love-letter writing is what I also look forward to from his books. And, as always, it was present in the novel,too. So, what more do you expect me to think? :)))

For those who love so much twists in a novel, spoiler alert!, this has none. However, it's still a good one for me since there was not much villains and the like present in the story. Hence, you'll find it great.

Nicholas Sparks,together with Ira, Ruth, Luke and Sophia taught me that we may never be able to know every single person around us, yet we are all together woven by just one Weaver. Whatever one's decision may be, will surely affect somebody else's. They have also made me realized that the most difficult situations we may be in at the present will harness the real us, making us the most brilliant diamond ever polished by trials which can make us become the better version of us. The better we become, the more we can continue making  the longest ride - our life - become ultimately extraordinary.  With this, I SALUTE YOU MR. SPARKS! *_^

Book Summary 

Ira Levinson is in trouble. At ninety-one years ols and alone in the world, he finds himself in tstranded on an isolated embankment after a car crash. Suffering multiple injuries, he struggles to retain consiousness until a blurry image materializes and comes into focus deside him: his beloved wife Ruth, who passed away nine years ago. Urging him to hang on, she forces him to remain alert by reminiscing about their life together. Ira knows that Ruth can't possibly be in the car with him, but he clings to her words and his memories.

A few miles away, at a local bull-riding event, a Wake Forest University senior's life is about to change. Recovering from a recent break up, Sophian Danko meets a young cowboy named Luke. Through Luke, Sophia is introduced to a world in which the stakes are high: Reward and ruin - and even life and death - loom large in everyday life.  After she and luke fall in love, Sophia finds herself imagining a future far removed from her plans - if the secret Luke's keeping doesn't destroy it first. 

Ira and Ruth. Sophia and Luke. Two couples who have little in common and who are separated by years and experience. Yet their lives will converge with unexpected poignancy, reminding us all that even the most difficult decisions can yield extraordinary journeys." 

Remarkable Lines from the Book 

"I sometimes think to myself that I'm the last of my kind." -  Ira

". . . most people, when given the  choice, would do what was right, even it was hard,  and he believed that good almost always triumphed over evil." - Ira's father

"Trust people until they give you a reason not to. And then never turn back." - Ira's father

". . . despite the wonders of modern technology and forecasting, weather predictions are still fallible." - Ira

"I know I'm not going to be able to change the world, but I think it's important to try to make a difference." - Mary Kate

"The world needs a little mystery." - Sophia

"I guess people tend to put their first  loves on pedestal, and in the beginning, I was no difference." - Sophia

"No father thinks any man is good enough for his daughter." - Ruth 

"Yet experience has taught me that fate is sometimes cruel and that even a boatload of hope is sometimes not enough."

". . .when it comes to competing, it's more about learning how to choose a good pig when it's little." - Luke

"It's easy to joke when you don't care anymore. I'm not saying it didn't hurt me, because it did." - Sophia

"It was not the first kiss we'd ever shared, but in many ways, it had become my favorite if only because it happened when I needed it most, marking the beginning of one of the two most wonderful, and life-altering periods of my life." - Ira

"What I do know is that when I was sitting with you that night, I felt like God was telling me that I was doing the right thing." - Ruth

"Family is always there, no matter what, even when it's not right next door. Which means that you'll find a way to keep the connection alive. Especially since you realize how important it is." - Luke's mother

"She was always stronger and smarter and better at everything, and I think again that of the two of us, I made the better choice so long ago. I still don't know why she chose me. While she was exceptional, I was average, a man whose major accomplishment in life was to love her without reservation, and that will never change." - Luke 

"It's strange, I think, the way our lives turn out. Moments of circumstance, when later combined with conscious decisions and actions and boatload of hope, can eventually forge a future that seems predestined."

"You can still live without me." - Ruth

"What every last person failed to see was that it was not about money; it was about the memories they held." - Ira

"My marriage brought great happiness into my life." - Ira

"People plan, God laughs." 

"A truth emerges in any long marriages, and that truth is this: Our spouses sometimes know us better that we ever know ourselves." - Ira

"I'm not making a mistake. And I'm not going to get hurt." - Sophia

"I know how much you care about him. But your lives aren't just on different tracks, they're on different continents. And that meand you are going to have to watch your heart from here on, because if you don't, it's going to end up breaking into all sorts of pieces." - Marcia

"Do not worry about tomorrow until you have to." 

"I wish I had the talent to paint the way I feel about you, for my words always feel inadequate. I imagine using red for your passion and pale blue for your kindness; forest green to reflect the depth of your empathy and bright yellow for your unflagging optimism. And still I wonder, can even an artist's palette capture the full range of what you mean to me.'' - Ira

"As your husband, I can listen and hold you; and kiss your tears away." - Ira

"I loved a man who loved me in return, and this was the greatest gift I could ever have hoped to receive." - Ruth

"I know you miss me terribly. I miss you, too. But we still have each other, for I am - and always have been - part of you. You carry me in your heart, just as I carried you in mine, and nothing can ever change that. I love you, my darling, and you loved me. Hold on to that feeling. Hold on to us. And little by little, you will find a way to heal." - Ira

"With you, my life felt indeed like a fantastic adventure- despit e our ordinary circumstance, your love imbued everything we did with secret riches. How I was lucky enough to share a life with you, I still cannot understand."- Ira 

"For every day that passes is one day closer to the moment I will see you again. You are my wife, but more that that, you have always been my one true love." - Ira 

"After all, if there is heaven, we will find each other again, for there is no heaven without you." - Ira 

" . . . our reality is shaped by our perceptions. That something is good or bad only because we - you and I - believe it to be so, based on our own experiences." - Sophia 

"In other words, our opinions and our thoughts and feelings - anything we experience - need not define us forever." - Sophia

Quotes from Nicholas Sparks' Dear John

Bookish Mardi: Nicholas Sparks' Dear John 

"What does it mean to truly love another?" 

- Nicholas Sparks 

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Book Summary 

Dear John is about a boy, John, that lives in North Carolina. After high school John enlists in the army. While home on a leave, John meets Savannah who is in North Carolina doing mission work. Their attraction is mutual and they quickly fall in love. John has to leave two weeks after they met to go back to the army. Savannah agreed that she would wait for him to finish his tour of duty. They write letters to eachother and picked up where they left off when he comes back on another leave. However they start to drift apart when 9-11 occurs and John is forced to re-enlist in the army. They begin to grow apart and eventually Savannah sends him a letter that says she is in love with someone else. John was heartbroken and stops communicating with her. A little while later, John's father died and left John all the coins from his coin collection that is worth a lot of money. While John is home for his fathers funeral, he decides to go visit Savannah. It turns out she married her best friend she grew up with,Tim, who John became friends with when he met Savannah. Tim has Melanoma and there is nothing the doctors can do anymore. Savannah wants to send him to a better hospital that can run experiments and tests on him but she can't afford it. Before John leaves to go back to Iraq, he donates all the money his father's coin collection was worth to Tim's fund. He never spoke to Savannah again and goes on living his life in the army.

Remarkable Quotes from the Book

". . . the key to happiness was achievable." - John 

"In the army you learn to blend into your surroundings." - John 

"When a person sets a thing in motion, there's a feeling of unease, almost regret, until you learn the truth." - John 

". . .I've learned that memories can have a physical, almost living presence. . . " - John 

"To me, she will always be twenty-one and I will always be twenty-three." - John

"I feel in love with her when we were together, then fell deeper in love with her in the years we were apart. Our story has three parts: a beginning, a middle, and an end. And although this is the way all stories unfold, I still can't believe ours didn't go on forever." - John 

"I was as blind as a snail and dumb as a camel, but even if I told you I regret my immaturity now, I can't undo the past." - John 

"I used to think that military life was for losers." - John 

". . . the most important lesson in life, . . .you have to live up to your responsibilities, and you'd better do it right." - John 

". . . we do what we do for each other. For friendship. Not for country, not for patriotism, not because we're programmed killing machines, but because of the guy next to you. You fight for your friend, to keep him alive, and he fights for you, and everything about the army is built on this simple premise." - John 

". . . the evening would bring the first night of the full moon." - John 

"I'm no romantic, and while I've heard all about love at first sight, I've never believed in it, and I still don't." - John 

"Surfing is a solitary sport, one in which long stretches of boredom are interspersed with franctic activity, and it teaches you to flow with nature, instead of fighting it, . . .it's about getting in the zone." - John 

"I've always loved full moons. Ever since I was a kid. I liked to think that they were an omen of sorts. I wanted to believe they always portended good things. Like if I was making mistake, I would have the chance to start over." - John 

"Passion is passion. It's the excitement between the tedious spaces, and it doesn't  matter where it's directed." - John 

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". . . someone else's happiness is usually infectious." - Savannah

"A little mystery is good for the soul." - Savannah

". . . good teachers are priceless. They inspire you, they entertain you, and you end up learning a ton even when you don't know it." - Savannah

"I don't have to do what everyone does. I can do what's right for me." -  Savannah

". . . when you're struggling with something, look at all the people around you and realize that every single person you see is struggling with something, and to them, it's just as hard as what you're going through." - Savannah 

"Everyone judges. It's human nature."  -  Savannah

In the end, it's only God's judgement that matters, and I've learned enough to know that no one can presume the will of God." - Savannah

". . . no one's perfect." - Savannah

'

 ". . . being unpredictable adds to the mysteriousness of women." - John 

". . .meeting you has been the best thing that's ever happened to me." - John 

". . . what mattered most was knowing that love was mine to give, without strings, or expectations." - Savannah

"I knew that I could live to be a hundred and visit every country in the world, but nothing would ever compare to that single moment when I  first kissed the girl of my dreams and knew that my love would last forever." - John

" I would like to spend every morning for the rest of my life waking up beside her." - John

"I know we can write and talk on the phone, and we could see each other when you come home on leave. But it wont be the same. I won't be able to see your silly expressions. We won't be able to lie on the beach together and stare at the stars. We won't be able to sit across from each other and talk and share secrets. And I won't fee your arms around me, like I do now." - Savannah 

". . . when we're together, anything is possible." - Savannah

"A person with autism lives in his own world, while a person with Asperger's lives in our world, in a way of his own choosing." 

"It's strange how knowledge changes perception." - John 

John: I'm going to marry you one day, you know.

Savannah: Is that a promise?

John: If you want it to be.

"We write letters to those people who we care a lot about. We tell them what they mean to us and how much we look forward to the time when we'll get to see them again." - Savannah

". . . it's not that I'll never see you again. That's what I finally realized. Yeah, it'll be hard, but life moves fast - we'll see each other again. I know that. I can feel that. Just like I  can feel how much you care for me and how much I love you. I know that in my heart it isn't over, and that we'll make it through this." - Savannah

... excerpts from Savannah's letters

"When I think of you, I can't help smiling, knowing that you've completed me somehow. I love you, not just for now, but for always, and I dream of the day that you'll take me into your arms again."

". . . you're the best thing that's ever happened to me."

"I just wish those people could know you like I know you, because then you'd be safe. Just like I feel safe when I'm in your arms."

***

". . . but parents were funny when it came to their own kids." -John 

"I suddenly understood that even love and caring weren't always enough. They were the concrete bricks of our relationship, but unstable without the mortar of time spent together, time without the imminent separation hanging over us." - John 

Our relationship, I felt a heaviness in my chest, was beginning to feel like the spinning movement of a child's top. When we were together, we had the power to keep it spinning, and the result was beauty and magic and almost childlike sense of wonder; when we separated, the spinning began inevitably to slow. We became wobbly and unstable, and I knew I had to find a way to keep us from toppling over." - John

"The world was changing fast."  - John 

"You're a hero and a gentleman, you're kind and honest, but more than that, you're the first man I ever truly loved. And no matter what the future brings, you always will be, and I know that my life is better for it." - Savannah

"Wars always come back to the quest for power among the competing interests." - John 

". . . in the real world, in real time, decisions weren't always easy." - John 

". . . some things are best kept in secret."  - John 

Savannah: The truth comes out.

John : "That's the funny thing about the truth. It usually does."

"I knew with certainty that I was still in love with her. despite the letter, despite her husband. Despite the fact that we could never be together now."  - John 

"Everybody needs somebody to talk to." - Savannah

"It's strange how fate works."  - Savannah

"What happened between us was beautiful."  - Savannah

. . . and the most "ouchy" answer

"If you want my honest answer, I think you should have waited for me." - John 

". . . it's possible to go on no matter how impossible it seems, and that in time, the grief. . . lessens. It may not ever go away completely, but after a while, it's not overwhelming." - John 

". . . miracles were always possible no matter how sick a person might be."  - John 

"Love should bring joy, it should grant a person peace. . ."  - John 

"You're the best thing that's ever happened to me. You were my best friend and my lover, and I don't regret a single moment of it." - Savannah

"Saying good-bye was the hardest thing I ever had to do." - John 

"What does true love really mean?" - John 

"In any marriage, there's room for only two people." - John 

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Quotes from Nicholas Sparks' True Believer

Bookish Mardi:  Nicholas Sparks' True Believer

“When people cared about each other, they always found a way to make it work.”
― Nicholas Sparks

www.goodreads.com

Book Summary

In TRUE BELIEVER, journalist Jeremy Marsh spends his time debunking the supernatural. He has just finished exposing a fake television psychic, proving that the man was not able to read people's minds or see into their pasts. When he hears about a phenomenon happening in the small town of Boone Creek in North Carolina, where ghosts are seen inhabiting a local cemetery, Jeremy knows he will be able to find the truth behind the lights that are seen glimmering on certain nights above the cemetery grounds. He knows that ghosts do not truly exist.

When Jeremy arrives in Boone Creek, he experiences what small town life is all about. He's from the big city and feels like he's walked into a time warp. Everyone knows everyone, and gossip spreads like wildfire. His "hotel" is a hole-in-the-wall motel, filled with dead animals ranging from a bear to snakes and all sorts of wonderful critters that can be found in the wild. He's as far from New York as he can get, and he's not sure he likes it.

The very day he arrives in town, Jeremy makes a quick visit to Cedar Creek Cemetery, where the ghosts are reported to have been seen, when he notices a young woman there who catches his eye. He later finds out that her name is Lexie Darnell. Neither of them knows it but soon their lives will be changed forever. Lexie is the granddaughter of the woman who had invited him to visit the town. Doris Marsh is the town psychic.

As Jeremy slowly does his research in the library where Lexie happens to work, he gets to know her. Despite what he feels about the town, he finds himself interested in this woman who doesn't seem to want anything to do with him.

Having read nearly every Nicholas Sparks book that has been written, it is safe to say that TRUE BELIEVER is quite the departure from his previous works. While Sparks tends to write tragedies as opposed to true romances, this novel is far from the tragedy that some of his other fiction books have been.

This is not to say that TRUE BELIEVER wasn't enjoyable. But fans who are looking for the typical Nicholas Sparks book will not find it here. Instead of concentrating on the romance, this reviewer found the focus of the novel to be on the mystery behind the cemetery, and the high point of the plot was Jeremy's answer to the story behind the ghosts. The fact that Jeremy is dating a woman who believes her parents' ghosts have come to her in the cemetery makes the reader anxious to know what he finds, realizing that the answer will greatly impact the relationship that is central to the love story.

One aspect of storytelling in which Sparks excels is his ability to create the characters who populate his books. His capacity to bring into being likeable, everyday people helps make this novel readable. The strength of the story isn't necessarily the plot, and the romance that is found here is not one that a typical romance reader might expect. For this reader, the characters were the highlight of the novel, and the process of getting to know some of the more prominent ones was a delight. One will find oneself chuckling over some of the antics of the townspeople. The brouhaha that the people make over Jeremy's celebrity is very cute, if not humorous.

Overall, the plot lines are balanced between the mystery of the cemetery, Jeremy and Lexie's relationship, the aspect of small-town living, and the individual life stories of the two protagonists. Focusing on the individual characters is just one way of truly enjoying this book. It's a soothing type of read, and readers will feel comfortable with these characters.

Remarkable Quotes from the Book 

". . . true love could not blossom overnight." -  Jeremy Marsh

". . . love wasn't possible in just a couple of days." - Jeremy Marsh
 
"Love could be set in motion quickly, but true love needed time to grow into something strong and enduring." - Jeremy Marsh

"Love was, above all, about commitment and dedication and a belief that spending years with a person would create something greater than the sum of what the two could accomplish separately."  - Jeremy Marsh

". . . the description of lust was simple: two people learn they're compatible, attraction grows, and the ancient insticnt to preserve the species kicks in." - Jeremy Marsh

"Life never cease to amaze me." - Jeremy Marsh

"Maturity meant thinking about risk long before you pondered the reward, and that success and happiness in life were as much about avoiding mistakes as making your mark in the world." - Doris

"Premonitions:  while they might be accurate in the short term, anything beyond that was impossible to know." - Doris

"Jitters were just another word for panic." - Lexie

"Once in a while, everyone was entitle to be a bit flaky." - Jeremy Marsh

 "Men seemed immune to some sort of insecurities. Even if they weren't, they'd learned to either disguise their feelings or bury them deep enough so as not to be crippled by them." - Jeremy

"Men like women who know how to subtle." - Jeremy Marsh

". . .people are people. While I'm not an expert in psychology, I'm of the opinion that anyone - even strangers- can sense the urgency of a request, and most people will usually do the right thing."   - Jeremy Marsh

"Eveeryone has dreams that don't come true."  - Lexie

"When people cared for each other, they always found a way to make it work." - Jeremy Marsh

"Life was about spending time together, about having time to walk together holding hands, talking quietly as they watched the sun go down. It wasn't glamorous, but it was, in many ways, the best that life had offer." - Jeremy Marsh

". . . modern culture has its own seductions." - Jeremy Marsh

". . . accept the reality of what had happened and find a way to move on."  - Doris

"Television audiences love mysteries." - Alvin

"Was it really possible for so much to have happened in only a couple of days." - Lexie

"Every town needs something to call its own, something to remind the folks that their home is special." -  Mayor Gherkin

"Legends . . .well, they're just relics from the past, and the town needs more than  that to survive." - Mayor Gherkins

"Express your feelings, purge your guilt, seek and ye shall find."  - Alvin

"Am I right or am I right? Of course I'm right" - Alvin

“Love is always bestowed as a gift!
freely, willingly, and without expectation....
We don't love to be loved, we love to love”

“A good marriage, like any partnership, meant subordinating one's own needs to that of the others', in the expectation that the other will do the same.”

“You found out who you are and what you want and then you realized that people you've known forever don't see things the way you do. And so you keep the wonderful memories, but find yourself moving on.”

"Women want a fairy tale . . . most women grew up dreaming about the kind of man who would risk everything for them, even knowing they might get hurt." - Lexie

"Women like a man who know how to be subtle." -  Lexie

"Women like a man who will follow them to the ends of the earth." - Jeremy Marsh

"Love does funny things to people."  - Jeremy  Marsh 

Bookish Mardi: Nicholas Sparks' "A Walk to Remember"

“Love is like the wind, you can't see it but you can feel it.”
― Nicholas Sparks, 

Book Summary

Every April, when the wind blows from the sea and mingles with the scent of lilacs, Landon Carter remembers his last year at Beaufort High. It was 1958, and Landon had already dated a girl or two. He even swore that he had once been in love. Certainly the last person in town he thought he'd fall for was Jamie Sullivan, the daughter of the town's Baptist minister.

A quiet girl who always carried a Bible with her schoolbooks, Jamie seemed content living in a world apart from the other teens. She took care of her widowed father, rescued hurt animals, and helped out at the local orphanage. No boy had ever asked her out. Landon would never have dreamed of it.

Then a twist of fate made Jamie his partner for the homecoming dance, and Landon Carter's life would never be the same. Being with Jamie would show him the depths of the human heart and lead him to a decision so stunning it would send him irrevocably on the road to manhood...

Remarkable Lines from the Book 

"God is merciful to children, but the children must be worthy as well." - Landon

". . .God is out there watching you, even when you're away from home, and that if you put your trust in God, you'll be alright in the end." - Landon

*a funny line from Landon:

"Me. A bad boy. For eating boiled peanuts in the graveyard. Go figure." :))

"Life, I've learned, is never fair." - Landon

"Gossip id one thing, hurtful is completely another. - Landon

"Who I saw in school is one thing; who I saw after school was completely different and Jamie had never been in my social calendar." - Landon

". . .reading Paul's letters to the Ephesians wasn't nearly as much fun as flirting, if you know what I mean." - Landon

"Jamie was the kind of girl who could pull weeds in someone's garden without being asked or stop traffic to help little kids cross the road. She'd save her allowance to buy a new basketball for the orphans, or she'd turn around and drop the money into the church basket on  Sunday. She was, in other words, the kind of girl who made the rest of us look bad, and whenever she glanced my way, I couldn't help but feel guilty, even though I hadn't done anything wrong." - Landon

"I may be irresponsible, but I'm a nice irresponsible." - Landon

"I know that challenges are always part of God's plan, but I don't want to believe that the Lord is cruel, especially to someone like my father." - Jaime

". . .a guy wants to make a good impression." - Landon

". . .trying to understand teenage boys for her was like trying to decipher the theory of relativity". - Landon

"Sometimes, when you remember the things you used to do, it makes you wince." - Landon

"I know the Lord has a plan for all of us, but sometimes, I don't understand what the message can be." - Jamie

"I don't think that we're meant to understand them all the time. I think that sometimes we just have to have faith." - Landon

"Being in love with a girl like Jamie Sullivan was without a doubt the strangest thing that I'd ever been through. . . but there was something different in the whole way my feelings for her had unfolded." - Landon

". . .when our first lips touched, I knew the memory would last forever." - Landon

"You know it's love when all you want to do is spend the time with the other person, and you sort of know that the other person feels the same way." - Landon

"I was in love, and the feeling was even more wonderful than I ever imagined it could be." - Landon

"People have different reasons." - Landon

"You're a wonderful person, Jamie. You're beautiful, you're kind, you're gentle. . .you're everything that I'd like to be." - Landon

"The Lord can do anything. The Lord listens to our prayers." - Jamie

"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." - Jamie

Love is always patient and kind. It is never jealous. Love is never boastful or conceited. It is never rude or selfish. It does not take offense and is not resentful. Love takes no pleasure in the other people's sins, but delights in the truth. It is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes." - Jamie

". . .miracles can happen." - Jamie

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Bookish Mardi : Nicholas Spark's "Message in a Bottle"

"Like all bottles left to the whim of the oceans, its course is unpredictable." 

― Nicholas Sparks

Thrown to the waves, and to fate, the bottle could have ended up anywhere. Instead, it is found just three weeks after it begins its journey. Theresa Osborne, divorced and the mother of a twelve-year-old son, discovers it during a seaside vacation from her job as a Boston newspaper columnist. Inside is a letter that opens with, “My Dearest Catherine, I miss you my darling, as I always do, but today is particularly hard because the ocean has been singing to me, and the song is that of our life together….” For Garrett, the message is the only way he knows to express his undying love for a woman he has lost. For Theresa, wary of romance since her husband shattered her trust, the message raises questions that intrigue her. Challenged by the mystery, and driven to find Garrett by emotions she does not fully understand, Theresa begins a search that takes her to a sunlit coastal town and an unexpected confrontation. Brought together either by chance or something more powerful, Theresa and Garrett’s lives come together in a tale that resonates with our deepest hopes for finding everlasting love. Shimmering with suspense and emotional intensity, Message in a Bottle takes readers on a hunt for the truth about a man and his memories, and about both the heartbreaking fragility and enormous strength of love. For those who cherished The Notebook and readers waiting to discover the magic of Nicholas Sparks’s storytelling, here is an achingly lovely novel of happenstance, desire, and the choices that matter most.


Remarkable Lines from the Book

 *PROLOGUE*

"Like all messages, it was fragile and would break if dropped in a few feet from the ground. But when sealed properly and sent to sea. . . , it became one of the most seaworthy objects known to man. It could float safely through hurricanes or tropical storms; it could bob atop the most dangerous riptides. It was, in a way, the ideal home for the message it carries inside,  a message that had been sent to fulfill a promise."

"Winds and currents  play large roles in a bottle's direction; storms and debris may shift its course as well."

*STORY PROPER*

". . .there would come a day when the words would be impossible to read." - Theresa Osborne

"Every mother needs a break sometime." - Theresa

"Take life one day at a time." - Theresa's Mom

". . .a mother's love, probably the deepest, most holy love there is." - Theresa

"Sex was too important , too special, to be shared with just anyone." - Theresa

Others: Do you know her?
Garrett: Better than my own heart.

She found herself wondering about the man who wrote it - Garrett- if that was his real name. . .Would he be caring in person as the letter seemed to imply?

"Sometimes men can be real jerks. . .But they aren't all like that. There are lots of men out there - men who could fall in love with you at the drop of the hat." - Deanna

"It's human nature. Once burned, twice shy." - Deanna

"I'me sure if the right man comes along, I'll knew it. I have faith." - Theresa

"Everyone knows a little bit about what they want. Start with the obvious, or if you can't do that, start with what you don't want." - Deanna

"I guess I'd go with the standard cliches - handsome, kind, intelligent, charming - you know all those good things that women want in a man." - Theresa

"I know good story when I see one. Nowadays people are so busy that romance seems to be slowly dying out." - Deanna

"I am lost without you. I am a soulless drifter without a house, a solitary bird in a flight to nowhere." - Garrett

"We were destined to be together." - Garrett

"I have come to realize that destiny can hurt a person as much as it can bless him, and I find myself wondering why - out of all the people in the world I could ever have loved - I had to fall in love with someone who was taken away from me." - Garrett

"As a girl, she had come to believe the ideal man - the prince or the knight of her childhood stories. In the real world, however, men like that simply didn't exist. Real people had real agendas, real demands, real expectations about how other people should behave." 

"If you discovered something that made you tighten inside, you had better try to learn more about it." - Theresa

"Without you in my arms I feel an emptiness in my soul. I find myself searching the crowds for your face - I know it is an impossibility, but  I cannot help myself." - Garrett

"You -  and you alone - have always been the thing I wanted, and now that you're gone, I have no desire to find another." - Garrett

"Late, but not too late." - Theresa

"Sometimes you've got to take a chance." - Deanna

"Till death do us part, we whispered in the church, and I've come to believe that the words will ring true until the day finally comes when I, too, am taken from this world." - Garrett

"It was the first time I ever loved someone and I knew that if I gave you enough time, you'd come back to me." - Catherine

"Life doesn't  often turn out the way we think it will,  does it?" - Garrett

“If you simply ignored the feeling, you would never know what might happen, and in many ways that was worse than finding out in the first place. Because if you were wrong, you could go forward in your life without ever looking back over your shoulder and wondering what might have been.”- Deanna

"I am a mother,  and that makes me something of an expert in life." - Theresa

"It's impossible to protect your kids against disappointment in life."  - Garrett

"No one's life is easy, yours is included. - Garrett


"Your feeling say a lot about you, Garrett. You're the kind of person who loves forever. That's nothing to be ashamed of." - Theresa

"Someday you'll find someone special again. People who've been in love usually do. It's their nature." - Theresa

Theresa: How come you always know exactly what to say to make me feel good?
Garrett: Maybe it's because you bring out the best in me.

"Writing always made him think more clearly."

". . .it didn't matter how we met. The only thing that mattered was how we get along." - Theresa

"You're a man who love deeply, but you're also a man who love forever. No matter how much you love me, I don't think it's in you to ever forget Catherine, and I can't live my life wondering whether I measure up to her." - Theresa

"Sometimes love isn't enough." - Theresa


. . .below are the letters - first: the letter to Catherine which was seen by Theresa, and second: the letter for Theresa, herself - which both amazed me in a way, at present, nobody can and which the later had my heart weeping and my soul torn apart.

September 25, 1995

Dear Catherine,

            A month has passed since I’ve written, but so slowly. Life passes by now like the scenery outside a car window. I do not know where I am going or when I will get there.

            Even the pain does not take the pain away. I may be diving for my own pleasure or showing others how to do so, but when I return to the shop, it seems empty without you.  I stock and order as I always did, but even now I sometime glance over my shoulder without thinking and call for you.

            Without you in my arms I feel an emptiness in my soul. I find myself searching the crowds for your face – I know it is an impossibility, but I cannot help myself. You and I had talked about what would happen if were forced apart by circumstance, but I cannot I cannot keep the promise I made to you that night. I am sorry, my darling, but there will never be another to replace you. You – and you alone – have always been the only thing I wanted, and now that you are gone, I have no desire to find another. Till death do us part, we whispered in the church, and I’ve come to believe that the words will ring true until the day finally comes when I, too, am taken from this world.

                                                                                Garrett

Dear Theresa,

            Can you forgive me?

            In the world that I seldom understand, there are winds of destiny that blow when we least expect them. Sometimes they gust with the fury of a hurricane, sometimes they barely fan one’s cheek. But the winds cannot be denied, bringing as they often do a future that is impossible to ignore. You, my darling, are the wind that I did not anticipate, the wind that has gusted more strongly than I ever imagined possible. YOU ARE MY DESTINY.    

            I was wrong, so wrong to ignore that was obvious, and I beg your forgiveness. Like a cautious traveler, I tried to protect myself from the wind and lost my soul instead. I was a fool to ignore my destiny, but even fools have feelings, and I’ve come to realize that you are the most important thing I have in this world.

            I’ve made more mistakes in the last few months than some mistake in a lifetime. I was wrong to have acted as I did when I found the letters, just as I was wrong to hide the truth about what I was going through with respect to my past. But most of all, I was wrong to deny what was obvious in my heart: that I can’t go on without you.

            It is my deepest wish that you give me one more chance. As you might have guessed, I’m hoping that this bottle will work its magic, as I did once before, and somehow bring us back together.

            For the first few days you left, I wanted to believe that I could go on as I always had.  But I couldn’t. Every time I watched the sun go down, I thought of you and the wonderful times we had. I knew in my heart that my life would never be the same again. I wanted you back more than I imagine possible, yet whenever I conjured you up, I kept hearing your words in our last conversation. No matter how much I loved you, I knew it wasn’t going to be possible unless we – both of us – were sure I would devote myself fully to the path that lay ahead. I continued to be troubled by these thoughts until late last night when the answer finally came to me.

            In my dream I saw myself on the beach with Catherine, in the same spot I took you after our lunch at Hank’s. It was bright in the sun, the rays reflecting brilliantly off the sand. We walked alongside each other, and she listened intently as I told her about you, about us, about the wonderful times we shared. After some hesitation I admitted that I loved you but that I felt guilty about her. She said nothing right away but simply kept walking until she finally turned to me and asked, “Why?”

            “Because of you.”

            Upon hearing my answer, she smiled at me with patient amusement, the way she used to before she died. “Oh, Garrett,” she said as she gently touched my face, “who do you think it was that brought the bottle to her?”

            When I woke, I felt empty and alone. The dream made me ache inside because of what I had done to us, and I began to cry. When I pulled myself together, I wrote two letters – the one you’re holding in your hand right now, and one to Catherine, in which I finally said goodbye. Today I’m taking Hapenstance out to send it to her, as I have with all the others. It will be my last letter. Catherine in her own way has told me to go on, and I have chosen to listen, Not only to her words but also to the leanings of my heart that led me back to you.

            Oh, Theresa, I am sorry, so very sorry, that I ever hurt you. I am coming to Boston next week with the hope that you find a way to forgive me.

            Theresa, I love you and will always will. I am tired of being alone. I see children crying and laughing as they play in the sand, and I realize I want to have children with you. I want to watch Kevin as he grows into a man. I will move to Boston if you ask because I cannot go on this way. I am sick and sad without you. As I sit here in the kitchen, I am praying that you will let me come back to you, this time forever.

                                                                                  Garrett