To tell you the truth,
I didn’t know what this book was about
when it was given to me.
I trade books a lot
so I don’t always have a lot of
control/insight
into what I am reading
and…I kind of like that.

I read this book
while sitting in hospital family rooms,
on hard benchs opposite the hospital elevator,
in hotel rooms and air bnbs,
and in a creaky chair
beside my dad’s bed
while he slept.

He would wake up from a 2 minute or
a 2 hour nap and say
Arlene! you’re still here!
and I would say yep,
just reading my book
and he would try not to laugh
because it hurt
and would say
always reading your book. ♥

I know this post is supposed to be about this book
but thinking about this book
will always make me think of dad.
And how when I was in my 20’s or so,
dad told me that he remembered
when I was a kid
and how I would come into the shed where he was working
to sit in a corner in the
sawdust and the sunshine
with a book I had read a hundred times before
that was probably overdue to the bookmobile
and how that made him feel
happy to think that I just wanted to be
in the same area as him…
him doing his thing, working on a skidoo or building a windmill,
me always reading my book.

Now. That said….
you should read this book.
You should have your daughters read this book
but if you can, you should have your sons
read this book.
The story is painful to read,
it is frustrating and maddening and occasionally infuriating
but also so beautifully written…
and smart.

I often think “what would I do, what would I have done?”
and I am a little ashamed to say
but I fear I would not be even a fraction
as brave as this girl was
to step forward, to push, to fight, to take on
the assumptions, allegations, abuse, opinions
that were flung her way…
as a person who has always blacked out
from drinking…no matter how much or how little alcohol I consume,
I always lose a portion of the night…
when I was younger, it was often a whole night.
So I can empathize with her on this point.

Her writing is both powerful and vulnerable.

Anyway. Read the book if you can.

5♥♥♥♥♥’s out of 5
NEXT UP:: HER LAST GOODBYE - RICK MOFINA